The Old Joel on Software Forum: Part 3 (of 5) - Requirement for learning .NET

Requirement for learning .NET

What are the requirement for learning .NET

Any tips and advices, any learning strategies are welcome

I'm not familiar with web development, visual studio,
vb, MS SQL.

Sinclair
Tuesday, November 25, 2003

Get Web Matrix or Visual Studio .NET.

Buy a book or two on .NET.

The ones by Amit Kalani are excellent (they are for certification, too).

If you don't know programming, you shoud get the C# book by Herbert Schieldt.

Herbert is an author which many programmers dislike, because he written a very crappy adnotation for the C++ standard. That book was indeed crap, but the book on C# is excellent for newbies.

ardent rodent h4x0r
Tuesday, November 25, 2003

In addition, if you are not familiar with object oriented programming, then you will want to become at least familiar with the basic concepts before trying to understand .NET.

I've seen many developers that don't have a background in OO trying to bend .NET to be a procedural language and ultimately getting frustrated with it.

Mark Hoffman
Tuesday, November 25, 2003

I learned programming back when computers had 64 KB of RAM.

The advantage of those computers was that you couldn't break them - you could press any button, and write any program, and if something went wrong, you could just reset the machine.

The operating system of those machines was in ROM.

Now, on a Windows computer, you can delete important system files, fsck up the registry, and other nasty things.

:-( So much for learning, for future generations!

MX
Tuesday, November 25, 2003

>>I learned programming back when computers had 64 KB of RAM.

No, *home computers* had tiny capabilities and could be easily rebooted.

At that time, 'real' business computers were mainframes or mini-computers (with some running early version of Unix since we seem to be talking about the 1970's).

These computers were complex and took just as much learning as today's computers (just in different areas).

The cost of high capability machines has dropped enough that most people have the equivelent of a 'personal mainframe' at their disposal.

RocketJeff
Tuesday, November 25, 2003

If you need an "OS in Rom" because your program testing is hosing the system, todays equivalent is a VM with non-persistent disks turned on. Try http://vmware.com or http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/virtualpc/ if you feel you need this.

Just me (Sir to you)
Tuesday, November 25, 2003

The only requirement:

Understanding Object Oriented Programming

And reading Jeffrey Ritcher 'Applied .NET Framework Programming' ;)

.NET Developer
Tuesday, November 25, 2003

Start drinking heavily. The syntax will start to make sense after the booze kicks in... ;^)

Mark Newman
Tuesday, November 25, 2003

I have done procedural programming in the past, (i.e. Cobol), some client/server work (i.e. VB3/SQL Server), and have some basic educational knowledge of OO programming (i.e. some C++). I also have taken a recent short course on OO Analysis & Design concepts, but want to go deeper into the practical issues of design and implementation of a component infrastructure/architecture (not so much to do the programming but to direct and test development). I too would like to learn more about .Net (and other tools and internet technologies), to understand what it can be used for and how it can be used. But first I feel I need a better understanding of basic concepts. Can anyone suggest good resources? I've heard that "Object-Oriented Information Systems: Planning and Implementation by David Taylor" (but written in 1992), and the "Client/Server Survival Guide - 3rd ed", by Orfali, Harkey & Edwards are good. Thanks!

Jim MacMillan
Wednesday, November 26, 2003

I've been going through a book called ".NET E-Business Architecture" that's pretty good. I haven't been through it very thoroughly yet, but so far I like it.

FWIW, my background is architecture and development of high-end distributed systems - electronic markets, high-volume enterprise order management. Asynch messaging, queueing, OLTP, publish/subscribe, service oriented architectures, SOAP-like HTTP tunneling protocols, automated monitoring and alarming, security, etc have been my bread-and-butter for a long time. This book does a good job getting a lot of this stuff on the table.

I'm pretty impressed with the scope of .NET in these areas. I haven't played around with it so I don't know if reality matches up with theory. What's the best way to get started, short of plunking down the cash for MSDN? Can I get by with the 512Mb, 900Mhz XP Pro laptop with 5Gb available?

Jim S.
Wednesday, November 26, 2003