I've been working on a couple of .NET projects lately. Maybe you could tell from
a couple of my
whinings (I won't call them rants), but I'm not entirely sure of what I'm doing yet.
I'm finding that I'm working against the platform. .NET and I are butting heads, and although I'm getting work done, I can't imagine it is really as hard or time-consuming as my initial experience has been.
Some of this is due to the extra ceremony .NET adds as a tax on you and your development time. Most of it's due to my ignorance. I've been honest about that: my ignorance of the overall strategies and thought-processes present in .NET takes full credit for most of my pain.
I've known for a while that I need to read something to "get in the know," and I've been putting it off until I had time. Thanks to a conversation with another developer (who shall remain nameless, unless he tells me he wants credit) this morning, I've decided now is the time.
I'm looking for books that give a strategic overview of .NET. I'm looking for ASP.NET and Windows programming (Windows Forms) to start with. I'd also like to see some strategy guides for Active Directory and Sharepoint. Seeing as I'm sore from fighting so much,
a guide for pain-free coding in .NET might also be in order. (I'm going to buy that book since I know the author is a good one.)
I can easily do a search on Amazon for .NET books.
O'Reilly has a ton of them. But I don't know what's good or bad or how to tell the difference. Further, except for one person (who shall also remain nameless) I sent an email to this morning, I don't know who to ask.
Well, that's not entirely true. I know there's a crowd of good developers with diverse experiences reading this weblog. So I'm asking you:
What is TFM on .NET? Any suggestions welcome. Short reviews of why it's a good book (or article online) get bonus points.
Hey! Why don't you make your life easier and subscribe to the full post
or short blurb RSS feed? I'm so confident you'll love my smelly pasta plate
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asp.net is always a good starting point (obviously asp.net focused but covers alot of general .net stuff too).
I'd also recommend having a nose at codebetter.com weblogs.asp.net and a good dig around at altdotnet.org for a great .net developer community without the MS brain wash.
Otherwise add me to gtalk or twitter (twitter.com/dannyt) and shout when you're losing :) (Disclaimer: i'm no total pro but am very resourceful when it comes to not knowing stuff)
Posted by
DannyT
on Apr 21, 2008 at 11:49 AM UTC - 5 hrs
Thanks Danny. I think a lot of that looks helpful from a tactical standpoint, so I've subscribed to it all. =) Any ideas on over-arching concerns?
Posted by
Sammy Larbi
on Apr 21, 2008 at 12:28 PM UTC - 5 hrs
I'd have to say
http://aspnet.4guysfromrolla.com/2.0/This has been indispensable to me in getting ASP.NET application to work. I'm a .net developer, and one of my frustrations is that there are so many ways to accomplish the same task, that one really must program for a while, hit a few brick walls, and come up with a standard way that works for your style and background.
Posted by Jeremy
on Apr 21, 2008 at 02:13 PM UTC - 5 hrs
You'll probably want to pick up a few books in addition to the online resources (www.asp.net video tutorials can be very useful though often dry).
For ASP.NET, I recommend starting with something like "Programming Microsoft ASP.NET 3.5" by Dino Esposito from Microsoft Press, just because it'll give you topics like "The Rational Behind the Provider Model" and other interesting tidbits to more deeply understand the reasoning behind the ASP.NET ecosystem.
For an overall .NET perspective, I also recommend "Pro C# 2008 and the .NET 3.5 Platform" by Andrew Troelsen from APress. Chapter 1: "The Philosophy of .NET" seems to be tailor made for your need.
I recommend the latest versions of the books despite the possibility that you may be limited to .NET 2.0 currently, as there's a number of corrections and they have longer legs, and there's plenty of documentation both in the particular books and online on the additive releases of .NET (3.0 and 3.5) and what they contained.
Posted by Calvin
on Apr 22, 2008 at 04:34 AM UTC - 5 hrs
Thanks for the thoughtful suggestions!
Posted by
Sammy Larbi
on Apr 23, 2008 at 12:24 PM UTC - 5 hrs
