Foreword

Welcome to one of the most venerable and trusted franchises you could dream of in the world of C# books—and probably far beyond! Mark Michaelis’s Essential C# book has been a classic for years, but it was yet to see the light of day when I first got to know Mark.

In 2005, when LINQ (Language Integrated Query) was disclosed, I had only just joined Microsoft, and I got to tag along to the PDC conference for the big reveal. Despite my almost total lack of contribution to the technology, I thoroughly enjoyed the hype. The talks were overflowing, the printed leaflets were flying off the tables like hotcakes: It was a big day for C# and .NET, and I was having a great time.

It was pretty quiet in the hands-on labs area, though, where people could try out the technology preview themselves with nice scripted walkthroughs. That’s where I ran into Mark. Needless to say, he wasn’t following the script. He was doing his own experiments, combing through the docs, talking to other folks, busily pulling together his own picture.

As a newcomer to the C# community, I may have met a lot of people for the first time at that conference—people with whom I have since formed great relationships. But to be honest, I don’t remember them—it’s all a blur. The only one I remember is Mark. Here is why: When I asked him if he was liking the new stuff, he didn’t just join the rave. He was totally level-headed: “I don’t know yet. I haven’t made up my mind about it.” He wanted to absorb and understand the full package, and until then he wasn’t going to let anyone tell him what to think.

So instead of the quick sugar rush of affirmation I might have expected, I got to have a frank and wholesome conversation, the first of many over the years, about details, consequences, and concerns with this new technology. And so it remains: Mark is an incredibly valuable community member for us language designers to have, because he is super smart, insists on understanding everything to the core, and has phenomenal insight into how things affect real developers. But perhaps most of all, he is forthright and never afraid to speak his mind. If something passes the Mark Test, then we know we can start feeling pretty good about it!

These are the same qualities that make Mark such a great writer. He goes right to the essence and communicates with great integrity, no sugarcoating, and a keen eye for practical value and real-world problems. Mark has a great gift of providing clarity and elucidation, and no one will help you get C# 8.0 like he does.

Enjoy!

—Mads Torgersen,
C# Lead Designer,
Microsoft