What literature on creating client-server applications can a beginner read?

Question

API

I recently finished reading Herbert Schildt's book "C# 4.0. The Complete Guide". I want to start learning about client-server development, but I don't know anything about it. I would like to know what technologies and frameworks for developing client-server applications are now popular?
I searched for information and found technologies such as ASP.NET MVC, WEB API, WCF.
I didn’t find any “fresh” literature on wcf at all, books from 2005-2008 come across everywhere, at best 2011.
The difference between mvc and web api is not entirely clear. The only thing I learned is that MVC is a framework for creating websites and web applications (by web applications do you mean Desktop applications that interact with the server or is it something else?), and Web API is a web service , which can interact with various applications. In this case, the application can be an ASP.NET web application, or it can be a mobile or regular desktop application.
What is the difference between them and what is better to use to create a client-server application?
In general, please tell us about these three technologies, what other popular technologies are there, what is the difference between them all and where it is better for a beginner to start, well, tell me the Russian-language literature for studying each technology.
I would be very grateful for the clarification and help with choosing a book.

Answer 1

For asp.net mvc/web api I can recommend www.asp.net/aspnet .
Regarding WCF - in my opinion, there is nothing surprising in the statute of limitations of books, I have not heard that in recent years someone has seriously dug up the architecture of the technology, so you can safely pick it up.
Regarding the mvc/web api difference - asp.net mvc involves developing a complete web application that may or may not have an api. web api is the development of specifically rest api. They are certainly similar and can be used in parallel, but there is still a slight difference.
Concerning "what to consider as web applications?" - in my personal opinion, the question is debatable. What is 100% invested in this word is the presence of the server side of the application, which in turn has access to some kind of data storage. Who will be the client? 10 years ago it would be a browser user, now it all depends on the tasks that your application solves. Maybe it's an application, maybe a web snout, maybe a desktop app that accesses server-side logic (even if just to access data)