new to microsoft technologies

[Guest]

hello all,

i'm new to vb.net and microsoft technologies and was hoping i can get some
advice on how to quickly get up to speed. i've done a couple of projects
already and fill i can move around a little but i'd like to know if there is
a good book or two someone might recommend.

or maybe some sort of sequence of practices i can do to efficiently and
become an effective contributor as quickly as i can. would it be wise to read
up on OOP first or requirements gathering, look at more sample code. if all
of the above, which order?

just looking for some advice on how to get caught up to speed because i've
finished a couple of small n-tier logical apps but seems like there's still
so much information out there and i'm not sure which way to go?

thanks,
mj

 

[Carlos J. Quintero [.NET MVP]]

First, I would try to master the .NET concepts, since they can take 6+
months. For VB.NET I recommend the book of Francesco Balena "Programming
Microsoft Visual Basic .NET (Core Reference)"
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0735613753/002-3335243-8559208

After reading it a couple of times and feeling that you understand all of it
(except .NET Remoting, which is not covered in the book) you can read about
everything else, for example the Microsoft .NET Pattern and Practices of
your interest at: http://www.microsoft.com/resources/practices/guides.mspx

--

Carlos J. Quintero

MZ-Tools 4.0: Productivity add-ins for Visual Studio .NET
You can code, design and document much faster.
http://www.mztools.com

 

[Guest]

thanks very much.

First, I would try to master the .NET concepts, since they can take 6+
months. For VB.NET I recommend the book of Francesco Balena "Programming
Microsoft Visual Basic .NET (Core Reference)"
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0735613753/002-3335243-8559208

After reading it a couple of times and feeling that you understand all of it
(except .NET Remoting, which is not covered in the book) you can read about
everything else, for example the Microsoft .NET Pattern and Practices of
your interest at: http://www.microsoft.com/resources/practices/guides.mspx

--

Carlos J. Quintero

MZ-Tools 4.0: Productivity add-ins for Visual Studio .NET
You can code, design and document much faster.
http://www.mztools.com

 

[johnb41]

I find the fastest way to learn something new is by watching video
tutorials. Then when you're more comfortable with it, then you can get
deeper with books.

A good video resource is http://www.learnvisualstudio.net/. Over 70
hours of videos that teach everything from the basics of programming,
Object Oriented programming, Windows Forms, Web Forms, etc. Ranges
from very basic to very advanced. No videos yet on GDI+. I'm hoping
that will eventually be added.

www.vtc.com has a VB.NET series of videos, but I can't say how good
they are because they don't give much away to try out. I love VTC.com
(and www.lynda.com) because you can sign up for a month for only about
$25, and you can access their whole library of software/computer
tutorials. So you could easily study their VB.NET tutorials in that
time, and then stop your subscription.

I agree that "Programming Visual Basic.NET" is a good book, but it
assumes that you already are familiar w/ VB6. I was not, but I still
got alot from the book. For books, I highly recommend "Mastering Visual
Basic.NET" by Evangelos Petroutsos. If you're new to VB, then it walks
you through all the basics and also gets pretty deep (for me)...
however, the sample code has LOTS of errors. Keep that in mind!

John