Computing with C# and the .NET Platform provides students and professors with value insight to this exciting, yet controversial, technology.

Professor: I want to use Visual Studio .NET.
Art Gittleman: The book covers the use of Visual Studio .NET in various sections noted in the preface.  I have developed most of the examples with the free compiler included with the .NET Framework class library; one could do the same with Visual Studio .NET with no changes needed.

Professor: .NET is just a Microsoft monopoly.

Art Gittleman:   .NET is a Microsoft product and C# owes a lot to Java.  But there are open source implementations of the .NET Framework so that one does not have to use Microsoft products.  Moreover the beauty of .NET is that it enables languages to interoperate.  One can combine Visual Basic and C# modules or even COBOL.  Great object-oriented languages such as Eiffel are thrilled to provide .NET compilers to bring Eiffel to a wider audience.  .NET makes Web services easily programmable.  Students need to see this.

         Working with C# shows that in many ways it improves Java.   I have written several Java books and love that platform but am no less excited about C# and .NET and believe it will be justifiably very successful.