David Conger is currently a writer and programmer for the Microsoft Windows Mobile Internet Toolkit in Seattle. He has also written and maintained the Microsoft Platform Software Development Kit (PSDK), a primary source of content for the Microsoft Developers Network (MSDN). Beyond his work on these projects, David has been a software engineer for Microsoft Interactive TV and American Laser Games Corporation. He is an experienced programmer in C (17 years) and C++ (8 years), Visual Basic, and C#. David has also taught computer programming at the University of Washington and written computer textbooks geared for teaching technology students the fundamentals of software development, including Fundamentals of Microcomputers for Technology Students, C++ Software Development for Technology Students, and C Software Development for Technology Students, all for Prentice Hall.

I. GETTING STARTED. 1. Jumping Feet First. The Language of Computers. Memory. What Is a Computer Program? Programming Languages. Tools of the Trade. 2. The View from 10,000 Feet: Introducing C# and Visual Studio. C, C++, and C#. C# and Java. Microsoft Visual Studio. 3. Writing Programs in C#. Creating Visual C# Programs. Hello, C#-a First Program. Parts of a Visual C# Program. Printing Text to the Screen. Getting Input from the Keyboard. II. PROGRAMMING FROM THE GROUND UP. 4. Basic Building Blocks: Variables and Functions. Variables in C#. Functions in C#. Time to Tinker: Space Travel Made Easy. 5. Doing Math the Computer's Way. Numeric Operators. Assignment Operators. Precedence. A Little More or Less. Areas and Edge Lengths. 6. Classy Language. What Is an Object? Classes as Objects. Objects You've Already Used. 7. Stringing Programs Along. Characters in C#. Strings in C#. III. BEYOND THE BASICS. 8. Making Choices. Decisions and Branching. Logical Data. Logical Operators. Branching Statements. 9. Getting a Bit Loopy. Testy Start, Testy End. The while Loop. The do-while Loop. The for Loop. 10. Arrays: More Fun Than a Stamp Collection. What Is an Array? Wish Upon a Star. Meanwhile, Back on Earth!. Multidimensional Arrays. 11. Being Persistent: Storing Information in Files. Buffered Input and Output. The Nuts of Bolts of Files. Writing Data to Text Files. Reading Data from Text Files. Writing Data to Binary Files. Reading Data from Binary Files. IV. OBJECT-ORIENTED PROGRAMMING. 12. Under Construction: Building Classes. Defining C# Classes. Member Data. Member Functions--Oops! I Mean Methods. Constants-the Cure for Magic Numbers. 13. Overloading (Heavy, Dude!). Overloading Constructors. Overloading Methods. Overloading Operators. 14. Properties: Nothing to Do with Acreage. What Do You Get When You Cross Member Data with Methods? Read-Only Properties. Write-Only Properties. Properties and Methods. 15. Laziness Is a Virtue: Reusing Code with Inheritance. The Same Thing, Only Different. Not Just Public and Private. Overriding Base Class Methods. V. PROGRAMMING IN THE REAL WORLD. 16. Net Gain. Introducing the .NET Framework. WinForms for Easy Windows Programming. Rapid Application Development. An Assortment of Building Blocks. 17. Properties, Events, and Methods. Controls Have Properties, Too. Eventful Programming. Methods to My Madness. 18. Containers: Tupperware for Controls. Form Controls. Form Properties. Panel Controls. GroupBox Controls. 19. Buttons: More Than Meets the Eye. Buttons for Basic User Input. Spiffing Up Your Buttons. Alternating Images and Text on Buttons. ToolBar Controls. 20. Building Character. What's in a Name? Getting from Here to There. How's Everything? Let's Talk. Striking It Rich. 21. What's on the Menu Today? MainMenu Controls. Accelerator Keys. Practice Makes Perfect. 22. And Now, This Message!. Message Boxes the Easy Way. Dialog Boxes. 23. You're at the Top of My List. Just Lists. Check, Please. Longer, Yet Shorter, Lists. 24. Valuable Information. Just Checking In. Tuning in with Radio Buttons. Pick a Number, Any Number. Sliding Scales. 25. Almost Containers (But Not Quite). Tabbed Pages. Picture Boxes. 26. Common Dialog Boxes. Complex Tasks Made Incredibly Easy. How to Write a Text Editor Without Really Trying. Getting Richer. How Lazy Can You Be? VI. APPENDIXES. Appendix A. Speak Like a Geek Glossary. Appendix B. What Are Binary and Hexadecimal? Appendix C. ASCII Chart. Index.