Contrary to the advice given here there is nothing wrong with diving in feet first and writing some code. Just look at some sample code you find on the web and you should be able to pick up on it. 95% of the programming people do is not that hard, especially the .NET stuff.
Also I would recommend staying away from C#, it's a horrid language to work with.
I have to say you're the only person amongst the hundreds of testimonials that I've gathered on the subject that thinks this way... what, may I ask, pushes you to believe this way?
Same with C#... I've found more people actually recommend it for justifiable reasons, and most opinions are that either is equally as usable, but I've not come across anyone who's actually had something negative to say of either C#, C++, VB.NET, or any variation that can be used behind the .NET design.
I'm still trying to figure out what pushes people to believe the other way. What does it hurt to dive in feet first and just start coding? Sure what you produce at first won't be so beautiful it will bring a tear to another programmer's eye, but it will get the job done and over time it will get better as your skills develop.
Also I'm the type of person that
can't learn by reading books, tutorials, etc., no matter how hard I try. I need to actually get some sample code in front of me and mess with it before it clicks in my brain as to how things work. Perhaps I am alone on this but I highly doubt it.
I can see my "C# is a horrid language to work with" comment has also gotten a couple C# users upset so let me try to explain the reason I would say such a thing. Late last year I accepted the task of writing a Bill of Material application for AutoCAD that essentially used a DataGridView to provide an Excel like interface for constructing the BOM, with an interface for pulling part information from a proprietary DB (Progress) via ODBC and writing the fill BOM's out to a SQL Server 2005 DB for processing by our ERP system. I had started this project in C#, got about 3/8 of the way done and finally got so disgusted I had to give up on C# and write it in a different language for .NET.
The language is ridiculously verbose, for example:
Form x = new Form();Why do I need to declare that x is a Form when I am assigning it a new instance of a Form? I shouldn't have to type that nor do I want to. Also why do I need to use "new"? If form is a class the language should know that I am not creating an alias for it but creating an instance of it because I am using the ()'s.
I don't care for the cast system.
string i = ((string) 11);I don't find this readable at all. I would prefer an explicit cast call or something similar, as when revisiting code I can pick it up faster.
I also don't care for the way arrays are defined.
MyClass[] mc = new MyClass [60]I also would prefer an explicit call of something like mc = array(Myclass, 60) or something like that for the same reasons I listed for the cast system.
And my final reason for disliking C# so much are the stupid braces and ending everything with ;. To me they are pointless and actually hinder my reading of the code instead of helping it.
So basically that sums up why I would call C# a horrid language and why I would never recommend it to anyone. I am not looking for a "Borat reaction" and I am certainly serious about the "stuff I spout" because, well, it's my opinion. I'm not rectally extracting my statements, I'm speaking from my experience.
