getting to know c#

[JohnE]

Hello. I have been designated at work to convert MS Access databases (front
end only as back ends are on SQL Server) over to webapps using C#. I am
excited about this task and realize the learning curve is going to going
straight up. My concern is learning, grasping, comprehending the C#
language. My experience is mainly in VBA use in Access and Excel.

So, I guess my question is what others in this group did or recommend books,
vids, tutorials, etc that I could use to learn C#? Anything is appreciated
since I am starting practically with nothing as it is. Do have Visual Studio
2008 Pro, so at least it's a start.

Thanks for your time and recommendations and suggestions.

.... John

 

[Bill McCormick]

Hello. I have been designated at work to convert MS Access databases (front
end only as back ends are on SQL Server) over to webapps using C#. I am
excited about this task and realize the learning curve is going to going
straight up. My concern is learning, grasping, comprehending the C#
language. My experience is mainly in VBA use in Access and Excel.

So, I guess my question is what others in this group did or recommend books,
vids, tutorials, etc that I could use to learn C#? Anything is appreciated
since I am starting practically with nothing as it is. Do have Visual Studio
2008 Pro, so at least it's a start.

Don't expect a straight up learning curve unless your time tick marks are in
years it'll take some serious time and effort. Not only do you need to
learn the language, you need to learn the .NET Framework as well.
Personally, I like books published under O'Reilly and Apress. The Head First
series of books are good as well. I would start with a .NET 3.5 book and a
Programming C# (at least 3.0) book. Keep in mind C#4.0 is right around the
corner. Cookbook's are useful as well. If you're going to be programming web
applications, the .NETty thing's that you're going to need are:

- SilverLight/WPF/XAML
- WCF
- LINQ

Hopefully MS will get this NG working soon, because this is a very helpful
community too.

Best of luck,

Bill

 

[Rich P]

IF there is a local community college in your area - the college will
usually have some comsc (computer science) course which would include
C/C++/Java/VB. I took all the C/C++/MFC courses years back thinking I
would never need it - until I started having to migrate stuff to C#
(just like you). The majority of Microsoft development stuff is based
on C/C++/MFC. So I would recommend getting a good grasp of the
fundamentals in C/C++ at a community college (or university if money is
not an object) where you have an instructor who can explain stuff in
some depth.

C# is pretty much a fancier (way easier to use) version of C/C++/MFC and
managed (so you don't have to deal with malloc and calloc... from what
little I remember of my C/C++ days - maybe not quite as low level). I
would have had a much more difficult time in the migration process from
VB to C# if I did not at least have C/C++ in the background somewhere.

Rich

 

[vanderghast]

C# is the least of the problems. The data model is not the same (disconected
"recordsets" are a little bit different than the continuously connected ones
that Access uses), and if you really mean "web application", may be you are
better to take a look to ASP-net. The data-binding is also left to you for a
much larger part, mainly if you have to use a lot a one-to-many relations,
but if you mainly look to ONLY display information, then LINQ is probably a
nice way to explore. If your backend is MS SQL Server, then you don't have
the problem to remove the VBA user defined functions from your queries...
but you are using queries, right? not loop over recordset?

I often compare Access to a Dell computer, and C# with a computer you built
yourself: Access made a lot of decisions for you, but present a set of
techniques that are inter-compatible, and you have no hard decision left to
make, while with C# you have access to a lot of possibilities, but some may
not be as compatible for your needs as you would expect, or which requires
pieces of code here and there to bridge the different 'components' of your
system. But in the end, YOU may be able to acheive more with C# (the
limiting factor being you, your time, your ressources, not C#).


Vanderghast, Access MVP

 

[JohnE]

Thanks to the 4 of you for responding. Each suggestion will be given
consideration.
.... John

 

[Simon Hart [MVP]]

You are 100% correct about the learning curve. However, only a small
proportion of it will be actually learning C# - the main task will be to
get your mindset into the .NET Framework way of doing things.

I'd disagree with this. I'd say learning to use C# properly is going to be a
massive learning curve for someone used to using VBA. The easy part is using
the framework libraries. As we all know, one thing about a well designed
library is its ease of use, and I'd say the .NET Framework is pretty well
designed (at least most of it).