Easy to learn C# ??

regulus · 12 Sep 2006 at 17:04

I want to get into XNA development and have a lot of time on my hands since I only work nights. I know i'll need to learn C# and found a few websites and tutorials. Is C# the correct way to start learning programming or is there other languages that ease you into programming as a newbie.

regulus · 12 Sep 2006 at 19:55

Well, been playing around and learning the past 2-3 hours. Did all the basic console applications, Hello World etc. if statements, while loops, do loops, switches, Did Window forms, declared variables, arrays, wrote simple code to buttons, textboxes, listboxes, labels etc etc. Been looking at methods, classes, namespaces and objects, now it starts becoming......harder.

regulus · 12 Sep 2006 at 22:04

Ok, making more sense now. I'm still very shaky on methods, classes and objects but I can see what they mean. Been wrestling with a big bear called "inheritance" the past hour. It's a bit more diffcult to understand. Haven't had so much info coming at me since doing my GCSE's. Suprised at the relative ease I'm finding C#. Expected it to be MUCH harder. I suppose the hard parts are still coming. Enjoying it tremendously though.

regulus · 13 Sep 2006 at 10:20

Inquisitor said:
Don't rush it. Don't expect to learn the language inside out in a few days. Object oriented programmin is tricky to get your head around at first, so spend as much time on it as you need to to understand it. Practice is also incredibly helpful. Think of a small project to work on, give it a go, and if you can't do it, keep reading and absorbing information until you can

I'm trying to write an online booking system. Very simple stuff really. Just takes in details and saves it to a SQL database and retrieves it back to a datagrid. I'm starting to see the different possibilities of what can be done with C#. Next (as in a month from now), I wanna try and do a CRM program.

Still tip toeing around using methods and too many objects. Just confuses me.

regulus · 13 Sep 2006 at 11:06

I'm still trying to get my head around using proper syntax. One nasty habid I have so far is NOT commenting my code. I just got myself into a mess where I had no clue what certanly blocks of code was and had to redo everything. Still not 100% on the issue of classes (public and private) and their advantages. Also trying to incorporate exception handling which is proving extremely challenging. Great fun though!!

I think that I'm going to spend most of the day just reading code and online books to try and get my head around certain OOP principles. At the moment I just wanna write cool stuff without doing it the right way. Not the best way to go. Learn first, then do.

I'll also be leaning on you guys a bit when I get into the nastier stuff. Sounds like there's quite a few guys in the know here.

regulus · 13 Sep 2006 at 12:20

But don't you use an IDE anyway when programming commercially? I cannot see any company making their programmers use wordpad or notepad. Is it not better to learn using the IDE which you're going to use anyway if programming for a living?

As far as I know (admittedly not too much at the moment), GUI is just there for buttons, listboxes, datagrids etc. You still have to write real code, declaring variables, creating objects, use methods etc.

Not going against what you're saying, just wondering..

regulus · 13 Sep 2006 at 16:51

Una said:
Not always no, I use emacs or vi quite a lot which are not as fully featured as a graphical IDE when working with smaller amounts of code. With emacs you can perform 'open-heart surjury' on it and actually change the way it works quite radically using common lisp.
I would go as far as saying most linux developers don't use an IDE. Im quite undecided on whether you should use one for learning, you can spend a lot of time learning the actual IDE and not the code. There are many advantages though such as having an integrated debugger and so on. Its up to you, its by no means a requirement. I think with C# though you should really use VS.

I read about Emacs (Eric Raymond's creation I think) a hour ago but it's still way above my understanding threshold. I'm using VS .Net 2005 (from MS website) and might consider aquiring it at a later stage.

I'm a bit concerned at the moment whether I should use an IDE or not. I don't want to let the IDE to everything for me and then get to a stage where I have to do "open heart surgery" but are unable to because VS did everthing for me.