LINQ in Action, the book is available as an early access edition

How much do you know about LINQ? With Visual Studio "Orcas" 2008 and .NET 3.5 Beta 1 ready, and Beta 2 around the corner, it's the right time to get started with LINQ!

I have the pleasure to announce that we can help you to learn more about LINQ and start writing LINQ code today. An early access edition of the book we have been working on for several months is now available. You can learn more about LINQ in Action on Manning's website.

10 chapters are available right now. These include the introduction to the querying framework and the language enhancements, the coverage of LINQ to Objects, Steve Eichert's LINQ to XML chapters, as well as one chapter about LINQ's extensibility. Jim Wooley is preparing his chapters about LINQ to SQL, and I'm working on the last chapter.

Here is an overview of the table of contents:

Part I - Getting started
 1. Introducing LINQ - FREE
 2. C# and VB.NET language enhancements - AVAILABLE
 3. LINQ building blocks - AVAILABLE

Part II - Querying objects in memory
 4. Getting familiar with LINQ to Objects - AVAILABLE
 5. Working with LINQ and DataSets - AVAILABLE
 6. Beyond basic in-memory queries - AVAILABLE

Part III - Mapping objects to relational databases
 7. Getting started with LINQ to SQL
 8. Peeking under the covers
 9. Advanced LINQ to SQL features

Part IV - Manipulating XML
 10. Introducing LINQ to XML - AVAILABLE
 11. Querying and transforming XML - AVAILABLE
 12. Common LINQ to XML scenarios - AVAILABLE

Part V - LINQing it all together
 13. Extending LINQ - AVAILABLE
 14. LINQ in every layer

We still have work to do, but I can tell you that we do our best to ensure that this book is carefully crafted. We put the accent on quality.
As I discussed before, writing a technical book on a fresh technology like LINQ is not a walk in the park. We don't count any longer the multiple table of contents rewrites to ensure we cover the full LINQ spectrum with the right angle, the numerous edits, the continuous improvements, the internal and external reviews, the discussions, the preparation of the source code both in VB and C#, etc.

I'm sure you'll enjoy our book. If you are just discovering LINQ, you'll find all you need to get started in our 14 chapters. Even if you have a pretty good knowledge of LINQ, you should still find a lot of things to learn in LINQ in Action.

From the publisher's web site, you can choose to buy the ebook plus the softbound print, or only the ebook. The softbound print will be available this Autumn, but in the meantime feel free to read the first chapter and buy the early access ebook to start reading now! With the Manning Early Access Program (MEAP), you get access to the chapters that are ready and you will receive updates as soon as more chapters are released.

Oh, and the first chapter is freely available on the web. See by yourself what it looks like!

Cross-posted from http://LinqInAction.net