Forward

Although I had tinkered with Visual Studio.NET when the first version was released in 2002, it wasn't until Visual Studio.NET 2003 late last year that I truly took an interest in learning the .NET Framework. Microsoft added in support for Pocket PC and Windows CE.NET devices. Being very interested in smart device programming, I was excited by the prospect of an embedded OOP development system.

I originally started learning Visual Basic.NET. But I found the amount of information on VB.NET was pretty small when compared to the amount of information on C#. I picked up a couple of books to help me learn .NET: Beginning C# and Beginning Visual Basic.NET, both from Wrox Press. Those books helped me learn more about the individual languages.

But, I still didn't have a good grasp of OOP practices, plus the books I had didn't cover the .NET Compact Framework. So, I picked up two more books: .NET Compact Framework from Wrox Press, and OOP with Microsoft Visual Basic.NET and Microsoft Visual C#.NET from Microsoft Press. .NET Compact Framework is based on the Technology Preview edition of the .NET Compact Framework, so the information is brief and somewhat dated. However most of the information is still useful. OOP with Microsoft Visual Basic.NET and Microsoft Visual C#.NET is the real gem. The book covers OOP practices and design in an easy to follow manner. I will be using information from this book - and from other sources - throughout the course of this tutorial. A complete bibliography is available at the end of this tutorial.
 

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Setting Up PFE For .NET Programming
3. Language Basics - Your First Useful Program
4. Language Basics - Data Types
5. Language Basics - Operators
6. Language Basics - Methods, Functions, and Subroutines
7. OOP Basics - Your First Object
8. OOP Basics - Fields and Properties
9. OOP Basics - Constructors
    

Appendices

1. Command Line Compiler Options
2. Bibliography
3. Glossary

Last updated on October 20, 2004