When I was learning .NET, just as it came out in the early 2000’s, there were not many resources available. Microsoft provided the MSDN in CD and DVD format. Most of the help came from relentless Google searching, but Google was also a bit small back then. What did .NET developers do then? We made use of online forums such as CodeGuru and VBForums.
Most importantly, we put in the hard work of endless nights of studying, and playing around with the new technology called .NET. It was all new to us, or at least to me. Making the change from Visual Basic 6 and Visual C++ 6 (packaged as Visual Studio 6) was a bit of a challenge. Most programmers, especially in the Visual Basic, world did not want to make the shift to .NET because mostly, Visual Basic 6 did not fully support proper Object Orientation.
Now, 20 odd years on, the Internet is full of information and resources. With a single Google search, you can find any answer to your programming problems. Easy. Too easy, in my opinion. CodeGuru, StackOverflow and CodeProject are full of able developers helping newbies solve problems. MSDN contains videos, tutorials, and full documentation on any method, signature, or implementation.
The trick, however, is to properly understand what you are doing. Coming from a training background, I have seen my fair share of maverick developers trying to immediately create rocket-science projects, games, or something revolutionary without understanding the basics.
Without the basics of programming, developers will never reach the levels they can.
I have worked with many younger developers that only know the latest .NET, Java, or even Python. When tasked with a project making use of older technologies they often struggle as they simply do not possess the “older” skills. The fact still remains that any developer should have a proper understanding of all the basics such as Object Orientation, Data Types’ limits, and programming workflows and techniques.
This is where the .NET coding pack comes in handy.
The .NET Coding Pack can be downloaded from here.
A nice video explaining its uses can be found here.
What is the .NET Coding Pack?
The .NET Coding pack provides handy examples and tutorials and sample programs to play with and learn from. It provides a step-by-step guide on how to do certain things, from the basics up, and why certain .NET language features work the way they do.
The Coding pack also includes Visual Studio Code and extensions for Visual Studio Code.
Figure 1 – Installing the .NET Coding Pack
Go ahead, download the .NET Coding pack, and start learning the fundamentals of .NET programming. Then come back to CodeGuru and learn more!