New to .Net

Hi All

I am a Informix programmer looking to get some certs over the next 18 months while my I.T department gets JDE installed and slings us all on the scrap heap.

Looking at a Microsoft cert, not too sure to go MCAD or MCTS. What do you guys think?

Whichever way can anyone recommend books, websites etc for someone new to the .NET frame work? Mostly likely be VB, not C#.

I have XP home, do I need XP PRO?

Any pointers will be appreciated

Thanks in advance

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JDMurray

The first thing you will need to decide is if you will be working with the latest .NET framework(version 2.0 & 3.0) and Visual Studio 2005, or you will be working on legacy systems that use the older .NET 1.x framework and Visual Studio 2003. This is important because the older MCAD/MCSD certifications only cover .NET 1.x, while the newer MCTS/MCPD certifications only cover .NET 2.0 and later. If you do not have a job requiring you to work on older .NET solutions, go with the newer .NET 2.0 and VS.NET 2005.

You do not need XP Pro to program in .NET. Just download the free Visual Studio Express for Visual Basic from Microsoft's Web site and you are ready to start learning. I also advise downloading SQL Server 2005 Express and learning some SQL Server and ADO.NET programming, which is a skill commonly associated with VB programming jobs. Web client programming and Web services are popular programming topics too.

The Microsoft Press books for the actual MCTS and MCPD exams are good, but also download the errata for each book from Microsoft's Web site. It is typically advised to have two years of practical .NET programming experience before taking the certification exams. However, there no reason why you can't learn .NET framework design and programming using certification training materials. To get the programming experience, you just need to be continually working on a wide variety fo programming projects that you find interesting.

As for Web sites, just Google "Visual Basic 2005" and you'll find lots of support forums and code. I also find Google's Code Search (http://www.google.com/codesearch) to be very helpful for finding code.

bcairns

My $0.02 cents worth....

Learn the basics and give yourself time....you are learning a language, how long would it take you to become skilled in a new language like Chinese or Russian?

Take plenty of time and enjoy learning.

As for books....any beginners book is a good place to start, the book stores are loaded with them.

I would recomend you start with VB because it is easier for new comers to grasp and understand. But I would recomend you also learn other languages once you grasp VB such as C#, C, C++, Java, Pascal, etc etc.

Other then that, the best advice I can give you is to have fun...work on things that interest you... make yourself an MP3 player, or a screen saver.

Just be sure to master the basics or you will pay for it down the road.

bighornsheep

bcairns wrote:

My $0.02 cents worth....

Learn the basics and give yourself time....you are learning a language, how long would it take you to become skilled in a new language like Chinese or Russian?

Chinese is new? As far as I know, it's one of the few languages that remain unchange for more than 2000 years (until very recently) both in verbal and written form.

bcairns wrote:

I would recomend you start with VB because it is easier for new comers to grasp and understand. But I would recomend you also learn other languages once you grasp VB such as C#, C, C++, Java, Pascal, etc etc.

Agree, Visual Basic Express is for free now from Microsoft as is SQL Server express with a limit of 4gb database. It's a great combination for development if you ask me!