[.ca] .NET Framework Standard Library Annotated Reference, ... (ISBN 0321154894)

Easily Accessible Information:
Reference books often are densely packed with information. And this book is no exception. But the utility of any reference book is often a function of how easily you can find a desired subject, and, once there, how understandable is it explained. On both counts, you should find that this book stands well. The sheer volume of information has been carefully laid out. The various .NET types (classes) are easy to find. For a type, example code is often included, along with the mandatory "official" description of the type. Some of you will appreciate the examples, as these are written to be easy to follow. If you have programmed in Java, you should be familiar with Sun's "Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition, API Specification", which is an online documentation for Java. This book has much the same flavour. In fact, it has a CD with the entire book's contents. So you can access the CD much like a Java programmer would the above. One interesting difference, though, is an extra feature present in this book. For many types, there is added commentary by various of the 7 authors. These narratives are more informally phrased than the descriptions or examples. They offer extra insight, increasing the book's utility.