Most of the time, I don't say much about the reviews I read about my books on Amazon. However, not this time. The first rating the book received was a 3, which to me is terrible. His complaint is "...This would be a very easy to understand book if the spelling and grammar was not so atrocious. Wrote is spelled Wtote about half the time."

A statement like this should ring a bell in the back of anyone's mind who uses today's word processing software. There is no way that writing "wtote" for "wrote" could happen...it would automatically be flagged by the software. Add to that the dozen or so other editors and readers and it is impossible for this type of error to creep in...

unless...

he was duped into buying an illegal copy of the ebook. There are sites out there that buy a legal copy of an ebook, which is usually in PDF format. Since these are usually copy protected, the site uses a "PDF scraper" to "scrape off" the text from the screen and copy that to a different file. That file is then sold as a legal copy of the title. The problem is that scrapers often don't get the data correct and spelling and grammar errors result. I have gone through all of the production files looking for the word "wtote" and there is not one instance of the word in the entire book. You be the judge.

If this sounds like sour grapes...you're right. Myself and the publisher worked very hard to produce a good book and to have that work muddied by a misguided reader simply seems unfair.

The second review (a 2...even worse) does have a point. His direct complaint is the instructions don't tell the reader to hit OK. My mistake, although most people who can still fog a mirror can probably figure that out.

The rest of the comments pertain to step 5, and some of his comments are my fault. His comments are repeated here:

On page 32, step 5: "add a form to the project using the Project-->" what do you mean by the Project? Where to find that? The previous step did create the project and the book points out that arrows, as in "Project -->" refer to menus. In this case, the menu is on the menu bar, which seems kinda logical to me and is a convention that is used earlier in the book.

On page 32, step 5: "...and click Add" there is no Add button, I can only see an OK button True. This was changed between the 2011 Beta that I started working with and the final distribution version. Still, I think most people can figure this out.

On page 32, step 5: the author says "Type your program name into the Name textbox" This was already done in step 3 He's right. The confusion is because the reference is to Figure 2.8 in the narrative and should be to Figure 2.9. We should have caught this.

On page 32, step 5: the author says ",...and click the OK button" Well, that was too late, I already clicked the Add button. As he pointed out earlier, there is no Add button, so he actually clicked the OK button. You can't have it both ways.

On page 32, step 5: "The starting point for all C# programs is with a method named Main()" a useless statement, since the novice doesn't know what do you mean by a method. Really? Page 22 has a paragraph heading in large bold letters saying "Class Methods" and it followed on the next page with another large heading "How Many Properties, How Many Methods". I guess he just skipped over these pages.

On page 45, step 3: "Also the Source Window now has a new tab labeled frmMain.cs [Design]..." Well this is not true; there is no Design tab or a form yet. I just went through this sequence and there is indeed a tab with exactly the same label as stated in the book. Given his earlier comments, I don't think he followed the directions carefully.

Normally, I don't get involved in stuff like this, but when you have two major chapter subheadings that cover a topic that the reader says haven't even been introduced and such reviews absolutely kill sales, I just can't sit back and dismiss it. The first review makes me think he was the victim of an illegal web site selling the ebook and he has a right to be upset, but not with our ebook. As to the second reviewer, well...I'm not sure what to think. Evidently most readers have sailed through these pages without issues. Him...I think he has an ax to grind or just wants to nit-pick things to death. Someone who can't figure out it's time to click the OK button probably shouldn't be trying to learn programming anyway.

__________________
Jack Purdum, Ph.D.
Author: Beginning C# 3.0: Introduction to Object Oriented Programming (and 14 other programming texts)

I've owned a prior version of this book, so I know that you do good work. I have to tell you, however, that the Chapter 2 examples in the 2012 edition could understandably really put off a beginning programmer. If this was the first version of the book I had seen, I'm not sure I would have made it past this chapter, as it doesn't leave a good impression. I wasn't aware of any Amazon difficulties, but I did have some serious problems with both examples in Chapter 2. Rather than publicly post something on an ecommerce site like your unbalanced 'reviewer' did, I'd rather try to have a dialog that could help folks with similar problems, as your proposed explanation still doesn't straighten out the issues that I see with the two examples. So, I'll provide my own experience in as detailed a manner as possible.

Try It Out Exercise: Pages 32-36

This wasn't too bad, just somewhat confusing, mostly because of steps 5 & 6. You ask the reader to create a new project in step 1, select Windows Empty Project in step 2, name the project in step 3, and uncheck the create directory for solution option in step 4. All is well so far.

In step 5, you first instruct the reader to add a Windows form to the project via the Project => Add Windows Form menu selection. You ask the reader to name the form frmMain.cs.

Next, however, you ask the reader to type their program name into the Name textbox, etc. This instruction belongs back on step 3, not step 5. This causes confusion.

Step 6 seems to be a continuation of what you were trying to do at the start of step 5 in adding a Windows form to the project. Again, this causes confusion to a beginning programmer.


Try It Out Exercise: Pages 44-49

This example, unless I'm really missing something, seems broken.

Step 1 is fine.

Step 2 is okay (adding the System Assemblies) until later.

Step 3 is where things really go wrong for me. You instruct the Reader to add a Code File via the Project => Add New Item menu sequence and to name the Code File frmMain.cs.

You then explain (correctly) that there is now a frmMain.cs source window. You also explain (incorrectly) that there is also a frmMain.cs [Design] window as well. No matter how I execute this, the [Design] window never shows. Why would it? You instructed the reader to add a Code File, not a Form Object, so no Design tab will appear. Am I missing something here? Could a difference between the VS beta version that you worked with and the production version be causing this? I've had programming folks that use VS daily try to get a [Design] tab to appear here - to no avail. This appears to be the central problem with this example - the appearance of a [Design] tab upon the creation of the frmMain.cs Code File. I've had multiple people try this sequence, and it does not appear. Your response below says it does. Is there an option or variable within VS that could account for the difference in experience?

I have a sneaking suspicion that Step 3 should have instructed the reader to add a Windows Form object rather than a Code File (or, possibly, the reader should have been directed to create a Windows Forms project rather than an Empty Project in Step 1), but even that doesn't make 100% sense. If the intent was actually to add a Windows Form object in Step 3, then Step 2 is completely unnecessary, as the appropriate assemblies are automatically added by Visual Studio when you add the form. There is no need to add them manually as instructed in Step 2.

Later in Step 3, you instruct the reader to double-click the empty form and to notice that a 'new tab frmMain.cs' has been created. First, there is no Windows Form to double-click, and second, you've already instructed the reader to create a Code File with the name frmMain.cs in Step 3 - why would we need another one by double-clicking a form object (that isn't there)?

The rest of the steps seem to be okay.


From a complete beginning programmer's perspective, the first 2 exercises in the book do not leave a great impression for what the rest of the book may hold.

The first exercise has instructions that are out of order and cause confusion.

The second exercise, in my opinion, just doesn't work. The reader is stuck looking for a [Designer] tab that just doesn't exist and really has no way to understand the way forward.

I hope this makes sense from a beginning programmer's perspective in working through your examples. The rest of them are solid. These two have issues, in my opinion. Unfortunately, they couldn't be placed in a more important position (at the beginning of a beginner's programming text).

I'd be happy to clarify anything that may be vague. Again, I really enjoy your teaching approach and want to help clarify the issues that some readers may be having.

Qogrynt thanks for your post. I'm beginning programming and this is the first book I ever read about the subject. I was beginning to think I would never make it if I couldn't get past the first 2 exercises of a beginner book. Now I see it's not my fault but it is due to faulty instructions. I spent lots of exhausting time on this restarting over and over again.

My questions are:

- Is it worth reading the rest of the book, or should I just move to another book ? I don't want to get stuck again because of bad instructions.
- So what to do about exercise ch02-02 with this absent [Designer] tab ? Should I just create a windows form instead of a code file, and move with the rest of exercise ?

The problem with the exercise in Chapter 2 has been addressed, as you have found. The bigger question for you now is whether to read the rest of the book. I think the best answer is to read the reviews on my C# book that discussed Release 3.0 of the language. Not much has changed to the language since then, although Visual Studio has changed.

Obviously, I think my discussion of the language is better than anything else that's out there. Since the current book is built on my previous C# book, which got great reviews overall, I know the book is worth reading. Sadly, the screw-up with the exercise in Chapter 2 has killed the book sales even though the remaining 500 pages is about as good as it gets.

No one is more frustrated by all of this than me. Try to imagine doing several thousand hours of excellent work and your boss singles out 5 minutes of that time and talks of nothing else. That's kind of how I feel right now.

My suggestion: Finish the book...you've already paid for it. After you're done, ask yourself if you learned anything about C# and OOP and come back and post your impression here.

__________________
Jack Purdum, Ph.D.
Author: Beginning C# 3.0: Introduction to Object Oriented Programming (and 14 other programming texts)

I finally got past of Chapter 2 and managed to run the programs.
I will do as you say and come back here once I finish the book to give honest opinion.

Cordially,
Brakkar

The rest of the book is well worth reading. I've owned Dr. Purdum's previous C# beginner's books, and they were outstanding. Beyond some initial difficulties, this version is terrific as well.

If you read enough programming books, you'll quickly understand that ALL of them have errors of varying degrees of severity. I've always found it amusing that books about coding (a skill where a missing semicolon brings everything to a screeching halt) invariably contain dozens of errors. That's why there are web site sections dedicated to corrections and errata. Dr. Purdum's book has some mistakes in some really bad spots, which is incredibly unfortunate, because he's about as good as it gets when it comes to teaching object oriented programming.

As for Chapter 2, Exercise 2, my quick suggestion would be as follows:
1. Ignore Step 2 (creating the system assemblies). It isn't harmful to do this step - it's simply unnecessary, as step 3 takes care of it automatically.
2. In step 3, add a Windows Form object (not a Code File, despite what the instructions and screenshot says).

If you do these two things, almost 100% of the confusion will be cleared up in step 3 and beyond.

In summary, keep the book. Use it. There isn't a better beginner's C#/Object Oriented programming book out there. For me, at least.

Best of luck in your programming education!

Hello,

as a beginner in programming in general i really liked the book and the teaching method was great.
I was wondering what book should i read next after this one?

Thank you for answering my question!

Thanks for the kind words about the book. As to what to read next, most people have an area of interest (e.g., database, graphics, etc.) that they want to learn more about. If that's the case with you, go to Amazon and search under that area and read the reviews. There are lots of good books in each general area. Clearly, the more reviews the better, since not everyone enjoys the same type of writing. Still, you will learn more about programming and learn it faster if you study an area that really is of interest to you.

__________________
Jack Purdum, Ph.D.
Author: Beginning C# 3.0: Introduction to Object Oriented Programming (and 14 other programming texts)

I wouldn't jump to the conclusion that the reviewer has an illegal copy. I'm using your book through Books24x7, which my corporation pays a lot of money for. Surely that site isn't using an illegal copy of your book. It looks like it must have been scanned in with OCR because there are LOTS of typos. I'm also having quite a bit of trouble with this: Try It Out—Creating a New C# Project (Chapter02Program01.zip)

When I follow the directions, I can't even select the frmMain.cs as the startup object. Frustrating.

I still don't believe that there are typos to the degree stated in any legal copies of the ebook. As far as the issues you have with chapter 2, I left detailed instructions on the program in the post dated last year, Jan 13, 2013. I think that should help.

__________________
Jack Purdum, Ph.D.
Author: Beginning C# 3.0: Introduction to Object Oriented Programming (and 14 other programming texts)