For starting I'd like to highly recommend Charles Petzold's
Programming Microsoft Windows with C#, Microsoft Press. He
has an experimental narrative approach .... try this ...
now look at what happened ... observe this ... followed by
excellent explanations of what he has just demonstrated.
I like Petzold's style a lot, but be advised that, like all his books,
this is a "Programming Microsoft Windows" book, not a "Developing
Applications to Run Under Microsoft Windows" book.
In other words, if you want to learn how to establish a graphics
context, select a pen, assign a font, draw a circle, etc. this is the
book to have.
But if you're looking for some cool insight into how to best use C# to
write a, say, custom database interface, then you're better off with
Liberty or Sells.
I bought Cooper's C# design patterns book, and although I liked reading
it and I'd love to recommend it, I found that when I was looking for
information I never found it in his book. I don't recommend it as a
reference, in other words.
Finally, I've found that Que's series of books entitled "<subject> by
Example" to be uniformly excellent for the nuts and bolts, practical
kind of information that you need when you actually start writing a
program.
-- Rick
rick at farris-family dot net
P.S. Insert my standard plug for Safari Bookshelf
(
http://safari.oreilly.com) where you can "try out" over 1,000 books for
a monthly fee. In the OPs case, he could look at all of the books
mentioned for free by signing up for the one-week free trial. (I have
no connection with O'Reilly -- just an incredible appreciation for the
help Safari provided while I was learning three new technologies at
once.)
[RF]
