This book is aimed at Engineers and Scientists who want to learn about the .NET environment and C# programming or who have an interest in interfacing hardware to a PC.

The book covers the Visual Studio 2008 development environment, the .NET framework and C# programming language from data types and program flow to more advanced concepts including object oriented programming.

It continues with program debugging, file handling, databases, internet communication and plotting before moving to hardware interfacing using serial and parallel ports and the USB port. It includes a hardware design for a simple oscilloscope using a parallel port and interfacing to analogue and digital I/O using the USB port.

It is complete with many program examples, self assessment exercises and references to supporting videos. Full program examples are available as is support for University lecturers in the form of PowerPoint presentations.

• The Visual Studio C# Environment
• Common controls, properties and events
• Dialogs and forms
• The C# Language - the basics
• The C# Language - arrays, structures and strings
• Program Flow, Loops and Decisions
• Object oriented programming: Methods and classes
• Object oriented programming - creating objects
• File handling and menu dialogs
• Graphics and Multimedia
• Debugging
• Threading
• Internet Applications
• Introduction to Databases
• Displaying databases
• Accessing a database with code
• Plotting and Charts
• Dynamic link libraries (DLL) and using Windows API
• Hardware interfacing
• USB interfacing
• Conclusion