Hi,I’m Frans Van Wyk.Welcome to my page specially for the book A Brief Introduction To Programming in C#.  A bit more about me.I’ve been a lecturer in Information Technology at the Central University of Technology, Free State, in South Africa for about 27 years. Before that I spent years in the industry in various capacities.During all these years I programmed/taught in quite a lot of computer languages for both mainframe systems and desktop computers. Well, calling the Sinclair ZX81, with its 1 Kilobyte (yes, you’ve read  that correctly) internal memory, a desktop computer is stretching it a bit.  

Progressed through the ranks with a Commodore 64 (38911 bytes free after loading its mother tongue Basic), Apple’s IIe and now a MacBook, Pc’s (XT, AT, and the rest) up to today’s PC desktop, which is actually more powerful than a 1970’s mainframe. Yes, I have worked on, but not owned, mini as well as mainframe computers.Programming for that lot included Minimal Basic, Commodore Basic, and the rest of the Basic versions up to Visual Basic .Net, COBOL (COmmon Business Oriented Language),Algol, Fortran, Pascal, Delphi, and even an obscure language called MOBOL. The latter was a language used on Mohawk Computers (It later became Bull Computers). The acronym stands for Mohawk Business Oriented Language. I ended up with C# and Microsoft Visual Basic(VB) for the .Net framework.I taught Development Software II, III and IV, Advanced Development Software IV, Information Systems I, Software Engineering III and IV,Systems Software, and Research Methodology, to name but a few.Phew! I even get tired from only naming all.From the above you should by now have figured out that I love computers as well as teaching.

I wrote this book to bring the basics of programming in C# to you without cluttering the issue with too much information too soon. It focuses on console applications to bypass the tendency to jump into programming feet first, and ending up with lots of bells and whistles that don’t really accomplish anything. It is, however, detailed enough to start any reader on the exciting road to programming. 

The examples are detailed enough to give a good introduction to Object Oriented Programming (OOP), without clouding the learning process with some of the more difficult principles of OOP.  The book is short enough to be read in one sitting, but not so short that it doesn’t accomplish what it sets out to do.  All the resources used to do the programming shown in the book can be downloaded from the World Wide Web without any costs. I have included all the necessary links to the sources used.  I really hope you enjoy reading this book just as much as I enjoyed writing it.  In a few minutes you can be an your way, and who knows what the future holds for you in programming.  Good Luck!  Frans Van Wyk