Sebastopol, CA—Ready to learn programming? With Start Here!™ Learn Microsoft® Visual C#® 2010 (Microsoft Press, $34.99 USD) you will learn the fundamentals of modern programming with Visual C# 2010—and begin building your first apps for the desktop and web. If you have absolutely no previous experience, no problem—simply start here. This book introduces must-know concepts and techniques through easy-to-follow explanations, examples, and exercises.

"Most current C# books use a college course approach to teaching the language, but not everyone learns well that way," says author John Paul Mueller. "This book uses a hands-on, program-now-learn-the-language-later approach. It's akin to the difference between taking music courses or learning to play an instrument by ear. Some people learn better with the first approach, others the second approach."

Mueller continues, "More and more people are learning to write applications because computers in all forms are becoming a more essential part of everyday living. However, I'm facing more non-professionals today who want to get something done now—not in a month or so after learning all of the ins and outs of the language. Think about someone in the field who uses computers to study ancient civilizations. They need to write a program to request additional information from various web services and aren't interested in getting a degree in computer science to do it. This book will get them going in an extremely short time."

Here's where you start learning Visual C#:

• Learn how an application performs tasks by tracing its code
• Query and manipulate application data with LINQ
• Access web services with REST and SOAP
• Build simple apps with Windows® Presentation Foundation
• Explore rich Internet apps with Microsoft Silverlight®
• Find and fix errors by debugging your applications
• Put it all together by creating your first programs