Heya all I am on what i feel to be a very hard and uphill struggle but it needs to be done. I currently work with a lot of PC apps and Java based applets. I want to take both of these and create applications in ** .Net which will allow me to combine both into 1 set of code for each application. ie PC apps could use a local database using the MS desktop db program or sommat. while the internet apps could use the online SQL 2000 server. These apps are going to be created from the ground up but i have no idea of the .Net Framework and really have no idea where to start looking. if anyone knows of any good courses for .Net, books, websites which will help i would appreciate it. I am mainly from a java back ground so expecting J# to be the language i attempt this in but open to suggestions on that as well. cheers Jon
I've been using .NET since early 2002. Here's my 2p: There really isn't that much out there - bookwise or web-wise - about VJ#. There's plenty about VB.NET and C# and a good chunk about VC++. I'd encourage you to try out C#. The syntax is pretty similar to Java and it seems to be Microsoft's favoured language anyway. In comparison, VB.NET is utterly dreadful, clumsy and old-fashioned (I'm forced to use it at work). C# is nice and concise and elegant. I've never even touched VJ#, so I can't tell you about that. It's very easy to write data-driven applications (web or Windows-based) using .NET and SQL Server 2000. The data access stuff takes a bit of getting used to, but once you're up and running, it's very easy to use and quite logical. There are loads of custom controls you can use and there's an awful lot in the framework - it's very comphrensive. O'Reilly do excellent books about .NET and you can get them at Amazon and major bookstores. Microsoft's own books are very good as well. Web links: O'Reilly. Got Dot Net is Microsoft's .NET community website. Another excellent resource, once you're up and running, is the Microsoft .NET newsgroups - microsoft.public.dotnet.framework - use Google Groups to do a search on them. They are good for answering any questions you have as to "how do I do X and Y"? I've been programming since 1983 (tender age of seven). .NET is by far the best I've come across and VS.NET is an excellent IDE (though expensive).
hey there thanks for the reply, links and advice all very much appreciated!! I will get the Visual Studio .Net from work so will defo be using that so fingers crossed i will be coding away with it quickly.. thanks for the heads up about C# i will start doing some reading and probably get some books for that before the J# thanks again Jon
C# is nice if youve done java, because its basically the same thing, with ever so slightly different keywords, and then webmethods C# and J# are also pretty similar by pretty similar i mean very similar and by very similar, i mean just about the same thing I wouldnt bother getting any J# books if you have C# books, and i wouldnt bother with C# books if you have any java books tbh I 'learned' C# in an afternoon from knowing Java, and at a guess, 'learning' J# would take about 45 seconds
I would suggest one of the certification books for .Net. not so much to get certification, but because they will expose you to a broad range of namespaces and classes that already exist and are ready for you to use. Otherwise you might find yourself reinventing the wheel and creating classes to do things for you without realizing that the functionality is already in the .Net Class library. on a side note, check out http://mono-project.com for an implementation of the CLR that runs on Linux/Mac OSX
i picked up the following books today from amazon http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0596003765/202-1906573-4035837?_encoding=UTF8 http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1890774227/202-1906573-4035837 so hopefully they will help out a little. i have the beta of visual studio 2005 to trial for a while until it gets released on the MSDN subscription. Over the next few weeks i will try and get my teeth into it. thanks again peeps Jon
Personally I would advise to shop for books - a lot of the .Net books I have found are useless and skimp over much of the framework and just skim the surface which is useless for anyone with exposure to a number of language and a few years experience. I did initally fiund the Wrox "C# 2nd edition" (ISBN: 0-7645-4398-9) good as a "reference-cum-simple-example book" - but as you gain experience it starts to languish on the shelf. Personally I would suggest the O'Reilly set of books which have broken .Net up into distinct areas; Applications, Web Services etc. They are short sharp and succinct (sometimes too much so!) But they always tend to give you the correct ways fo doing things - which you can follow up in the forums. I dont really advocate many of the certification training books as these *tend* to be biased towards passing exams rather then learning the language; but you may not feel that. If you have access to the MSDN Subscription; don't ignore that - there are many simple but effective examples contained in the class help files. Cant think of much more - good luck!