Any tips/references on sources for leaning C#?

I am decent in sql & took C++ many years ago.

Curious how tough C# would be to pick up/add to the knowledge base?

Edit: Also looks like some of our internal integrations are written in XML.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: P250UA5,

quote:

Originally posted by P250UA5:
Any tips/references on sources for leaning C#?

I am decent in sql & took C++ many years ago.

Curious how tough C# would be to pick up/add to the knowledge base?

If you are already fluent in C/C++, you won't have any problems learning C#. It's like C++ but without the need to free your objects - the garbage collector will clean up after you

I learn better by watching videos, and there are plenty on youtube. I haven't picked up a programming book in about 15 years.

If you have any questions, I would be happy to help.

I haven't touched C in a long time.
Most of my work is in sql, I'd say I'm decently a bit above average with it. Self taught via work.

We're on the hunt for a full stack dev at work & I figured I could pick up some learning & try to offset the stalled projects since our dev left unexpectedly this week.
So, part of it would be deciphering another user's code.

I recall when our prior IT director left & I had to modify some of his sql views, it took some time to figure how he wrote them [slightly differently to how I write mine].
Not sure if C# is similar, in that different users write differently.

I’ve always picked up an Apress book on the subject. C# is definitely my favorite language to work with but there’s always updates and i could never keep up with the cost of the constantly updating Visual Studio. That was way back in 2010 though. Maybe things are better now.

Luckily, I've got VS via work.
Just need to see how well I can pick up the language.

quote:

Originally posted by P250UA5:
<snip>
I recall when our prior IT director left & I had to modify some of his sql views, it took some time to figure how he wrote them [slightly differently to how I write mine].
Not sure if C# is similar, in that different users write differently.

I know nothing about C#, but I have no doubt that “different users write differently”. That’s true of every language. Computer or natural.

Tim Corey has some fantastic YouTube videos for both beginner and advanced C# engineers. This video gives a great introduction

I Am Tim Corey Videos

If you're still interested after watching download and install Microsoft Visual Studio community edition. It's free and very powerful.

Thanks, I'll look into those. We have VS already at work, so I'm good there

If you have experience with C++, then you already know a lot of the basic syntax. You don’t need to worry about how to make a variable, how to write a loop, etc. While I don’t have a specific resource to point you to, the things you won’t know and probably want to look into are probably more along the lines of stuff like this:
- Anonymous functions and lambda functions. Even if you don’t want to use them, sheet show up in a lot of add-on tools.
- garbage collection. There are still times when you can get an object passed in from a COM library or something where you have to free it manually, but in general memory management is handled automatically, but it’s still good to know how it works in case you need to force it to clean stuff up, or figure out why it isn’t.
- The difference between the full framework and the core framework, and why you would even want less than the full framework.
- the current weird release cycle for .NET framework versions. You don’t want to accidentally build an application against a version that isn’t going to be fully supported for more than 2 years if it is for a customer that is allergic to updating their software.
- templating. This may not have been a bg thing in C when you learned it, but it shows up a lot in C#.
- And finally the most difficult one: look into what functions are built in to the .NET framework that you can just call and don’t have to write yourself. Things like the encryption and hashing it does natively, calling a web service or rest api, etc. A big part of C# is all of the stuff built into the .NET framework that you don’t need to do by hand. You can save yourself a decent amount of time if you know when you don’t need to reinvent the wheel.

- Bret

quote:

Originally posted by sadlerbw:
If you have experience with C++, then you already know a lot of the basic syntax. You don’t need to worry about how to make a variable, how to write a loop, etc. While I don’t have a specific resource to point you to, the things you won’t know and probably want to look into are probably more along the lines of stuff like this:
- Anonymous functions and lambda functions. Even if you don’t want to use them, sheet show up in a lot of add-on tools.
- garbage collection. There are still times when you can get an object passed in from a COM library or something where you have to free it manually, but in general memory management is handled automatically, but it’s still good to know how it works in case you need to force it to clean stuff up, or figure out why it isn’t.
- The difference between the full framework and the core framework, and why you would even want less than the full framework.
- the current weird release cycle for .NET framework versions. You don’t want to accidentally build an application against a version that isn’t going to be fully supported for more than 2 years if it is for a customer that is allergic to updating their software.
- templating. This may not have been a bg thing in C when you learned it, but it shows up a lot in C#.
- And finally the most difficult one: look into what functions are built in to the .NET framework that you can just call and don’t have to write yourself. Things like the encryption and hashing it does natively, calling a web service or rest api, etc. A big part of C# is all of the stuff built into the .NET framework that you don’t need to do by hand. You can save yourself a decent amount of time if you know when you don’t need to reinvent the wheel.<<< TRUE TRUE TRUE

- Bret

I would concur with everything said. We've been mildly bitten by updates and new versions but nothing major. MS is pretty good at making things backward compatible. Since we are in the finance industry updates happen for us as scheduled by MS. We employ "dotNet core" which I highly recommend using if possible. We build to be deployable to Win, Linux, and OSx. We actually develop on W-11 boxes and deploy to Linux servers without issue. We've never really tried OSx but I don't think it would be an issue?

Out of curiosity what type of App(s) are you interested in? Out team develops RESTful APIs accessed by the React framework running on the browser client. We also have a few C# utility command line apps for nightly processing. We've found C# to be the cat's meow for both REST and command line apps.

I'm in a case of not knowing what I don't know.
Plan on talking with my boss next week & seeing where things are since our dev left.
It's predominantly internal development & integration between our core business applications.

I am no longer in a dev role but coded in C# for about 10 years. I still build my own apps when needed in VS. I do vulnerability management now for 2 large groups. Recently I wrote a quick app that would validate data by taking in a list of devices as input and then verifying what AD groups they were in. Nothing earth shattering but VS really makes it so easy to build little tools like that, that can save you so much time when nothing else is out there to get that info quickly.

This was always a good resource for me.

https://www.w3schools.com/cs/index.php

I use w3 a lot for sql reference.
I've skimmed their C# tutorial & most of the basics seem pretty logical & somewhat familiar for my very out of date C++ memory.

Guess I'll take a peek at our code & see what I can discern what I can without breaking anything

It's 2024, get a chatgpt account and start coding. I use it all the time as a tutor. It will help you learn because it will throw in some bad code from time to time. It will also explain things to you.

In the last 15 years before retiring at the beginning of 2021, I worked as a Business Analyst for a large Fortune 500 company. My primary job was to find and develop software solutions to reduce cost at the divisions. My company paid for a Visual Studio subscription. Programs were written in different languages depending on the situation. C# became the language of choice in my later years.
I used it to write Web based applications/services as well as stand-alone desktop applications.
It was also very useful in Microsoft Office automation. It's a great language and very easy to learn.

Here is a link that may help.

https://dotnet.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/csharp

Real programmers code in K&R C

Or maybe I'm just old and set in my ways.

^
Great show!

xantom, that video will be viewed by all engineers tomorrow We need a laugh.

quote:

Originally posted by Bytes:
xantom, that video will be viewed by all engineers tomorrow We need a laugh.

The developers equivalent of the 9mm v. 45 acp debate.