Books by Filip Ekberg

C# Smorgasbord

Foreword

In this book Filip has created something unique. The Encarta World Dictionary¹ defines smorgasbord as “a meal served buffet style, consisting of a large variety of hot and cold dishes”, or informally as “a wide variety.” That makes “C# Smorgasbord” a great title – this book spreads a table filled with chapters centered on a wide variety of programming topics. Each chapter includes not just examples of how to apply the topic, but also discussion of why it matters. No matter how you use C#, you are sure to find something in this book.

One of the interesting aspects of this book is that each chapter stands alone. This means that the book can be used in two different ways. You could read the entire book, perhaps skimming through examples to get a good understanding of the wide variety of things C# can be used for. When solving a specific problem, you can open it to the appropriate chapter and use it as a reference. This book is not an in-depth authoritative reference. Indeed, an entire book could (and frequently has) been written about the topics of each chapter. However, C# Smorgasbord brings together many topics with just enough detail to enable a developer to see how a topic might apply to the problem at hand.

While introducing the topics, Filip’s personality also shines though, and demonstrates one of the qualities that I find most important in programmers – a desire for continuous improvement and learning. From small touches like including keyboard shortcuts for the many Visual Studio features that are described, to including an entire chapter on using trivial tasks as an opportunity to improve yourself, this book shows how great developers are always striving to improve themselves and the code they work on.

I’ve known Filip online for the last few years. Throughout that time, he has been enthusiastic about learning new things, improving himself, and sharing that knowledge with others. This takes on many forms, including helping others on IRC and Twitter, blogging, and presenting on topics for coworkers. Now that work is culminating in the creation of this book.

Come to the table, and enjoy the smorgasbord set before you!

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