Developer Reference

Core topics and essential techniques for professional developers.

The Developer Reference series presents the central and fundamental view of a given Microsoft product, language, or technology from a professional developer's perspective. Designed for experienced professional developers, the books provide a detailed survey of the product, language, or technology in relation to the development life cycle, focusing primarily on how to use the product, language, or technology to develop applications. Appropriate programming languages are used to write sample code that illustrates the examples. Having read this book, the reader should have a solid practical and theoretical grounding in programming using this product, language, or technology and be ready to learn about more advanced and specialized subjects within this topic area.

Internals Mission
As the name implies, Internals books focus on the architecture of a given Microsoft product, language, or technology. They concentrate on how the product, language, or technology is put together and how it works internally, rather than give a general overview or describe ways in which a professional developer can use it in a specific environment. However, these books do include discussions of how developers can get the most out of the product by knowing the particulars of its design and structure. They also offer technical insight into why the product, language, or technology was designed and built the way it was and examine what repercussions the architecture has for developers.

Focused Topics Mission
Focused Topics books are the specialist offerings in the Developer list and are designed for advanced (expert) professional level readers. They address questions of how to use given Microsoft products, languages, or technologies to solve particular problems. Readers are presumed to be experienced professional developers; they could be independent software vendors (ISVs), corporate IT developers, or consulting developers creating applications around Microsoft products. The books assume a professional programmer's understanding of the subject matter, and follow the principle that "the Devil is in the details," focusing primarily on specific technical challenges faced by people developing advanced, complex, or large-scale solutions. Appropriate programming languages are used to write sample code that illustrates the examples. By their nature, these books derive from the expertise of their authors; these books and their readers will benefit from the authors' specific experience and skill set.