Hello everyone,
While the knowledge found on this forum is indispensible and the input generated by the "Forum Experts" is spot on; the main thing about programming is that you will never stop learning. I myself learn things from trolling over posts and reading other peoples questions and such.
Reference this post for a more indepth conversation about programming and such:
http://p2p.wrox.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=56429
In any case, as the Internet continues to grow by leaps and bounds, the resources available to us, as programmers, are copious and to help new Code Jockey's along, Microsoft has released a new part of the MSDN.
(While this might not be entirely new, I just found it today as I was looking for information on the MSDN, hence it is new to me)
I would suggest all of the beginners who are coming here interested in Microsoft Langagues/Technologies (C#,
VB.NET, ASP.NET, etc) I would highly suggest checking out this link:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/beginner/
You have two sections from which to choose, Internet or Windows developement, and from there articles are broken out into Teirs 1 - 3. 1 being the most basic concepts and 3 being the more advanced subjects such as Data Access and debugging.
All of the examples are done with the Express (free) versions of Visual Studio. (Visual Web Developer, Visual C# Express, etc)
I quickly previewed the Internet portion and there are a few things that are noteworthy:
You have 3 different options for working through a lesson, read it entirely online, listen to an audio broadcast, or download the information to your PC.
The article that I skimmed online was done using C# and, from what I can tell, all of the articles are done in C#. That is not to say that there isn't a
VB version of these articles, however, I just could not locate any.
All and all, Microsoft has done a good job compiling a good resource for people that want to get started in the industry in a nice cohesive environment.
In closing, my only advice to any would be programmer is this: A book (website, article, newsgroup) can teach you syntax and some theory along the way, however, it will NEVER teach you how to Troubleshoot, problem solve, think abstractly, and so on. Unfortunately those are talents that the programmer themselves possess (for one reason or another) and, as time goes on, you will develop those talents further as you code more and more.
Yes it is frustrating, yes you will want to toss your PC out the window at some point, but its normal because if programming were easy, EVEYRONE would do it! Work through it, suck down another Jolt (or Redbull) and continue on.
And if your truly stuck, head to the forums and post a question, I am sure one of us will answer! ;]
--Doug
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Read this if you want to know how to get a correct reply for your question:
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
^^Took that from planoie's profile^^
^^Modified text taken from gbianchi profile^^
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Technical Editor for:
Professional Search Engine Optimization with ASP.NET
http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyT...470131470.html
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Why can't Programmers, program??
http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000781.html
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Resource Primer for Newbies
on their post!
