From Java To C# A Developers Guide

Structure of the book

This book is divided into seven major parts.

Part 1: Introducing .NET and C#

This part gives a brief overview of what .NET and C# are all about without going into the specifics. There is a brief explanation of .NET technologies, and a good conceptual foundation is provided about how .NET applications work. You write your first Hello World in Part 1.

Part 2: Classes, methods, and other OO stuff

This part discusses how C# handles classes, namespaces, methods, constructors, and variables. Object-oriented related issues are covered here.

Part 3: Types, operators, and flow control

The language semantics and syntax of C# are almost identical with Java's. This part is written such that you can skim through it relatively quickly to appreciate the differences.

Part 4: Core topics

Topics covered in this part include arrays, event handling, exception handling, reflection, multi-threading, the collection classes, and file I/O. These are major topics which often warrant a huge separate chapter in other C# books. This book does not go through the basic ideas but does emphasize how to perform these operations in C#. The chapters in this part assume prior knowledge about exceptions, reflection, and multi-threading.

Part 5: Convenience features

Convenience features^[3] are C# features which are good to have but not essential. Basically they help increase programmer productivity by providing shortcuts for the normal ways of doing things. Topics covered include C# properties, indexes, operator overloading, and user-defined conversions. These will all be new topics to a Java developer. Convenience features do not increase the power of a language, but just make it more convenient for a good programmer to use it. Like a double-edged sword, convenience features steepen the learning curve significantly, but give the programmer more elegant ways to accomplish tasks.

^[3] I think I am the originator of the term 'convenience features'. I haven't read any literature using that term for C# properties, indexes, and the like.

Part 6: C#-specific features

This part describes features found in C# which have no equivalents in Java. Topics include C# preprocessor directives, attributes, structures, enums, and unsafe coding. Care has been taken to write this part clearly, so that it is simple to understand yet comprehensive.

Part 7: Appendices

There are six appendices. Here you will find the full list of C# keywords, and their closest equivalents in Java. I have also included C# coding conventions (a good starting point even before coding commences), a useful summary on how to write XML documentation (which resembles the Javadoc comments) and a short write-up on .NET assemblies. The many (necessary) abbreviations are also defined here - as opposed to the missable first-time definitions sometimes given in the text.