Recommendations for .NET self-study or courses?

[Peter E. Granger]

First, I would like to apologize in advance if this is not the appropriate
place to post this message; of the .NET-related newsgroups I found, this
seemed to be the most general. If the information I'm requesting is covered
in a FAQ somewhere, please point me to it, and I'll be happy to read it.

A group of friends and I, mostly professional developers, have decided that
it is time for us to learn .NET. We are (variously) versed in C, C++, Java,
Visual Basic, and other languages, and also have varying degrees of
expertise in client-server, distributed programming, networks, etc. However,
none of us has any professional experience (yet) with the .NET framework.

To remedy this, we're forming a small study group, and are looking for
recommendations on a good approach to this. Does anyone have any good
recommendations for how to learn .NET in a way that will give a good
combination of theoretical and practical knowledge, i.e., something that
will sound good in an interview AND be useful if one actually *gets* the
job?

We'd be interested in:

- Tutorial books with actual hands-on exercises
- Theory books explaining the .NET framework, with concrete examples
- Links to any self-study guides anyone might know of
- On-line courses
- On-campus courses, if anybody knows of any in the Seattle area

For example, we have the Deitel "How To Program" books for VB.NET, C++ .NET,
and C#. The first two, at least, spend most of their time on the language
and IDE, and only give secondary importance to .NET (we haven't gone too far
with C# yet, so that one may be different). There are also the various Sams
Publishing "Teach Yourself <blank> in 21 Days" books, but those also appear
to focus more on the languages than on the framework.

Your recommendations are greatly appreciated. Thank you.

 

[clintonG]

I would have recommended Deitel & Deitel myself and also the
QUE MCAD Training Guides written by Amit Kahlani which will
introduce you to all of the fundamentals. The Transcender exams
of course remain on everybody's list but be advised if any of you
plan to certify the actual exams are much more obtuse and questions
much more complex than any of the preparatory resources including
Transcender.

 

[Guest]

Check out free C# Tutorial at http://csharpcomputing.com

 

[Jon Skeet [C# MVP]]

To remedy this, we're forming a small study group, and are looking for
recommendations on a good approach to this. Does anyone have any good
recommendations for how to learn .NET in a way that will give a good
combination of theoretical and practical knowledge, i.e., something that
will sound good in an interview AND be useful if one actually *gets* the
job?

<snip>

This is a slightly off-the-wall suggestion, but here we go anyway: hang
out in the newsgroups, and answer any questions which interest you. If
you don't know the answer, find it out (from books, MSDN, Google, trial
and error, etc). That's the way I learned Java, C# and .NET.