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5th Edition Announcement

First, the big news:

C# 10, .NET 6, and Visual Studio 2022 are all set to launch on 9 November 2021, about a month from now. It boggles my mind how fast the C# language can change after being around for over 20 years. For many languages, at this point, all we get are minor tweaks. For C#, we’re getting revolutionary changes.

If you’re visiting this site and reading this article, the next question you probably have, hearing that announcement, is, “What does that mean for The C# Player’s Guide?”

It means that the 5th Edition is in the works!

I can’t commit to a release date, other than to say that I want to release it as soon as I can after the launch of C# 10. It will be no earlier than 9 November 2021, and I think mid or late November is a better guess, but likely not December. (Famous last words.)

While that is all extremely exciting, you might also be having a small dose of panic. You might even be saying, “But I just got the 4th Edition!” (I feel like I just published the 4th Edition! I know the feeling!) `` But let me say that you’re in good hands.

For people who have this concern, I have a few notes for you:

  1. The 4th Edition–and C# 9–is still the official State of the Art for a while longer. You are not wasting time going through 4th Edition and learning C# 9.
  2. I don’t think I’m exaggerating: I expect the 5th Edition to be 98% the same as the 4th Edition. There are a few very important new things, but generally speaking, everything you know about C# 9 that you learn from the 4th Edition is not only still valid, but is still going to be State of the Art even after C# 10 and the 5th Edition is released.
  3. If you bought the 4th Edition in digital format on Gumroad, you will get the opportunity for a completely free upgrade–either as a part of the 5th Edition’s Early Access program or when it is done. (Make sure you’re set up to get emails from me, otherwise, you won’t see it!)
  4. If you bought the print edition… well… unfortunately, I can’t update your printed copy. But I have two things that will help. First, given the relatively small number of changes, I’m planning on making an Upgrade Companion document that you can download (and print?) for free. This will detail, chapter by chapter, any important change in C# 10 not covered in 4th Edition. You can have this by your side as your read to make sure you don’t miss out on any of the new good stuff in C# 10. Second–and this offer won’t last forever–if you’ve bought the print edition, and you DM me on Discord or email me, I’ll hook you up with the digital 5th Edition on Gumroad.

Changes in C# 10

I want to outline what’s new in C# 10, but given the length of this article already, I’ve separated that into its own standalone article, which you can read here.

Expected Changes in 5th Edition

Let’s talk about how 5th Edition will be different from 4th:

  1. Updating to C# 10, .NET 6, and Visual Studio 2022.
  2. Changing to the Cascadia font, which is also what VS 2022 is using.
  3. Updated screenshots for VS 2022.
  4. I’m exploring both hardback and color options, but my guess is we won’t get a color option this time (cost prohibitive) but might get a hardback option.

And a few notable things that I don’t expect to change:

  1. I don’t expect to add or remove any levels (chapters), though sections and subsections might be added or changed in a few places.
  2. I don’t expect to add, remove, or substantially change any of the challenges in the book, nor the XP associated with them, nor the level system.
  3. I don’t expect to have .epub or .mobi formats, for… complicated reasons. I won’t have time before 5th Edition.

Of course, anything and everything is on the table for an update, so if you’ve seen a problem or have a suggestion for making it better, please reach out to me.

Early Access

I really enjoyed the feedback and discussions I had with Early Access on the 4th Edition, and I plan on doing that again for the 5th Edition, starting right away. The 5th Edition will be available through Gumroad in Early Access, with weekly updates (on the weekend, often Friday or Saturday my time, but occasionally on Sunday).

These will continue until the official release, at which point, the release cadence will slow down.

(Once 5th Edition is out officially, I don’t expect to do any more “patch” updates for the 4th Edition.

You should also expect a few tweaks on the Discord server to accomodate the new edition, though I don’t have any specifics on that yet. (We’ll probably need to do something to know which edition people are using when asking and answering questions.)

The next several weeks will be exciting! I hope to see you along the way.

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns about the plan moving forward, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me on Discord or email.