C# (C#)

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For an experienced VB 6/VB .NET programmer, what would be a good book for C#?
Book needs to be useful as a reference.

I have a few C# books.
Either they are inadequate, or I am missing something, for my attempts to convert some VB 6 code to C#, and converting som C code to C#.

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Perhaps it would be easier for you to convert your VB code to VB.Net and THEN convert it to C#. Since a great many of the available examples are in one or both of the latter languages, that might help ease the transition from VB.

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Not in this case.

I’m actually trying to convert some C to C#, to verify that some C code posted by MSFT actually works, as I’m having difficulty getting the code runing in VB 6.
Some of the API related stuff is really tricky to convert.

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Along the same line as Gwenda’s suggestion, I’ve seen several “C# for VB Developers” books. Although I’ve never read one, I’ve heard from several colleagues that they are quite good. I think one of them is published by O’Reilley.

I learned C# with only VBA/VB.NET experience in just a couple of weeks just by using the Visual Studio helpfiles. Now, I use C# exclusively… Just proving that it can be done without books!

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The books I recall seeing recommended are:

The C# Programming Language byHejlsberg, Wiltamuth and Golde, published around Oct 2003.

C# by Liberty. published around Decmber 2004.

I stopped at a local bookstore and looked at both today.
Each has attractions.
Both have stuff about version 2.0

Hard to choose!

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I’ve not heard of any C# for VB developers books.

O’REilly has a C# for Java folkes, Apress has a C++ for VB folkes.

Apress was working on a C# for VB developers, but I think the project is kaput.

In any case, my problem, among otherse, is that the C# books I have contain woefully inadequate indices, not to mention the coverage of some topics is missing or just covered en passant.

I was learning a lot aboout C# a few months ago when I was concverting code in Andrew Witechape;’s book to VB .NET, but that’s not the right way to do things.

I’ll likely byte thee bullet and but the MSFT Press C# Step mBy Step. I can likely get thru that in a long weekend.

I have no real urgency to learn C#, but I had a short term need to convert some C code to VB.
There’s a problem, so I decided to convert the C code to C# to see whether that does any better

There are 5 remaining issues in the conversion and my current books are no help, at least by trying to find stuff via the index, so they are not so useful for reference.
Might be OK if I would read them straight thru, but fer my current purposes, I just need a good reference book.

But choosing between the Liberty and Helsberg book’s is hard, even harder now that I’ve seen them.

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Hi Howard,
I love “Visual C#.Net: A Guide for VB6 Developers”, although I never wrote VB6, just VBA. Wrox ISBN 1-86100-717-5

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That book may be out of print.
But I think I know a local store that has a coipy.

Does ther book come with a CD, or must all software for the book be downloaded?

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Hi Howard – although i really like this book I have to say its not a great reference book for nitty-gritty syntax and stuff like that. There’s no CD. After using C# for 6 months I like it better than VB because I find it easier to use and understand.

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I found that the software for the book can be downloaded from the Apress web site.

I would not expect such a book to be useful as a reference.

I’ve never liked Wrox Press books.
The sloppy editing and poor co-ordination among multiple autors is likely a problem with this book.

The reviews at Amazon woukd indicate that the first few chapters are worth reading,

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Ding Ding Ding…. (I realize this is a bit off-topic, but I’ll go there anyway)

It took me a few months, but I arrived at the same conculsion. After spending 5 or 6 years with Visual Basic (and 1 year with VB.NET) I made the switch to C# and never looked back!

I really like the object-oriented nature and syntax of the C-based languages. Granted, there’s nothing “better” or “worse” about either of the major languages, it’s mostly about preference. But I must say that I’ve learned a lot about coding in general since making the switch…

The downfall of VB.NET is not the language itself – it can be just as object-oriented as C#. Its downfall is the fact that a large percentage VB.NET programmers are former VB6 programmers who have not yet learned to leverage the object-oriented world.

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That’s not fair! You’re blaming the language for the programmers’ failures! I love VB.Net because I finally get an object-oriented VB language to play with. The hardest part is figuring out which particular object is the most suitable for a particular programmatic construct.

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For a true “programmer”, it does not matter much whether one uses VB .NET or C#.
However, for use with Office VBA, VB .NET is clearly easier to use than C#.

For a “non-programmer”, and that’s most VBA “programmers”, VB .NET is a lot easier.

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I’ve really gone overboard.

I recalled that I have an old copy of MSFT Visual C++ 6 learning edition on another system.

So I went to the MSDN site and downloaded the articles to try to get that C code to run.

My first discovery was that the article at MSFT’s MSDN site is significantly different than the article I was using, so there was perhaps an error in the earlier verion of the article that had caused my grief in trying to get the critter to run in VB 6 and VB .NET.

Well, I managed to get the code to compile in C ++ 6, but I have not a clue as to how to add a Form in C++ 6 and the output is rather unreadable as I converted all the printf to std::cout.

So, I then rebooted to my real system and managed to import the workspace into VS .NET C++.

However, .NET won’t let me add a Form unless I convert the project from Unmanaged to Managed. I have no clue on how to do that. Fortunately, I do have a C++ book for .NET, so I’ll take a look at that.

Of course, I’ll still get the C# books (I’m leaning towards getting the Liberty book and the Step By Step), as I will sill convert the critter to C#, VB .NET and VB 6.

Hmm, I better hide, I think I see the men in the white coats coming!

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