Hello everyone. I am looking for a little guidance on learning Visual Studio. I recently started working at this new company as a graphic designer and within a week the IT Manager invited me onto his programing team. The idea was for me to help with the graphics and as a means of introducing me to MS's Visual Studio (and specifically C#), with the intent of giving me a few programs to create on my own for the company in the near future. I told him that experience in coding is minimal (at best) but he assured me that wouldn't be a problem and that he was going to teaching training classes for everyone on the team (5 of us in all). We've had two classes so far and actually one was enough to let me know that most of this was well above my head. But that's okay, I desperately want to learn this. I have taken a few training courses and college classes on coding, but I've always gone back to work and been pulled off the coding path to do more graphics. The first problem is that everyone else on the team has some kind of background in coding vs. me with just a couple of classes. To make matter worse, this guy is the smartest guy in the room when he's teaching and he seem incapable of dumbing things down. He's a nice guy and there's no friction there, but because I'm still new (less than 2 months) I'm still apprehensive about showing my naivety on the subject by asking too many questions. The end result is that I'm fairly certain that I'm begining to fall behind and before it gets any worse I knew I needed to take action. So, I talk to him and made two suggestions (1) that he record the classes with a screen capturing application so we can watch it at our leisure and (2) that the company purchase some training videos (CD or online). He liked both ideas and I suggested VCT online training videos. I have used VTC in the past (some 5-6 years ago) to help bring me up to speed on PhotoShop and Illustrator and I found it very helpful and informative. But I don't know if its the best tool today or for learning coding. It's a long build up for the questions but, is VTC the best learning tool for Visual Sharp? If not, what is? Also, does anyone have any suggestions to help get me up to speed faster? This appears to be a great forum and I got to admit that I'm a little overwhelmed by all the available information. I've been pouring over as much as possible and it would be nice if there was some kind of tutorial for using this Forum (is there?). Anyway thank you in advance for any help you might offer.
Are you going to be doing web apps or desktop apps? As a general introduction to C#, I'd recomend C# Unleashed by joe mayo - it covers all the amin concepts briefly, enough for you to know what to drill down into. I can't really say much about visual studio, except put in lots of time. Pick up tutorials, do mini side projects. Getting a basic address book application working will give you an intro to a lot of the common tasks. The one thing I'd say about .net in general is, its changing quite a lot however I wouldnt be in a rush to go with the latest technology too much, things like linq... not too many are actually using yet... so concentrate on the core stuff thats been there since .net 1/2
Thank you so much for responding able. I will be doing web apps later on my own, but for the time being it looks to be all desktop. I looked up Joe Mayo and his book that you mentioned. Found it through several links, but I also stumbled on Joe Mayo's web site C# Station: http://www.csharp-station.com (I'd provide it as a live link, but I'm still under newbie probation). This looks like it's just what I can use. I only found it just now, but with all the tutorial it should help out. I'm also going to see if I can find C# Unleashed at half priced books this afternoon. That's the plan. Thanks again for the heads up, I do appreciate it!
Personally, if you are new to programming, would recommend that you dont try to learn either VS or C# but instead learn the fundamental principles of object orientated programming. Once you understand the base principles of things such as classes, functions, sub routines etc it is then a much simpler task to learn the syntax of a specific language.
I'm not sure if you're still looking for advice, but any of the books published by Wrox is great. The "Beginning Visual 2005 (or 2008) C#" should be perfect for where you're starting at. It has tons of "Try it Out" sections and then goes into explaining the bits and pieces of the code you just wrote as well as providing you with the fundamentals. After you finish this book, a great place to find extra tips/codes/articles is on www.codeproject.com in the C# section. And then if you want to get more into it, I would recommend the "Professional C# 2005 (or 2008)" book by Wrox again.
Whilst the link provided is indeed a really good place, is it just me or is it totally unrealated in this post? programming languages like c,c++, visual c++, java, c# etc wouldnt be on a website like w3schools php, asp etc would be as their web bassed languages. As for the main question, VTC do some good tutorial videos (i belive i have their c# one but it may not be vtc i can check this when im at home) I agree with many of the other responces - books can be good but its hard to recommend books as what book works for once person may not be as good for some one else. Online tutorials can help alot, google is your friend and the internet is your ocean - its big and vast but it is almost garranteed that everything is out there. Trial and error is another good method when you dont understand somthing at first keep going, keep going and when you do get it you'll be happy with yourself. IT could also be worth seperating the two so rather than looking for somthing for help with c# in Visual studios maybe look for c# tutorials/books and visual studio tutorials/books. I may have some really good word documents on both of these (i know i do for c++ but cant remember out c#) send me a pm reminding me to look for you. Oh and last point i want to make, dont worry about how good other people are, every one has the ability to learn the only thing that determines weather you do or dont is if you want to learn. Clearly you do, so with that little bit extra you will be just as good as them