Robert Scoble wants to be a .Net programmer. He’s getting a lot of good advice, and I thought that I’d toss my ten cents in. I think there are 4 areas to be concerned with:
- the tools
- the language
- the craft of programming
- .Net
The Tools: Since he’s committed to Windows, I think he should dive right into Visual Studio. I haven’t used the latest set of tutorials, but Microsoft did a great job putting together tutorials in the use of previous versions of Visual Studio and I’d expect the latest tutorials to be just as good. I would start by focusing on learning the language, building applications, and debugging applications.
The Language: VB for a desktop application and C# otherwise. I haven’t got around to installing my VS .Net upgrade, but VB was the best way to build a UI in the past and Joel likes VB too. One of the problems with ASP was that you typically used VB Script on the front end and something else on the back. C# gives you commonality between the two.
The Craft: I think that this is where hitting the books can pay off. Programming Pearls is out in a new second edition and it would be a great place to start. I’ve always liked Robert Sedgewick’s books on Algorithms. Unfortunately, he hasn’t done a version in C#. Despite that, I’d think about picking up Algorithms in Java, Parts 1-4.
.Net: Didn’t I say that I haven’t installed my VS .Net upgrade? But this is probably the deep end of the pool, so I’d defer this until I was was comfortable with the rest.