Tell me where to go

I have just purchased vb studio .net 2003 pro. I have been using vb 6.0 for a bit and would like any help to get me started with .net. If you know of any tutorials, or a great book please post them. If you have switched to .net from 6.0, I would be interested to know how different they are and how hard it was to learn. Also if you have any other software products that help with the programmin in .net I would love to hear about them too, I have $5000.00 left in my budget and want to get all the tools I need. I know this is a rather broad topic but hey if you want to post anything helpful, I promise to read it. :wave:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/de...adingtonet.asp

http://www.tutorgig.com/showurls.jsp?group=3651&index=0

http://www.vbdotnetheaven.com/Sections/Tutorials.asp

Umm , you have $5000 left ! you should pay me now :)

Save that 5 grand. Wait until you need third party controls, and use that money then. I don't know how much your time is worth, but I find that sometimes buying a third party control is a way more efficient use of my time than trying to code one myself. Plus I get support.

I know its best to buy the 3rd party control that suits the situation but is there any companies that make a suite of 3rd party controls that are available? My problem, if you can call it that, is that the money has to be spent by Mar 31.

Hi,

Seriously, coming from VB6 you will find .NET confusing at first. It is best to start right at the bottom, forgetting your VB6 knowledge, because even if a lot of .NET code seems familiar to you, an awful lot of your VB6 knowledge will be misleading you.

I think the best book to start with is Sams Teach Yourself Microsoft Visual Basic.NET 2003 in 24 Hours, by James Foxall. It is far better than previous boooks with similar names for earlier VB languages and he has an excellent back up web site to help with learning. If you get this book, immediately go to the web site and download the errata (about 22 items) as this will save you headaches. ISBN NO. 0-672-32537-3.

As the above is a real beginners book, I also purchased The Core Reference Programming Microsoft Visual Basic.NET by Francis Balena. This is large, deep and mind boggling at first, but I find it a great help after grasping the basics laid out in the above.
ISBN no 0-7356-1375-3.

You MUST get a clear understanding of Inheritance and Classes and I find the MSDN Help references on this very clear.

Alternatively, there are several 5 day full time courses on offer at about $1500.oo, but you will need a months vacation to recover!!

Best of luck.

For tools I would highly suggest something like a memory profiler (there are a few, just seach) and function speed tester. They are very usefull for finding out whats hogging all your memory and where leaks are, and which functions are slowing down your application. There are a few tools that include both.

If you use/plan to use network applications then I would suggest IPWorks: http://www.nsoftware.com/default.aspx they have covered ALL the bases and are fantastic with support.

Graphing and reporting is a popular one, you have crystal reporting or active reports (not seen any other good ones) and a few graphing tools of which one happens to have 68% of the market but I forget the name now.

Of course, you may also be able to spend some cash on getting a course :).

Thanks for all the great info. Yes I have already ordered CR 10 Enterprise. I will go get those books too and give them a start. As for training, the 5K is only for software but I am sure I can wiggle another 3K for training somehow. Once again, thanks.

Hi,

Sounds like you work for a generous boss!! Let us know if there are any vacancies!!!

Well actually I am the boss so I can be good to me and hopefully I will be looking for a full time assistant. So if your in Ontario, got vb .net, sql and web design background...... Pays great too!