any .net developers? a few questions

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Leb_CRX

Gawd
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Sep 25, 2003
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I'm currently a PHP developer and looking to learn .net for building software, not web apps...I've toyed around with VB6, but it's been a longgg while...before I begin I just have a few Q's

-seems like WPF is the new way to go for developing software front ends...are there any drawbacks to using it? or 100% FTW?
-is vb.net these days as powerful as c# or does one still hold power over the other?
-what's the most common database used when developing .net apps? with PHP it's all MySQL, so just curious if there's an equivalent.
-is MySQL well supported with .net? anything I should be weary before deciding to use it? limitations?
-is there a good resource for finding .net code around? seems ot be a LOT harder to find resources then PHP ever was? I am guessing cause it's not open source.
-any books y'all can recommend? I just need to know the structure of doing things with .net...I have about 4 years exp with php, so I got it locked down :eek:
 
There's TONS of .Net code around, more so than even PHP since its general purpose. Yes WPF and Silverlight are the future. Silverlight is cross platform and is a subset of WPF.

Download Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 as well.
 
Leb_CRX said:
-seems like WPF is the new way to go for developing software front ends...are there any drawbacks to using it? or 100% FTW?
Click to expand...

Haven't gotten into VS 2010 much, but at least in 2008 / Blend the designers for WPF have been much weaker than the winforms / webforms.
You're digging into the markup to tweak settings and get the look and layout right.

-is vb.net these days as powerful as c# or does one still hold power over the other?
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There may be some performance preferences because the compiler's are different, similar syntax won't always create the same MSIL, but that tends to be very minor.

The only thing I can think of off the top of my head that VB doesn't do is 'Yield Return' from C# which implicitly builds an IEnumerable object to return as you iterate through something.

-what's the most common database used when developing .net apps? with PHP it's all MySQL, so just curious if there's an equivalent.
-is MySQL well supported with .net? anything I should be weary before deciding to use it? limitations?
Click to expand...

MySQL is definably a good choice, There's also a Microsoft SQL Express edition that's free (just like VS express editions) that works well.
 
Leb_CRX said:
-seems like WPF is the new way to go for developing software front ends...are there any drawbacks to using it? or 100% FTW?
Click to expand...
WPF has it's appeal. Though I haven't had a client yet requiring/requesting WPF, so nothing much to share.

Leb_CRX said:
-is vb.net these days as powerful as c# or does one still hold power over the other?
Click to expand...
This doesn't really matter much. VB.Net and C#.Net go through the CLR, so it gets processed the same. Though for most developers, any subtleties between them are a non-issue. If you want to see the differences, then this book does a great job. But I should mention that some points in that book are dropping off as the various teams at MS tighten up the unification more and more.

Leb_CRX said:
-what's the most common database used when developing .net apps? with PHP it's all MySQL, so just curious if there's an equivalent
Click to expand...
Depends on the client and environment, though this is with any client/project. I've seen SQL Server, Oracle, and Access the most often. And SQLite and MySQL to a lesser extent. But the ODBC objects, SQL Server objects, and Oracle's created database objects are pretty solid. Most online examples you'll find will target Access or some version of SQL Server -- but modifying those examples is usually just changing the database objects used, and perhaps some minor ANSI SQL changes.
As another poster already mentioned, SQL Server Express is a free SQL Server installation. I'd suggest starting off with that; the tools in SQL Server Management Studio Express are just awesome.

Leb_CRX said:
-is MySQL well supported with .net? anything I should be weary before deciding to use it? limitations?
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I've used MySQL's provided .Net objects as well as ODBC.Net database objects for communicating with a MySQL database without issue. Though I do remember a previous thread post from another [H] member (mikeblas) commenting on the maturity and reliability of MySQL's .Net database objects. Though you can always fall back to ODBC drivers.

Leb_CRX said:
-is there a good resource for finding .net code around? seems ot be a LOT harder to find resources then PHP ever was? I am guessing cause it's not open source.
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There are too many resources to name, I'm just not certain where your confusion lies. Between a visit to either Google or Borders, you can find a wealth of information. Though I feel that this subjective metric is more from the perspective that you're just testing the waters with these questions before you dive into the language framework.
Regardless, some useful sources (aside from Google) are:
www.asp.net
www.msdn.com
http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/ -- Scott Guthrie's blog on Visual Studio and .Net improvements and design

Leb_CRX said:
-any books y'all can recommend? I just need to know the structure of doing things with .net...I have about 4 years exp with php, so I got it locked down :eek:
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The high level concepts won't change: database connection string, declare and utilize some database objects, pass a SQL string, execute against the database, and cleanup objects prior to returning data back to the caller.
I'd say at least skim through one of the "Beginner ____" books at Borders, maybe picking one up. Doesn't really matter between C# or VB.net, as the objects will be the same (just syntax changes). Once you get the basics, then stick with the "Advanced____" books. I like the stuff from Wrox and Sams Publishing; others may have some specific recommendations.
 
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WPF is awesome - One of the benefits I personally like is that your apps will look about the same in Win2K/WinXP even when "Visual Styles" are disabled. (common on older/low memory systems).

XAML is really easy to use and definitely an improvement over the old UI designer.

Depending on what type of app you are designing and your requirements, C++ might still be the way to go. For many small/medium business apps, a simple WPF app can be a relatively quick/easy way to go. If you have more specifics, I'm sure we can help steer you in the right direction, but my gut feeling (based on the wording of your questions so far) is that a WPF VB.NET app will be just fine for your needs at this time. (on the other hand, you could be planning to build the next MMORPG for all I know... in which case VB.NET is the wrong language (tm)).

vb.net is still as powerful. In fact there are a few subtle differences between C#/VB still - but a few developers I know still prefer to do everything in VB. It gets converted to MSIL anyway, so it's pretty easy to convert between languages.

There is a lot of sample code for .NET around. Just do a google search on whatever task you're having problems with or need examples for and you'll likely come across a forum thread or codeplex project that does something similar.

I haven't used MySQL with .NET in ~6 years. At the time, I remember having more problems than with MSSQL. (This was after a couple years of PHP/MySQL development). I'd also suggest SQL Server Express. For simple DBs under 4GB it's a great free solution. There's a wiki article and Microsoft webpage that outline the differences. They mostly relate to max DB size, max memory utilization, CPU core utilization and features such as OLAP functions, partitioning, compression, etc
 
thanks for the reply everyone

the software I'm looking at building is a db driven, people management solution.

there's 3 modules, at the time, and we plan on building on it...first module is to manage the people, so here you have basic stuff, name, dob, and a bit of money management (if they owe money, etc)...etc....second module is a scheduling module, they want it very simular to outlook, and the third module is a crystal reports module

I might be in over my head here, so I might end up having to hire someone to get a framework in place and take it from there...right now I'm still at the program requirements stage
 
While nothing has been stated about employees other than yourself, this does sound like a paying project that has an envisioned turnaround timeframe or calendar date.

Given the scope of everything mentioned, I would strongly recommend hiring an architect. For you, I see the benefit of hiring an architect is to handle the heavy lifting, program flow, and keeping the design unified. This could really help your education and help to hit the ground running with a new language as you progress into doing more and larger coding pieces of the project. The architect could even help with doing small code reviews as you get more comfortable; stuff like that really helps you grow and improve.
 
PTNL said:
While nothing has been stated about employees other than yourself, this does sound like a paying project that has an envisioned turnaround timeframe or calendar date.

Given the scope of everything mentioned, I would strongly recommend hiring an architect. For you, I see the benefit of hiring an architect is to handle the heavy lifting, program flow, and keeping the design unified. This could really help your education and help to hit the ground running with a new language as you progress into doing more and larger coding pieces of the project. The architect could even help with doing small code reviews as you get more comfortable; stuff like that really helps you grow and improve.
Click to expand...

you know what, that's a fantastic idea, thank you very much for suggestion, I'll definitely pursue it further
 
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