About the Author

Dan Solis holds a Bachelor of Arts degree with majors in biology and English. He initially worked in research on the structure of bi- and tri-metal crystals, until he found that he enjoyed programming much more than working in a lab. He also holds a Master of Science degree in computer science from the University of California at Santa Barbara, where he concentrated on programming languages and compiler design.

Dan has been programming professionally for more than 20 years, with more than half that time working as a consultant and contract programmer, including several projects for Microsoft Consulting Services. His consulting projects have ranged from programs for mutual fund analysis and supply chain management to systems for missile tracking. He has also taught courses on various programming languages, Windows programming, UNIX internals, and a number of other topics, in both the United States and Europe.

Dan’s first programming language was C, but he soon became intrigued by the journal articles about a new language being developed called “C with Classes.” Eventually that language was renamed C++ and released to the world. He began using C++ as soon as he could get access to a compiler, and he eventually started teaching training seminars on the language, as well as continuing to code.

With the advent of C#, .NET, and WPF, he has moved on to enjoying the myriad advantages of the new platform and has been working with them enthusiastically ever since.