Where to start!?

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vbdotnetxt

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Apr 19, 2006
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I'm very new to .net although I have been programming a while with open source languages. I just installed VS 2005 and MSDN 2005.
I need to know about a good tutorial to start programming in it. What confuses me is the beginning where you run the IDE and then... I ask what should i do?!

Thanx in advance.
 
Crank up a new project and start writing code!

I haven't tried any of these but it looks promising. http://www.programmingtutorials.com/vbnet.aspx

One of the biggest advantages to getting up and going with VS is the intellisense. The best way to learn, I think, is to just start dragging and dropping controls on a windows form. Drag a button and a textbox onto the form and double click on the button. You'll be taken to the code for the OnClick event. Type in the name of the textbox followed by a . in VB and C# and you'll see the complete list of things you can do with the textbox complete with summaries on what the methods/properties do. This works for all classes when working in Visual Studio.

With intellisense you can learn a lot. If you get stuck, check the MSDN for more information (on a specific class, say), help, and leads for what to do next. If you get really stuck, come back here and search the forums or post your problem. Folks are very helpful around here.
 
Have you picked a language to learn? How about platform (windows, web, mobile, etc.)? Are you going to use Visual Studio or some other IDE? What kind of project do you want to build eventually - database backend, games, tools, etc.?

A good starting point is Microsoft itself:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/developercenters/

If you want to learn C# or VB.NET (for example), follow the links for that language and then look on the right for "Getting Started". It starts with a link for "Fundamentals". If code samples are more your style, there's a link for "101 samples".

If you like reading books, I like most of the O'Reilly books and the MSPress books. The "Essential NNN" books are nice. For C# I really like the "Essential C#" book by Fritz Onion. The one for .NET 2.0 isn't out yet so you may want to wait if you're jumping into 2.0 (and I would, if you get to choose).

If you're used to Java, try the following link:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/java/

-ner
 
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