Learning .NET... Recommend a beginners book?

NeilF · 30 Jun 2008 at 12:52

I want to learn .NET & VB or C#... Anyone recommend me a book for an absolute beginner?

I've been programming in one shape or form for 20+ years, but never in these areas...

Chaos · 30 Jun 2008 at 13:48

Havn't read it but Head First C# is ment to be a good beginner book.

akakjs · 30 Jun 2008 at 16:43

I'm a big fan of the O'Reilly Programming C# series (I learnt .Net using the 1.1 edition). Very concise and helped me migrate fairly easily from VBScript.

If you can read the head first book before you buy. If it's anything like the Head First Patterns book then writing style will be an acquired taste. The Head First Patterns book was packed full of useful information but the writing style just drove me nuts.

akakjs

Inquisitor · 30 Jun 2008 at 16:52

akakjs said:
I'm a big fan of the O'Reilly Programming C# series (I learnt .Net using the 1.1 edition). Very concise and helped me migrate fairly easily from VBScript.

If you can read the head first book before you buy. If it's anything like the Head First Patterns book then writing style will be an acquired taste. The Head First Patterns book was packed full of useful information but the writing style just drove me nuts.

akakjs

Yep, Programming C# is a very good book

There's a new version for C# 3.0 too.

NeilF · 30 Jun 2008 at 19:30

Inquisitor said:
Yep, Programming C# is a very good book There's a new version for C# 3.0 too.

So excuse my ignorance:-
1) The C# book will also cover .NET?
2) Does it include basically all you need to get going? I recall I did Perl, the bok came with everything I needed on a CD.

Inquisitor · 30 Jun 2008 at 21:12

NeilFawcett said:
So excuse my ignorance:-
1) The C# book will also cover .NET?
2) Does it include basically all you need to get going? I recall I did Perl, the bok came with everything I needed on a CD.

Yep. It starts out covering the basics of the language and then goes on to explain C#'s core features, and as it does so gradually introduces the .NET Framework and its utilities. The last sections of the book will be more about the .NET Framework and how to use it from within C#, for example using ASP.NET to create websites, WinForms to create GUIs, WPF, etc.

Doesn't come with a CD (at least the 4th edition didn't), but I didn't find this too much of a problem as I tend to just type out the examples manually if I want to work through them.

NeilF · 1 Jul 2008 at 11:40

Cheers guys... Version 3 ordered

DarkMatter · 1 Jul 2008 at 11:54

strangly enough i have the "head first C#" book infront of me and its very good. It gets you making and experimenting with the language a lot sooner, most of the books just concentrate on the theory for the first 300pages which is pretty hard going.

The only downside is at times, it can be abit vauge and not as indepth.

voodooflux · 1 Jul 2008 at 12:18

NeilFawcett said:
Does it include basically all you need to get going? I recall I did Perl, the bok came with everything I needed on a CD.

Download Visual C# 2008 Express Edition (or Visual Basic 2008 Express Edition) and you'll have everything you need.

NeilF · 1 Jul 2008 at 13:11

voodooflux said:
Download Visual C# 2008 Express Edition (or Visual Basic 2008 Express Edition) and you'll have everything you need.

Thanks! It's just the getting the ball rolling that's the hard bit...