Seeking General Advice

mat41 · June 27th, 2010, 07:12 PM

Hopefully I have posted this in an area which will give me the most useful answer. Sorry in advance to those who think the post is out of place in this section...

I have been coding classic ASP for many years. Over the last couple I have been very good at making a case for not expanding my skill set in the .net area. It seems the time has come. Although never participating in this area; Wrox has been an excellent resource to me over the years, what better place to ask for advice.

Looking for advice/opinions, in particular a good book for someone with zero OO programming experience to learn .net using c# and Visual Studio 05 or 08. I have a strong skill base in classic ASP and all the associated languages. Our company has all the MS software so I can choose VS 05 or 08, what is best? (I'm sure this will be irrelevant but I currently I code using Homesite.)

There are good books and not so good books. Im hoping some dot net pros here can short cut me to the smooth road and share a few do's and dont's.

Your time and opinions would be very much appreciated. Thank you in advance.

Imar · June 28th, 2010, 01:46 AM

Hi Matt,

Making the move from classic ASP requires probably more than just a move to ASP.NET MVC. You probably need to know a lot more about object orientation, C# / VB and a few other web technologies as well .

Depending on your current knowledge, you may want to look at "Beginning Visual C# 2010" or "Professional C# 4.0 and .NET 4" from Wrox. Additionally, "Beginning C# 3.0: An Introduction to Object Oriented Programming is worth checking out: http://www.amazon.com/Beginning-3-0-...dp/0470261293/" I think this latter one together with the Pro C# book would be a good combination. With you classic ASP background, you may want to use Visual Basic rather than VB though.

Then you need an ASP.NET MVC book. I am a big fan of the one from APress: Pro ASP.NET MVC Framework by Steven Sanderson. There's a new version coming out for ASP.NET MVC 2 any day now. Also, Wrox has an updated version of its Pro MVC book targeting ASP.NET MVC2. Both books aren't entry level books and require prior knowledge of .NET, C# / VB and some other concepts such as Dependency Injection.

Wrox has a Beginning MVC book but I haven't read it so I don't know how good it is. Amazon reviewers seem quite positive though: http://www.amazon.com/Beginning-ASP-.../dp/047043399X

With regard to VS 2005 / 2008: I would choose VS 2010 instead if that's an option as well. The most recent version of MVC - MVC 2 - is available for both VS 2008 and VS 2010 so for the MVC project it doesn't matter that much. However, learning how to use the greatest and latest version of Visual Studio may come in handy when working on other project types as well. Also, VS 2010 has been improved quite a lot and as such has my personal preference over VS 2008.

If you use 2008, be sure to get C# 3 books; not C# 4....

Hope this helps a bit, and welcome aboard. It's time we let classic ASP rest..... ;-)

Imar

mat41 · June 28th, 2010, 07:35 PM

Hi Imar

As I said what better place to ask for advice. To follow on from that what better member, as always I appreciate your time and advice

mmmm VB, Visual Basic, C# I guess the good thing is all the options. Although ultimately I am able to decide, It seems the best fit as far as the development team is concerned is C#.

My research seems to tell me it’s perhaps the more popular roads to take also. Since your Beginning ASP.NET 3.5 in C# and VB gives examples of two of these three roads I have this book. I guess my experiences with your expertise over the years in the Classic ASP areas of this forum swayed me to get your book also. Our company does have an MS partnership status that should give me any version of VS I want. I know we have the 2008 disk somewhere. To get going with your book while someone looks for the disk I tried to download VWD 2008 as it suggests. The MS site will only let me get VWD 2010 and the 4.0 framework. I assume having 2010 should be fine going through your book?

This ASP.NET MVC book you speak about, should I get this after your book or should I have done it the other way round?

I am self learning in work time which is good. Providing not to much Classic ASP work comes up (yes there is still a demand for it here in Sydney) I should be able to get a fair bit done in good time.

Thank you once again for your time and advice :o)

Imar · June 29th, 2010, 02:31 AM

Hi Mattt,

You can still download the older Express versions: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en

Most of what I discuss in the 3.5 book will still work in VWD 20210, but obviously some stuff has changed, making you look for some things from time to time, It' best to use the 3.5 book with 2008 (or get the 4.0 book and use 2010 ;-) )

Quote:

This ASP.NET MVC book you speak about, should I get this after your book or should I have done it the other way round?

No I don't think so. My book introduces you to many important concepts used in ASP.NET. A lot is Web Forms specific but a lot applies to MVC as well. The MVC book is way more advanced (unless you were referring to Beginning MVC) and requires background in ASP.NET.

Somehow when I read your initial post I thought you were asking about MVC. Not sure why (it was pretty hot in my office when I wrote the reply ;-) ) . I guess it's because when people say "It seems the time has come" they refer to moving from Web Forms to MVC these days..... So my recommendations were focusing on MVC only.

You probably need to decide between MVC and Web Forms first. I think MVC will be more natural for classic ASP developers, but since you have more control (and thus responsibility) over the plumbing under youur aplication, it can also be more complex. If you choose MVC, my initial recommendations still apply. Otherwise, Professional ASP.NET 3.5 / 4 would be the next logical step.

Obviously you don't have to choose as both platforms are valid for building web applications, but getting into both at the same time may be a bit too much....

Imar