Self-Teaching of VB.net, can one become profficient?

[David]

I made two messages because the are different.


Than the editior needs to understand the meaning of the programmer, in my
opinion this only agrees with my statement as well in the sentence in the
original message from me.

Well, you snipped the argument (without acknowledging it) and responded
to the caveat.

Apart from the abstract topic, my useful on-topic point is this. In my
experience, if the code is bad, the book is bad. Bad programmers seldom
write good programming books. And when I think of the best programming
books I've read, they've all come from programmers I'd hire in a second
if I had the opportunity.

BTW, the attributions are broken below. That's fine, I realize lots of
newsreaders aren't very good in this regard, but it makes it difficult
to respond.

 

[David]

David you are free to do that, however it is my thought, am I free to have
that as well?

I must admit, I've never understood this point at all when people make
it on various forums. Does my disagreeing with you somehow threaten
your free speech rights? Does the fact that I bothered to back up my
opinion with an actual argument supporting it somehow increase the
oppression you're feeling?

Really, it eludes me.

 

[Cor Ligthert]

I must admit, I've never understood this point at all when people make
it on various forums. Does my disagreeing with you somehow threaten
your free speech rights? Does the fact that I bothered to back up my
opinion with an actual argument supporting it somehow increase the
oppression you're feeling?

Really, it eludes me.

With that sentence I did want to say that we have maybe different idea's
about the fact and a discussion would probably come to nothing however give
me the right to have my own ideas as I give you the right to have yours.

(In my opinion while reading our both later messages our ideas are not that
wide apart)



Cor

 

[Cor Ligthert]

David,

Apart from the abstract topic, my useful on-topic point is this. In my
experience, if the code is bad, the book is bad. Bad programmers seldom
write good programming books. And when I think of the best programming
books I've read, they've all come from programmers I'd hire in a second
if I had the opportunity.

I agree with you partialy in this fact however, comming back to the message
from Malakie. Books from good writers can be very good as well. Probably not
for you, however for newbies it is mostly a better way to go.

And with that I am comming back on my topic that the best learning books do
not exist.

(All in my opinion of course)



Cor

 

[Dennis Powell]

I've read all the replies at the time of this posting and there is no
'right' answer. Everyone learns in their own way at their own pace. My
suggestion is to try more than one way, one at a time, and keep going with
it until it's taken you as far as it can.

As far as recomending books, it's a crap shoot. I've had people recomend
books to me that they said were "clear and concise" or "in plain english"
only to open it up and look like I'm reading Greek. On the other hand I've
had people tell me that a certain book "Sucks", only to open it up and find
it clear as day and to the point. I guess it's got something to do whith
the whole right brain vs. left brain discussion.

Also, don't think that just learning VB .Net makes you a programmer. Most
programs interact with some kind of datastore like a database or text files.
In the case of databases there is a whole nother world to learn. Stored
Procedures and Triggers and Data Normalization and SQL Queries and Data
Integrity and so on.... There is a lot more to programming than just writing
the program. It can be done, however.

As one of my teachers once told me, "to become a programmer, become a
sponge"

Since you have the ability to thumb through the books in the bookstore, read
through a few pages of several different "Beginning..." or "Mastering..." or
"...Step by Step" kind of books. Pick the two that you understand or feel
explains it best. Work through one of the books. As the book brings up new
topics or keywords, read through that passage and stop for a second. Digest
what you just read then, look up the subject in the second book's index or
table of context and read what it says. You can also do a search in the
MSDN on the subject. Make sure you understand everything you just read and
all the code in whatever examples are presented before you continue. When
the books say not to worry about a certain aspect of an example because it
will be explained later, make a note of it and check it off when it has
been explained and you understand it. Having more than one point of view or
reference can make learning it easier. It is time consuming; but, in the
long run you will be better off for it.

Good luck...and remember, there is a wealth of information on the internet
and these newsgroups. I learned and have written several programs using
assembly language for Win32 wholly from information I found on the internet.

Hope this helps,
Dennis