Book Preview

Brad Abrams and Krzysztof Cwalina have finished writing "Framework Design Guidelines: Conventions, Idioms, and Patterns for Reusable .NET Libraries". 

I was lucky enough to be one of the technical reviewers for this manuscript, so I've already read it.  From that standpoint, I can say it is a one of those must-have books for your .NET library. You'll learn rules and guidelines for Type Design, Member design, designing for future enhancements, error handling and exceptions, and the most common design patterns used in the .NET framework.

You can read this book with two different hats.  One the one hand, it will help you understand the guidelines followed by the .NET framework team. This will help you use the framework more efficiently. You'll know much more about why the framework is organized the way it is, and why the framework works the way it does. In addition, it will give you a much deeper understanding about how to create software libraries that are easier for others to use.

Most of all, this book is based on experience designing reusable frameworks:  Brad and Kryzystof have been instrumental in three releases of the CLR and the base libraries (1.0, 1.1, and the upcoming 2.0 release).  From that standpoint, they know what works, and where they have made mis-steps. 

The book homepage at Addison-Wesley
Learn more about the book, or buy it from A-W
The book homepage at Amazon
In case you'd prefer buying it there.
Brad Abrams blog entry
Brad give his thoughts on the book.