Preface

C# Essentials is a highly condensed introduction to the C# language and the .NET Framework. C# and the .NET initiative were both unveiled in July 2000 at the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference in Orlando, Florida, and shortly thereafter, the .NET Software Development Kit (SDK) was released on the Internet.

The information in this book is based on Release Candidate 1 (RC1) of the .NET SDK released by Microsoft in October 2001. We expect that version to be largely compatible with the final release, but Microsoft may make minor changes that affect this book. To stay current, be sure to check the online resources listed in Section P.3 as well as the O'Reilly web page for this book, http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/csharpess2 (see Section P.5).