Order of learning ... where to start basically

[Alex]

At work we're setting-up Sharepoint Portal Server as our Intranet, and
being the web guy they want me to write custom add-in web components so
we can have dashboard type features on our Intranet.

Up until now our Internet and Intranet site has basically been Cold
Fusion running on Apache or IIS, and personally (away from work) I use
PHP on Linux. I've never worked with the Microsoft web langauges
before, but now that we're using SPS I'm about to start

After much reading I'm finding that in order to write custom Web Parts
for SPS I have to learn ASP.Net... and to use ASP.Net I'll need to
learn VB.Net or C#.Net.

So first question, should I focus on VB.Net or C#.Net? I used VB6 a
few years back, but I can't say I remember much about it.

Secondly, is there a de facto standard book or author to use to learn
VB.Net or anything else in the gambit? I know in the ColdFusion world
anything by Ben Forta is all you need, but didn't know if there's
something along these same lines for VB.Net or ASP.Net.

Thanks for any help you guys can offer to get me on track. I already
have a production SPS server ready to use, but with no ASP.Net/VB.Net
knowledge I'm at a loss on even where to begin.

Thanks again, and take care --

Sam

 

[Alex]

Sorry for a reply to my own post, but I have another question I forgot
to put in there... to learn all this do I need Visual Studio.Net or
VB.Net, or can I just use any text editor and type the code in as I do
with ColdFusion and PHP?

Just checking since many of the Microsoft tutorials I read start off
with (Open Visual Basic.Net).

Sam

 

[Kevin Spencer]

If you want to do custom WebParts, your best bet is to use Visual
Studio.Net, and the SharePoint SDK, which installs Templates into Visual
Studio.Net.

If you haven't learned much of VB.Net or C#, go ahead and learn C#. It's
more powerful.

And be aware that you will need to develop on a Windows 2003 Server OS.

You have quite a lot of work ahead of you!

--
HTH,

Kevin Spencer
Microsoft MVP
..Net Developer
A watched clock never boils.

 

[Guest]

Quote:

"If you haven't learned much of VB.Net or C#, go ahead and learn C#. It's
more powerful."

I disagree, if you are learning .NET and have some experience with VB 6 then
I recommend you follow the VB .NET route. C# is not more powerful as Kevin
states, sure it can do some minor things that VB can't just like VB can do
some minor things that C# can't but they are so minimal it shouldn't be
seriously taken in to consideration when deciding which language to develop
with. I recommend trying both and see which one you feel most comfortable
using, personally I use both but have been using C# more over the past year
because that is what the other developers use at my current job and that is
what tends to pay a little bit more (for some reason).

 

[Rob Perkins]

If you haven't learned much of VB.Net or C#, go ahead and learn C#. It's
more powerful.

!!!

"more powerful?"

....when the object code produced by VB.Net is exactly the same as that
of C#? And the framework, in turn, is likewise exactly the same?

Learn whichever one gets you to your solution faster. Personally, I'd
use both without prejudice, but code comes out of my head in BASIC since
1977 or so, it's my choice for most things. And, since most lines of
code contain one statement, I never saw the point of the semicolon.

The point being, of course, that you should use the language which gets
you there faster. Esoterica like the using statement or operator
overloading probably won't make a difference nearly as much as getting
into the meat of the Framework.

Rob

 

[Kevin Spencer]

Help! I'm being ganged up on by some religious VB Programmers! Call 911!

Yes. More powerful. By a lot or by a little, it doesn't matter. The key word
is "more."

And for heaven's sake, if you have a differing opinion, by all means, give
it. I won't stand in your way (as if I could!). You don't need to attack
*me* in the process!

--
HTH,

Kevin Spencer
Microsoft MVP
..Net Developer
A watched clock never boils.

 

[Jon Skeet [C# MVP]]

Learn whichever one gets you to your solution faster. Personally, I'd
use both without prejudice, but code comes out of my head in BASIC since
1977 or so, it's my choice for most things. And, since most lines of
code contain one statement, I never saw the point of the semicolon.

The point being, of course, that you should use the language which gets
you there faster. Esoterica like the using statement or operator
overloading probably won't make a difference nearly as much as getting
into the meat of the Framework.

While I'd agree that operator overloading isn't generally useful, I
suspect there's a lot more incorrect resource handling in VB.NET code
than in C# code, just because C# makes it so easy to get it right.

Syntactic sugar may only be sugar, but it can be quite important in
terms of developers doing the right thing.

 

[Damien]

While I'd agree that operator overloading isn't generally useful, I
suspect there's a lot more incorrect resource handling in VB.NET code
than in C# code, just because C# makes it so easy to get it right.

Syntactic sugar may only be sugar, but it can be quite important in
terms of developers doing the right thing.

Personally, I develop most things in VB. But I keep dabbling with C#
just to "keep my hand in". About the only thing I can think of, off the
top of my head, that you are definitely *able* to do in C# but not in
VB is unsafe code. Everything else (in the projects I've worked on) is
doable in either language. Sometimes one or the other has shortcuts to
make it a lot easier to do certain things, but nothing is impossible.

Damien

 

[Kevin Spencer]

Well, if I could get a set of tools with a hammer, saw and a screwdriver, or
a set of tools with a hammer, saw, screwdriver, and chisel, and they both
cost the same, even if I had not ever needed a chisel before, I'd go ahead
and get the bigger set. After all, I might need a drill someday!

--
HTH,

Kevin Spencer
Microsoft MVP
..Net Developer
A watched clock never boils.

 

[Kevin Spencer]

Forgot to mention, VB.Net and C# caost the same: nothing. They are
languages.

--
HTH,

Kevin Spencer
Microsoft MVP
..Net Developer
A watched clock never boils.

 

[Damien]

Well, if I could get a set of tools with a hammer, saw and a screwdriver, or
a set of tools with a hammer, saw, screwdriver, and chisel, and they both
cost the same, even if I had not ever needed a chisel before, I'd go ahead
and get the bigger set. After all, I might need a drill someday!

--

I don't disagree with that line of reasoningreally, all I'd say is
that, in my day to day work, I use my little toolset that has the
everyday tools that I'm used to working with. I know it doesn't have a
chisel (I'm not likely to need a chisel in my day to day work), but I
know where my other toolbox with the chisel is, I'm at least reasonably
familiar with how to use it, and I'll go and use it when I need to.
Like you've said in your other post, they're both free.

Place where I work is mostly a VB shop, so I work in VB. But when I
needed to use C#, it was easy enough to demonstrate to the powers that
be that doing some bit twiddling in C# was necessary and they we're
perfectly happy for one of the libraries within a larger project to be
C# - the only limitation with taking that approach is that of the five
developers, I'm the only one who has familiarity with it. I don't feel
a need to discriminate against either language to be honest - I think
which one most people find easier to use depends on their own personal
psychology.

So for anyone starting out, I'd probably recommend "both". They are
*extremely* similar, and it sometimes happens that you find a sample on
the net only in the opposite language to the one you're most familiar
with. Whilst you can just copy & paste the code into your own code
file, hit compile, and fix the bugs, I find it's better to be able to
read and understand the code in it's own language before attempting to
convert.

Not looking for a religious ware here

Damien

 

[Kevin Spencer]

You won't get a war from me, Damien. Your position looks pretty sound. If
you're in a shop that works in VB, it doesn't make sense to change the
language that everyone uses.

As you pointed out, one can certainly pick up the other once one learns the
one.

--
HTH,

Kevin Spencer
Microsoft MVP
..Net Developer
A watched clock never boils.