Introduction
Overview
Microsoft Visual C# 2008 Express Edition (and the other Visual Studio 2008 Express Edition products) is, in my opinion, one of the best and most intelligent ideas to come from the Developer Division at Microsoft. I'm applauding and cheering for the people who had this brilliant idea because I believe there is a real need and demand for a world-class, powerful product for hobbyist programmers, students, and professional developers. And Visual C# 2008 Express Edition provides all of that and more.
Visual C# 2008 Express Edition is a fully functional subset of Visual Studio 2008, suitable for creating and maintaining Windows applications and libraries. It's not a timed-bomb edition, a demo, or a feature-limited version—no, it's a key Microsoft initiative to reach more people and give them the ability to have fun while creating cool software.
Who Is This Book For?
This book is for everybody: students, hobbyist programmers, and people who always thought programming was a tough task. It's for people who have ideas like "I wish I could build a tool to store all my recipes and then print them and send them to my friends," "I wish I could build this cool card game that I have never found anywhere else," "I wish I could build this cool software to store my DVD and CD collection," "I wish I could build this software to help me work with matrices and plot graphics for my math class," and many more projects that you can imagine!
This book is for people who have ideas but don't know how to bring them to reality. And it's a good introduction to the art and science of developing software.
