practicing skills

V

vorgo

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hello guys,

I am a quite experienced programmer i have 3 years of C++ programming(all kind of it-MFC,win32API, WDM) an now I'm programming in .NET for about a year. I have a job but I also have a lot of time for myself. I want to practice my skills and improve them but I dont have no bright ideeas what should I do to acomplish this goal. So the general idea would be to made some applications for myself.Now I want to learn ASP.NET but I dont know what to do....Of course I am reading forums,articles and all of this stuff but you probably know that without real programming you do not make much.
So my question would be how do you use your free time to impove your skills in programming.

10x alot
 
Maybe get one of MSPress Step-By-Step books that walks you through setting up an ASP.Net app using the Northwind database?

That way, when/if you run into questions, everyone here that uses .Net/SQL2K can try to test your code and answer questions.

I haven't used the book myself, but have had a few co-workers that have and seemed pretty happy with it.
 
Since you've been with .NET for about a year I think that a step-by-step is too easy for you, the Professional ASP book from Wrox would be a better choice, they start you from the ground-up but also give you a lot more background information on the Framework, security, IIS, etc...

A while back I read a MSPress Step-By-Step book on Web Services (on a recommendation) and oh man what can I say, 400 pages with 12 point font and 1.5 inch margins all around. Compare that to a Professional series book from Wrox, 1200+ pages small font and small margins you have 10 times more content, but I digress. :)
 
I got the MSPress VB.NET Step by Step - quite easy to read and understand, but as a big VB fan i found it largely too easy for me - although saying that i have only got half way through it atm. - too busy!
 
thank for replys guys

so far the ideea for improving skils that you propose to me is reading new books...I was talking about making applications, write code ...what is your suggestions on this ?
 
I suggest creating a web application, perhaps a shopping cart of sorts, or some sort of data entry application on the web, handling users and permissions.
 
Or, if possible, just try reworking one of your existing Windows apps into an ASP.net app and see if you can get about the same functionality out of it. Of course that may be impossible, but you can at least have something to work towards.

I specifically didn't recommend the wrox line because I haven't been too impressed with their .Net offerings thus far (Professional VB.Net 2nd Edition). They seem to me just straight pulls from MSDN samples and just kind of jump around a lot. Too bad since I've really liked their books in the past (VB.Com was a good one, as well as the SQL2K Programming book come to mind).
 
One of the first .NET books I read was Professional VB.Net 2nd Edition, I thought it was ok, the one I really liked was Professional C#, 2nd Edition .


mocella, that's a great idea, converting a Windows app to a Web app.
 
When I need something to practice on and I don't have any immediate need personally I look at where my friends or church may need some help. Since my wife is a teacher I discovered how ancient the tools were that they used to maintain student grades. It was fun to develop the database application and it was really more complicated than you would think.
 
Robby,

This is free WebHosting where anybody can install and test ready to use (Shopping Cart, Portal, Community etc.) and their own ASP.NET applications.
I've used it today and I've found it very good.

Shamil
 
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