What are the major differences in the Beginning/Professional C# 2005 and 2008 books ?

Still not expert in C#. Will I get any major advantages by buying 2008 edition? (already have 2005 - not completed yet)

Is it worth buying 2008 edition?

VS 2008 supports many additional features such as ideas of lambda expressions, LINQ, and extension methods.
You may also see examples related to new features in .NET 3.5, especially the framework side of LINQ

I don't know anything specific about those books, but one hopes that the 2008 version would call out the examples specific to VS 2008, so you wouldn't waste time trying to get something to work that won't in VS 2005.
If you do want to check out the new features you can download the Express version of Visual Studio 2008 and do the examples with that.

Please check the following thread:
http://www.eggheadcafe.com/conversat...eadid=34525935

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Om Prakash Pant
Click the "Thanks" button if this post helped you.

A good way to judge the difference is to compare the Table of Contents (TOC) for the 2005 and 2008 editions. Usually, an author who updates an existing book wants to make it easy for previous buyers to see what's new in the revision. As a result, you might expect to see new chapters on the major new features in the language. Personally, I highlighted generics and LINQ in my book as I felt these were major changes programmers needed to know.

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

If I have already read Beginning C# 2005, should I also go for beginning C# 2008, or go straight for the pro C# 2008 ?

Actually, you've asked a pretty tough question. Obviously, I'd like you to purchase my book before going to the Pro version, but that may not be necessary. First, how comfortable are you writing code in C#? Can you read the code of others without difficulty, or do you need time to figure it out? (The Code Project is a good source for reading C# code.) If you are confident that you can read the code written by others, perhaps it's time to move on to the Pro book series. If you feel you might benefit from additional instruction, try reading my book and see if it helps. Second, what kind of code do you want to write? Are you writing just for yourself, or are you writing for a commercial environment? If you just write for yourself, it probably doesn't matter much how "readable" your code is, but it makes a huge difference if your writing code for a team of programmers.

I think the key to your question is your own assessment of how comfortable you are in reading someone else's code. If you can do that without difficulty, perhaps you're ready for the next level. If not, reading another book might solidify your understanding in a way that will make subsequent work that much easier.

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