1.1. Getting Hands-On with C#

You're probably eager to get started writing, compiling, and running C# programs. But we're purposely not going to get into the details of downloading and installing C# and the .NET Framework on your computer, the mechanics of compiling programs, or any of that just yet. Here is a roadmap of the way this book is organized:

• Part One of the book focuses on object concepts—in other words, the "what" of objects; we don't want you to be distracted from learning these basic concepts by the bits and bytes of getting the C# environment up and running on your machine.

• Part Two of the book focuses on object modeling—that is, the "how" of designing an application to make the best use of objects. We don't want you to be trying to program without an appropriate OO "blueprint" to work from.

• You'll then be ready for the "grand finale"—rendering the object model in C# code to produce a working Student Registration System (SRS) application—in Part Three.

We'll be showing C# code throughout the book, but in Parts One and Two it will mostly be code snippets and simple examples. We'll wait until Part Three, when you have a good grounding in OO programming concepts, before we really dive into developing a complete C# application.