C#, Getting Started

[Guest chucky.egg]

I'm trying to (find the time to) teach myself C# at the moment, and have come across various things that I've found useful... they might help you too.

Murach's C# 2005 (book)

http://www.murach.com/books/csh5/index.htm

A good introduction to C#, with an easy to read layout (detail/summary). Quite a lot of walking around Visual Studio to start with, but quickly followed with some practical examples. Source code can be downloaded from that link too (no CD).

Microsoft's own "How To" guides

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/netframework/bb495180.aspx

Not sure about the videos, but they also have downloadable code samples for some presumably common requirements - such as sending/receiving messages, scheduling tasks

Egg Head Cafe

http://eggheadcafe.com/conversationlist.aspx?groupid=1570

Basic (ad heavy) developer forum, but with a few answers I've already spotted that I expect to save me time

Hopefully more to follow, please post any good ideas/links etc you might have

[Guest Paul (MVP)]

Do VB instead :)

Erm, OK, not helpful :D

P

[Guest chucky.egg]

I did think about just doing it in VB, but I've not done any proper VB for so long I figured I'd take the time to learn C# - apart from anything else almost all the code samples I've seen are in C#

The difference doesn't appear to be that big, the syntax is different obviously, but I'm hoping I'll be able to adapt quite quickly

[Guest Paul (MVP)]

Yeah, the difference isn't a lot TBH, just jumble VB about a bit so it makes less sense and add semicolons on each line.

:)

Oh, and make it case sensitive :D

P

[Guest Swampie]

[rant]

If you do use VB - please remember to turn Option Strict on. Silently casting between types isn't good and it isn't clever... :)

And who thought of using () for both function parameters, and array indexes. Oh, and indexes starting at 0 (in some places - arrays) and 1 in others (eg. Strings.Mid) - along with defining an array specifies the last index into that array, not the number of elements wanted. So dim intArray(10) as Integer actually creates an 11 element array, not 10 as one would expect.

And case insensitivity is just nasty... got caught out by that a couple of times when dealing with other people's code

[/rant]

Edited February 13, 2008 by Swampie

[Guest Paul (MVP)]

While you're at it, why not add the following to the top of everything you do:

Option Explicit On

Option Strict On[/code]

It'll make you a better coder :)


P

[Guest Paul (MVP)]

Since you're a beginner, when you turn explicit on, it won't automatically cast types for you. What this means is that if you try to put an int in a string variable, for example, it won't work.

So if you have:

Dim strTest as String

strTest = 1[/code]


it'll b0rk.



Instead you'd use:



[code]Dim strTest as String

strTest = CStr(1)

That's called 'casting'. There's other similar functions like CInt() to cast to an integer, or the generic casting function that takes a type as a paremeter, i.e.

Dim strTest as string

strTest = CType(1, String)[/code]

:)


P

[Guest Swampie]

C# casting is nicer though...

Rather than

Dim myObject as Object = CType(myOtherType, Object)

object myObject = (object)myOtherType

But I'll admit that VB.Net is far less of a problem than VB6 is - they both use .Net so much is similar once you get around the syntax. And after having used VB.Net for a while now, I don't spit and wash my mouth out every time I say it any more... neither do I have to have a shower after editing some VB :)

Saying that thought, I still think in C#, and take much longer to read VB code than C# and would recommend C# to any new starter. Seeing as the syntax is so similar to C, C++, Java and javascript - it does help with keeping your employment options open.

[Guest Paul (MVP)]

And having coded in VB *for ever*, i'm the opposite :)

P (and I can still code PHP, JS etc. etc.)

[Guest Paul (MVP)]

You're right tho that nowadays, they are the same under the hood so it's just personal preference.

P

[Guest chucky.egg]

I always use this at the top of every code section

On error resume next

Is that a bit like your Strict and Explicit commands? :)

[Guest Bandanner]

im sorry if my question is not desired in this thread.

but does anybody know a tutorial which deals specially whith programming C# or VB for mobile devices?

i know there are a lot of tutorials for learning generally progging these languages but i did not find any for mobile devices.

i only found one but its only 12 pages long and i need more B)

so if you know sich a tutorial or anything else i can learn with, you would make me very happy posting it here B)

thank you.

[Guest Bandanner]

sorry doublepost (writing with touch hd is difficult)

Edited December 4, 2008 by Bandanner