New To VB.NET

[Newbie]

Hi

I am new to VB.net and the .net framework! I have been
coding for the last 7 years in purely COBOL and am now
moving to .net na dvb.net. Just wondering if anyone can
give me some advice on where the best place to start
learning vb is! I am quite confident with the general
overview of .net and how it works. I have read these
teach yourself in 21 day boks on vb but find it
frustrating cause they are not in depth enough! I need
to fully understand OO, databases and exactly how code
and class libraries run etc so wonder if someone could
point me in the right direction either in terms of good
books or just what order to learn things. Everything
overlaps so much!

Hope you can give me some advice!

Many thanks

N

 

[One Handed Man]

My god. !

Where to start ?

Well, if you have a reasonable comfort level with VB.NET then you may want
to think about the subject area you are going to be using most ( the fact
that you are from a cobol background suggests that you may be processing
data )?, if this is the case, I suggest that you get a good ADO.NET book and
read that and play with it. As far as OOP methodology is concerned thats
another topic all together, and there are countless books on it.

In my experience, there are four good ways to learn, reading and playing is
one ( but not stretching enough ), far more productive is to try and solve
real world problems with this technology, this will immediately identify
what areas you are week on within the scope of what you are trying to
acheive.

Another is to try and help out in the newsgroups by offering support FREE!,
this moves you into areas which you probably would not normally access.

Alternatively, you might want to try and write an article on something you
feel you are weak on, this again has the effect of showing you you're lack
of understanding which is a very productive way to learn as well.


HTH - OHM

 

[Newbie]

Cheers OHM

Thanks, some good things to think about! Yes a lot of
the program we write are heavily data dependent so
reading about ADO.NET could be good. I have read some
bits about it.

My problem is that i always want to use the best methods
etc to create the perfect application (as perfect as i
can anyway!!) but of course that is difficult when
learning new technologies.

Anyway, many thanks

N

 

[Cor]

Hi Newbie,

Going from COBOL to any OO language is frustrating.
And probably it will take a long time to change your way of coding.

Things I did overthougth how it was with me that I had to overcome in past:

- place your variables if possible not global (not in the top of your
program in a kind of working storage section )
- place a variable (this is more VB.net than VB) there where you need it
in your program. Don't hesitate to make a variable in a sub twice, when a
sub (section) is ended it will be destroyed anyway.
- make even more sections (subs and functions) than you did in Cobol.
- use a way of Cobol call by making seperate classes, it seems not the
same but I don't know if there is real a difference (A VB call is something
else).
- one of the most strange thing you have to overcome is that a function
can return a value but only one. (And then you will see that you start to
become looking for something to get more variables return and that will be
an object (class))
- you can not adress your variables, (it can by enumurating, but I would
not do that).
In the beginning it seems a problem, because what is nicer than a redefine a
level. Although the Cast commands in VB.net give you something that looks
like it.

But the most dificult is to understand the "event". Don't botter to much
what happens, a procedure will in normal cases always be ended before the
program goes to that event, so when it is looping you can push a button but
nothing is happening .

Just some thoughts

Cor

 

[One Handed Man]

You may want to look into n tier design methodology, since this is a very
structured and modular approach to designing applications, well suited to
data processing.

As you say though, it is diffilcult when you are learing new technology,
with all the best will in the world, experience counts for a lot when
designing and you cant learn that from a book.

I am still quite new to .NET and have a tremendous amount to learn.


Good Luck on your journey. - OHM

 

[Jason Kavanaugh]

Hi

I am new to VB.net and the .net framework! I have been
coding for the last 7 years in purely COBOL and am now
moving to .net na dvb.net. Just wondering if anyone can
give me some advice on where the best place to start
learning vb is! I am quite confident with the general
overview of .net and how it works. I have read these
teach yourself in 21 day boks on vb but find it
frustrating cause they are not in depth enough! I need
to fully understand OO, databases and exactly how code
and class libraries run etc so wonder if someone could
point me in the right direction either in terms of good
books or just what order to learn things. Everything
overlaps so much!

Hope you can give me some advice!

Many thanks

N

The Step-By-Step book is a good start. Microsoft publishing has a
whole series of books. You can also look at the documentation at
msdn.microsoft.com.

 

[Ivan Weiss]

The best way to learn any language in my opinion is to just dive right
in and get your feet wet.

I am not an experienced programmer but always want to learn and I just
recently rid my fear of the .NET framework (I am used to VB6) and
decided it is time to experiment. I formulated an application I wanted
to right for my current job and am doing it in my spare time at night.
Needless to stay it doesn't do much yet but I already have learned a
tremendous amount especially with the help of all of the terrific people
in these newsgroups.

I tried the book approach, and while a book is very necessary as a
reference I didn't feel I was learning from it. I was able to do what
they were doing but struggled with anything outside that scope. I found
the best way is trial and error.

I would start coding a pretty descent sized project but nothing massive
(something you could use even if it is as simple as an address book).
Once you start and become more and more familiar with what you are doing
you will learn naturally what is more efficient and what is better
practice (where to dim variables for example). Than go to the next
level and design some classes to replace some of your local procedures
and add some database access since I think that is the core of the
language for usage anyway.

Write code, find errors, look for help and you will learn real fast!

-Ivan

 

[Sueffel]

Hi

I am new to VB.net and the .net framework! I have been
coding for the last 7 years in purely COBOL and am now
moving to .net na dvb.net. Just wondering if anyone can
give me some advice on where the best place to start
learning vb is! I am quite confident with the general
overview of .net and how it works. I have read these
teach yourself in 21 day boks on vb but find it
frustrating cause they are not in depth enough! I need
to fully understand OO, databases and exactly how code
and class libraries run etc so wonder if someone could
point me in the right direction either in terms of good
books or just what order to learn things. Everything
overlaps so much!

Hope you can give me some advice!

Many thanks

N

Hello again OHM and Cor! Cheers and hoots....
Okay newbie, I'm probably only a few steps up from ya, but my main focus
is ADO and MSSQL, so that stuff, I can give you some pointers on, and
recommend a book: Visual Basic .NET Complete. It's published by Sybex.
It's not a in-depth, in your face, show everything out, but it is a good
place to start to get those juices flowing. It has a good section on
ADO.NET. Personaly, I'm shifting from VB6 to .NET, so OOP is new to me as
well, along with Multi-threading. And I agree with everything that OHM and
Cor have said, and would just like to add one small thing, have something in
mind, and make that work. My first app in .NET was just a simple MD5 file
hash generator, but, it required to learn something that was unavailable
before. Also, when "playing" with this stuff, don't be afraid to have a few
dozen solutions testing and playing with things. I personally have a Play
directory that has a few hundred solutions.
If you need any help, my first place to start is Dogpile/Google.
Sometimes you'll get lucky, but if you're in a jam, stop on in. I'm not
able to help much in here, but every little bit counts.

Good luck!
Sueffel