C# Class Design Handbook

C# is Microsoft's new object-oriented language, specifically designed to take full advantage of the .NET type system. At the heart of .NET programming in C# is the task of building classes. All C# code participates in the .NET type system, because all code is contained in classes and other types which participate in the class hierarchy of the .NET framework. This book is a guide to help you design these classes effectively, by looking at what control we have over our classes, and how C# turns our class definitions into executable code.

Ask anyone: designing effective classes that you don't have to revisit and revise over and over again is an art. This Handbook aims to give you a deep understanding of the implications of every decision you can make in designing a class, so you are better equipped to take full advantage of C#'s power to create classes that are robust, flexible and reusable.

This book assumes that you are already familiar with the syntax of C#. It assumes that you have already used it to write code and that you are familiar with your chosen development tools and know how to compile and run C# code. You should also be aware of .NET's basic object-oriented mechanisms. In this book, we'll lift the lid on the simple syntax and examine what it really does behind the scenes.

Richard Conway started programming BASIC with the ZX81 at an early age, later graduating to using BASIC and 6502 assembly language, COMAL, and Pascal for the BBC B and Archimedes RISC machines. He is an independent software consultant who lives and works in London. He has been using Microsoft technologies for many years and has architected and built enterprise systems for IBM, Merrill Lynch, and Reuters. He has focused his development on Windows DNA including various tools and languages, such as COM+, VB, XML, C++, J++, BizTalk and, more recently, data warehousing. He has been actively involved in EAP trials with Microsoft for .NET My Services and the .NET Compact Framework. His special area of interest is network security and cryptography. Richard is a contributor to both C# Today and ASP Today, and he is involved in a product development and consultancy alliance (http://www.vertexion.co.uk) specializing in data warehousing and security products.