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Im a pretty experienced programmer in PHP and mainly web languages but today i have decided i want to start to learn a new language!
Im only 21 and I feel as I will never make it in the programming industry without a great set of languages under my belt, So i decided to have a look at C#.
The reason I have chosen C# is because some C programmers have told me that C# is the best language to learn for desktop applications.
I think i need to get started with the Syntax / Structure of C#, What Development Environment to use, and other things that i might face along my new journey.
I hope somebody can guide me
Thanks.
For IDE, you can use Visual Studio Express. And here's a nice set of tutorials.
Also do get your basic concepts straight about .NET framework and CLR.
Once you get the hang of it, Try out LINQ. It is (arguably)the most wonderful feature of the framework. Find some good LINQ tutorials here and here
Although you explicitly mentioned Desktop applications, .NET FW is equally suitable for Web applications 4GuysfromRolla is my favorite ASP.NET resource.
For Dektop applications you might want to start with WinForms, but WPF is the technology of the future. So you are better off learning it if you want to be developing Desktop applications for windows.
Happy Learning!
Stuff you'll need for the beginning:
Visual Studio 2010 Express edition
Few evenings with coffee and Beginner Developer Learning Center
A nice book like this one (it might be a giant one, but I'm in love with it)
Some more coffee
A lot of patience with stuff that isn't in PHP (LINQ, delegates, generic types etc)
Some nice idea to start actually developing and trying stuff out
The best way to learn is to have a problem to solve, and specifically I mean to do something that you DON'T know how to do, rather than something for which you already have the tools. I'd browse around on the net for some toy problems and try to build an app for it.
Eg. I only started on the way down OOP once I decided I needed a poker probability calculator. So basically I had to read a bunch of stuff about VB 6 as I went along. Classes, properties, methods, syntax... the web is great for that kind of thing.
I suppose what I mean is Just Do IT... (see what I did there? :) You'll screw things up, but learn loads more than any book can teach you.
If you're using Visual Studio for Learning it you can use MSDN that perfect for early learning is enough.
I highly recommend Illustrated C# 2008 by Daniel Solis. That's the book I used to learn how the C# language worked (Don't be fooled by "Illustrated" in the title: it's not so much a "beginner's" book as much as it uses good illustrations to teach the language).
You might consider following up with a book dedicated to Silverlight, Windows Presentation Foundation, or ASP.NET if you want to be able to apply what you learn in C# to an appropriate API. I would recommend any book by Matthew MacDonald for the latter.
Learning the basics Pascal, Java, C# and even C is more or less the same...
Start with the studying material of any academic "Introduction to Computer Science" course,
try solving the assignments in a few different languages (to learn C# at a C-like level),
then move on the material from any academic "Object Oriented Programming" course to learn the rest of the basics.
After that is only a matter of experience and searching the MSDN help.
Since you're already an experienced programmer learning C# is more a less an exercise in learning the .NET Framework. The syntax should be easy enough for you to nail down pretty quickly, just by looking for a few tutorials. The harder part will be learning the vast API available to you via the Framework.
I suggest finding a good book on C# (I've had good experience with Microsoft Press and I've heard good things about Wrox and O'Reilly). Make sure it discusses classes, polymorphism (inheritance and interfaces), event based programming, LINQ and reflection.
I believe you'll also want to look at any books dealing specifically with ADO.NET and WPF. The great thing about .NET is once you learn the .NET Framework API you can pretty much move between languages as needed.
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I am a final year computer science student from Mumbai University, India.
The topic of our undergraduate project is SOA.
Under this project we are supposed to build 3 service components and one example website that uses those components.
I am quite good with Java and have no experience whatsoever with C# or .NET.
I am having hard time deciding the language and platform for our project.
Can you please suggest what platform I should go for?
Please give me a brief comparison between Java/Java EE and C#.NET/ASP.NET in terms of complexity, ease of development, ease of deployment etc.
Edit:
The original reason why I put this question is:-
We have to do final year project in group of three. My both partners want to do this project in C# and asp.net and I want to do it in java. Since our project is more of server side, java holds some advantages like cross platform over C#
Also this point:-
What if we implement 2 parts in C#.net(which they will build) and 1 part in Java(which i will build) and then use them to build a sample website.
What level(kind) of difficulty it will accompany?
I am quite good with Java and have no experience whatsoever with C# or .NET.
Well then, do you have a particular desire to extend your knowledge into C# and .NET, or do you want to concentrate solely on the actual project.
People can make all sorts of arguments about C# vs Java, but in your case the pertinent facts are that C# will be much better at teaching you a new language, and Java will be much better at not requiring you to learn a new language.
Edit: Following the edit to the question, mixing the languages like you suggest as a possibility has the added advantage of needing you to show how to mix the use of two different languages, which might or might not be useful in itself.
Overall I would say that is is much easier to get started in Asp.NET. With Java EE, just setting a dev environment to do Hello World, can be a lot of work. In Asp.NET, you launch visual studio, create a project, and are ready to go. If you are using Netbeans and Glassfish, then Hello World is no longer a nightmare, but deployment is still a lot trickier.
Architecturally they are pretty similar, Java EE is a bit rustier, but has borrowed from many of the newer ideas of ASP.net.
Once you get up to speed in Java EE, it isn't that bad, so for a long term commercial project, it is a viable choice. For a short term student project it isn't worth the effort, and I would go with ASP.NET, but if I had a choice I wouldn't recommend either platform.
I would build my application in a dynamic language like python, ruby, or maybe groovy. The difference in productivity between static and dynamic languages is huge. Even if all 3 of your team members are new to the language I would expect you accomplish more in less time.
I would recommend looking into the following frameworks: django, pylons, rails, grails. I'm biased towards the python frameworks, but rails is also an excellent choice. Grails is a pretty cool clone of Rails written in groovy, but unless you have to have Java integration, I would stick with the other 3.
I am quite good with Java and have no experience whatsoever with C# or .NET.
If by that you mean you also have experience with building services and site, then use Java, no point in discussing it any further. The only possible reason is if You Want to learn .NET (a great reason imho though), but not at all because you should change to it.
Note that personally I prefer .NET vs. Java, but I would never / ever make a team experienced in Java change to .NET in the scenario you described.
If you do go with .NET, use ASP.NET MVC. It gets you closer to the right skills to learn regardless of the platform / HTML, CSS, JS, HTTP considerations, etc.
What if we implement 2 parts in
C#.net(which they will build) and 1
part in Java(which i will build) and
then use them to build a sample
website. What level(kind) of
difficulty it will accompany?
If the interface between these parts is a widely-accepted standard like SOAP or REST/JSON, then the language the individual components are developed in will matter very little - this is the whole point of such standards, and an important part of the SOA idea as well. I'd even consider such a heterogenous application a better example for what you're supposed to learn.
The only real downside will be that you'll have a harder time helping each other when you encounter problems.
Ill approach this idea by idea:
Platform: You are familiar with Java, I would recommend for the time being staying within Java for the time being.
J2EE do you mean Java EE? J2EE is quite old by today's standards.
There are not many, if any, fundamental differences between .NET and Java platform code. It comes down to a matter of preference and what Operating System you are primarily working on, imo. If it is only Windows development I would lean towards .NET, however if you need portability lean towards Java.
Also I wanted to point out SOA is more of a buzz word consultants use. You will see this as you gain experience in the industry. Cloud is the new SOA, this is purely opinion.
It may be worth your while to do the other components in something you don't know as having that experience could make you more marketable to industry. Look at job offers for a field you'd like to do work in. What experience are they asking for? Maybe use something they ask for as one of your components. I've never seen a job ad that asked solely for Java experience, it's usually accompanied by other technologies like scripting languages and framework experience.
i am currently a PHP web developer (university student next year). i want to learn more about C#/WPF development (mainly windows development first).
i know of Channel 9, Windows Client, C# How do i.
since i know programming, i dont want to spend so much time with the very basic syntax etc, which i sometime find that books do (i am reading Accelerated C# 2010, tho i find it kind of wordy, i prefer something more visual, like videos, diagrams etc if possible).
i know of PHP blogs like zend casts or killerphp, there are books like survive the deep end that are shorter than 600 pages book. such resources are what i am looking for
It's been almost 8 years since I started with C#, so I don't know where all the 'cool' kids go, but MSDN is usually a good place to start:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/beginner/default.aspx
If you've done java then C# will be pretty easy to pick up. Difference worth noting because they make life a lot easier are things like Properties, Lambda expressions and LINQ, so once you get grounded it's worth getting into that.
If you're doing WPF then I HIGHLY recommend you get your head around "MVVM" and Expression Blend, they'll change your life ;)
http://hugeonion.com/2009/02/15/intro-to-wpf-mvvm/
Also, feel free to read blogs on Silverlight, most of the stuff applies to WPF as well.
To be honest, if all of your experience is with PHP, you probably want to focus on OOP (Object-Oriented Programming) in general, rather than the specific syntax and frameworks of C#. The language itself shouldn't be massively alien to you, but the idioms and standard approaches to many problems likely will be.
Two books I would recommend for anyone starting on an OOP language:
The Pragmatic Programmer - An invaluable reference for any programmer, but it really does focus on static OOP languages such as C#.
Head First Object Oriented Analysis and Design - A java book, ironically, but the concepts taught within are perfectly applicable to C#, and it's an excellent, clear, easy to follow introduction on the proper design of object oriented software.
I'm also PHP dev (my primary profession), but I'm also doing C# codding (for personal needs and fun).
I've learned C# simply by experimenting.
My suggestion to you is to download Visual Studio Express 2010 and Google search for C# beginners tutorial (Search , Example Result) .
Only thing you need to get started is basic syntax knowledge and idea. VSE 2010 will generate lots of code for you (especially for Windows Forms project where you just need to design form and then click elements to add events).
As far as WPF concerned, I can't tell you more because I've never worked with that.
Happy codding ;)
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I am wanting to learn C# where would be a good place to start?
What tools will I need to code and compile with as well?
Tools - Download MS Visual C# Express Edition 2010.
Books - Head First C# if you are looking basics..
Refer this page for some good videos and links on C#
Don't rely on the web for good code examples...
With C# specifically, it's easy to find a million examples of how to do something but it's especially hard to find 'good' examples that are succinct and up-to-date with the latest features/practices of the language. If you're learning C# from scratch, the web will probably discourage more than help (I know from personal experience).
If you're learning C# rely on good books to get a solid start. Here's a good list of books to begin with.
Also, bookmark this site as an online C# reference. It is by-far the best of the hundreds/thousands of C# sites that I have seen.
Download Visual Studio Express edition 2010 and do a Hello World console application.
I'd also recommend downloading SQL Server 2008 express and getting familiar with that once you feel like you are getting good with C#.
Both are free and there is lots of resources out there for a beginner.
Also, if you work at a .NET shop tell your manager that you'd interested and see if he'll team you up with an experienced developer to get you started. Having someone to teach you is extremely helpful.
Download Visual Studio 2010 Express Edition, start reading books and tutorials and arm yourself with patience.
I defiantly would say it depends on your experience level. If you already know the OO fundamentals like Polymorphism, Encapsulation etc... and programming fundamentals like loops, conditionals etc... then perhaps opt for a Pro book Wrox C# 4.0. However if you are not familiar and have little experience I have to agree with others that the Head First Series is an extremely good way to learn. Not written in an Academic manner but in a more fun way which makes it easier to remember things.
Obviously as others suggested you can get the appropriate software to create applications in the form of the express editions.
I would try and create your own applications along with doing the books to make things fun and learn more. By doing this you can look at examples on the web and use the code trying to understand it, and also alter the code so it performs the functionality you want. Even if its functionality you have no idea about and the book hasn't covered, as long as you can look at the code and get a general idea of what it's doing.
Like the above mentioned Visual studio 2010.
try this for a great starter, it has loads of resources.
Get familiar with the api, the sooner the better.
I also find video tutorials a great way to let the stuff stick :) So either watch video tutorials then code a bit , then watch again to remember it, but the best way to learn the code is just to do it. Too much theory can confuse, code as you go, set goals for your self and the theory will come as you try to figure out and solve problems.
After installing VS2010 Express Edition, get Programming in the Key of C# by Charles Petzold. It's ancient, but nothing teaches the fundamentals of C# like this book. After that, get Essential C# 2.0, 3.0, or 4.0, higher the better.
Just take your time and learn the fundamentals down cold and you'll be ready to move on.
Check out Microsoft's MSDN series of tutorials.
There's a nice section that goes over command-line C# writing, as well as another section that covers the drag-and-drop window designer functionality that you get with Visual Studio.
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My background is in web programming, mostly scripting with Perl. And I've recently been tasked with creating a desktop application. I'm wondering, where can one learn such concepts like making executables, what DLLs are for, how UIs are made, what threads are, etc.
I already have C# in Depth by Jon Skeet and C# in a Nutshell. I'm not worried about learning C# itself as much as I am learning about the workflows involved with using it on the desktop, things that are typically not done in web development.
Where should I look?
One starting point would be WindowsClient.net (Microsoft). Lots of videos too. But maybe a little less suited for the absolute beginners.
I only recently began learning C# myself - so I have quite the array(... ;) ) of links:
C-Sharp Corner
CSharp Friends
CSharp Help
CSharp for absolute beginners - Very good
CSharp-online
Hope these help.
For learning .NET application development (the only way people should write apps on windows boxes without requirements otherwise), start with the excellent book CLR Via C# by Jeffrey Richter. Save the first couple chapters for later. You'll get everything you need to know about C# and the 2.0 CLR, which is the basis of all .NET application development (in C#, anyhow.)
Once you're done with that, look into Linq. Linq covers a number of different language feature updates that came in 3.0 and 3.5 versions of the framework and their associated language updates. With the basics + a good understanding of Linq, you'll be creating decent apps in no time.
Now, for which framework to use when constructing desktop apps: Winforms, or WPF.
If you're a web developer, throw that old winforms crap away and get with WPF. You'll feel much more comfortable with editing WPF forms in xaml than dealing with winforms.
The best thing about WPF is the amazing databinding support. In fact, the WPF version of MVC is based on the databinding support in WPF.
Check out the databinding cheat sheet, then learn about MVVM.
A good place to start would be to read MCTS Exam 70-546 Windows-based client development, then read 70-548 Designing and Developing Windows-based application. After that, you will probably need to read books focused on the specific technologies your app will use.
Surprised no one has answered this yet:
Programming Windows With C#, by Charles Petzold. Great book, easy read. Example based, but well organized for people that want to jump directly to a particular topic. He actually explains what's going on in each example, and why he's doing what he's doing. Really, a great resource.
(Note: this is a Windows Forms book...no WPF. Great for what it does, but if you're looking for WPF, look elsewhere.)
Old question, but i had to learn the same thing recently. I got the Visual C# 2012 step by step book. It teaches C# along with WPM. A good way to learn.
From what I hear and the little I have read of it Chris Sells's book on WinForms would be useful that. If I am not mistaken he has also done a book on WPF, but I don't know if it is any good.
Check Windows Developer Training Resources and for sure you will need the help of a book and some videos
You can start by building a new project in Visual Studio and selecting the one of the project templates under C#\Windows. This will build a simple application so you can see the basic elements of the project. For example select 'Windows Forms Application' this will start you off with a form where you can drag and drop additional page elements. You can then use Intellisence to explore the options on the controls. Also load the sample projects so you can see working examples.
That's how I would do it.
I recommend you the C# Yellow Book (Rob Miles) it's free and very useful to learn C# basics fast.
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I have been doing active development in C# for several years now. I primarily build enterprise application and in house frameworks on the .NET stack.
I've never had the need to use any other mainstream high level languages besides C# for my tasks, since .NET is the standard platform we use.
There are some legacy Python applications that I have been asked to support going forward, I have no exposure to python and dynamic languages in general(although I've done a fair bit of JavaScript).
I was hoping to get some guidance/advise to aid in how to go about learning a language like python for the statically typed mind.
EDIT: Using IronPython is not an option!
Foord and Muirhead's IronPython in Action is an amazingly good book, perfectly suitable for teaching Python to .NET folks as well as teaching .NET to Python folks. I may be biased, as I was a tech reviewer and Foord is a friend, but I've had other cases in the past where a friend wrote a book and I tech reviewed it -- and ended up deciding the book was just wrong and publicly saying so (way to lose friends, but, I just can't tell a lie, not where Python is concerned at least!-)
Edit: If you're forbidden from moving to IronPython (which would probably support your legacy apps just fine, btw), there are better answers: Mark Pilgrim's Dive into Python is often considered the best Python intro for the experienced developer, and my own Python in a Nutshell has been praised as the fastest way onboard for superstar developers. I am of course biased in favor of these -- Mark is a colleague, and my wife was a key tech editor for his book (and my own as well), and obviously I'm biased in favor of my own book too;-). But then, I do tend to be biased towards a lot of the best Python books, as I've either had a hand in their editing, or am friends with their authors, or both;-).
Hardest thing I was confronted to in using python coming from Java was to properly wrap my head around the Duck Typing thing... At first I thought it was just plain horrible and just dressed the hairs on the back on my neck.
Next is the scope by convention, but that one is pretty easy. And the importance of white spaces gave me a few bumps.
However once you ease yourself in the language's concision and speed of development you learn to appreciate it a lot more. After a while I thought it was the best thing that ever happened to me !! :-)
here are a few things that helped me a lot :
First I started with this book and got the basics of the language and for everyday use the Python Quick Reference Card was very helpful. Also the console will be your best ally to try quick things and solidify your learning.
For IDEs, coming from the eclipse world PyDev was a natural choice for me, but there were many more to choose from. But if you are more familiar to the Visual Studio environment the Python Tools for Visual Studio is pretty darn good too.
Good luck, Hopefully you'll find Python as much fun as I did.
There is a big initial hurdle of getting comfortable with dynamic typing. The first step is when you look at Python-code and realize that variables aren't defined anywhere, you just create them out of thin air, which feels like jumping over a cliff. There is a brief moment before your hang glider catches the air properly.
And then it's going to take time before you trust your newfound dynamic wings, and you probably only can get their by doing aerobatics with them. Learn how python handles references, have fun with monkey-patching methods, duck type various animals. Try to learn some ugly tricks.
And although you can't use IronPython for this, there is no reason you can't use it to learn Python.
You're going to experience quite a bit of culture-shock going from C# to the wild duck-typed outback of Python. Lack of types and intellisense can be pretty daunting. Good thing that you're experienced in JavaScript. Also know that indent-sensitive block rules of Python can be very confusing for the inexperience (usually you either love it or hate it :-)
Apart from that the biggest challenge moving from one language to another is usually the framework. Getting to know all the classes and functions Just Takes Time unfortunately.
For an experienced developer learning Python, Dive Into Python is a very good book.
Wesley Chun's Core Python Programming book takes a more "ground up" approach, which may be a little slow for an experienced developer. But it allowed for very easy comparisons of the basic syntax and operators compared to other languages. Wesley's writing style is very easy to read, and his example projects are non-trivial enough to actually be interesting.
The Python Cookbook is an excellent reference for learning to program in a 'Pythonic' way. This book contains hundreds (?) of examples of how to solve common everyday problems with Python. In general, the "Cookbook" series will expose you to the idioms of the language faster than any other book.
Whenever I need to learn a new programming language, I start using it for all the 'daily maintenance' tasks that come up - all the little things that I would normally solve with a shell script or with common unix tools - I start to use the new language to solve those problems. Since you have .NET experience, IronPython is probably a good way to leverage that knowledge while learning Python. Even if you only install IronPython in a personal sandbox...and use it for all your daily busy work coding tasks - that can be a great way to learn the syntax and idioms of Python.
The book Pro IronPython is worth reading too if you have time.
I would recommend just to read a book about it. A book for beginners. It'll contain many stuff you already know but you won't miss anything regarding using a dynamic language. I can point you to Dive into Python, which seems to be very friendly, or The Python Tutorial which seems to be very to the point (that's how I learned).
I would recommend using IronPython to help you learn. It is an implementation of Python on the .NET framework. So you can use/learn Python with access to the .NET class library.
A good place to start is by downloading IronPython and looking at IronPython in Action, which is a very good book looking at Python on the .NET framework.
EDIT: Since IronPython is not an option, disregard this answer. Thanks though.