My second Pluralsight course was Deborah Kurata’s Practical LINQ. I’ve been familiar with LINQ since its introduction in .NET 3.5, but like I mentioned before, I wasn’t as comfortable with it as I could have been because a lot of the Intellisense looks scary. Admittedly, that’s a pretty silly reason for not learning more about a technology, but I never had somebody explain it to me in a way that really clicks. Between Skeet/Conery and Kurata, I’m now a lot more comfortable with LINQ.
One of the big things I liked about Practical LINQ is that I was able to see and re-create all of the code on my own. I now have the full Pluralsight subscription which includes file downloads, but at the time, I was working off of a trial subscription. But even if I had access to the files, I find it a lot better to type out the code myself—it helps me think about what I’m typing and reflect upon what the writer intends—and I appreciate that Kurata’s examples are that way.
My single criticism of this course is that Kurata talks too slowly. If I had paid attention to the speed knob, I definitely would have turned it up to 1.5x.
36 Chambers - The Legendary Journeys: Execution to the max! 