Reccommendations for Programming

wedge1988

Hi all,

I was wondering. What would be best to learn first. Is it wrth learning the following or not worth it if im not a programmer?

-> XML
-> ASP
-> C#

The reason i ask is because, after ive learnt powershell (which im learning as a side thing on top of my certs) id probably take up another form of programming.

Im probably most interested in XML because its used in nearly all ms products (inc sharepoint). Only thing with this is, from what ive read its not based on standard, as developers can define tags they want to use themselves.

Anybody? Cheers

RobertKaucher

With all your SharePoint stuff I would say all of the above.

Slowhand

You're probably best off learning C# first. There are plenty "Beginning C#" books out there. The following were very helpful for me:

C#

• Beginning Visual C# 2008 (WROX), (or the non-visual-C# book from the same publisher.)
• Visual C# 2008 Step by Step (Microsoft Press)

ASP.NET

• Beginning ASP.NET 3.5 (WROX)
• Beginning ASP.NET with C# 2008 (APress)
• ASP.NET 3.5 Unleashed

If you're looking to put it all together, the best thing you can do is try to do as much on-the-side programming as possible. Find projects to do, or pick up a book like ASP.NET website programming, (that's for ASP.NET 2.0, but the 3.5 version will be out soon,) or Game Development in C# so that you don't lose those skills you're practicing.

For XML, I can recommend books from the same publishers, as I know they're generally good. I took a class on XML when I learned it, and that was using a Thomson Prometric book that's no longer in print.

XML

• Amazon.com: Beginning XML, 4th Edition (Programmer to Programmer)
• Beginning XML with C# 2008 (APress)
• XML - Problem, Design, Solution (WROX)
• XML Visual Quickstart Guide

Going down this road, you'd probably be well off to look into things like AJAX, (learning some JavaScript is always good, but it's very similar to C# so that shouldn't be a big problem,) and looking at learning a little bit of HTML/CSS as well. It's a good path, though, the money's decent and you'll have lots of opportunities to do all kinds of interesting things if you really take your time and learn your stuff.

And don't forget, self-study is a great thing to do, but there are plenty of schools, like community colleges, that offer courses in all three topics. Good luck to you, and let us know how you progress.