Customer Reviews

The .NET Languages: A Quick Translation Guide

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If you're like me and you learn best from example, you'll find this text--it's riddled with examples--a terrific choice.

I recently began a new software development project that will take about a year to complete. I wanted to ramp up on the .NET platform since I believe it a vast (vast is too little a word in this case) improvement over the platforms of yesteryear. I browsed Amazon and ordered a variety of titles with which to equip myself; some of the titles more advanced in nature than this one.

The box of goodies arrived and I began to assimilate. I went for "Applied Microsoft .NET Framework Programming" straight off and found it to be informative but overly so. Some of the concepts being so fresh that I had no relational peg from which to hang them. The nitty-gritties were deeper than necessary for transition into .NET. I typically learn in an incremental fashion: first give me something that shows me the basics at 20,000 feet so I can begin creating my "relational pegs" from which to hang the more advanced notions as I read additional tomes.

I've found "The .NET Languages" to be one of the essential books I needed (and you'll need) in my toolbox. It's no mere translation guide, it's exactly what you need to absorb the basics if you're already versed in one of it's three languages (VB 6.0, VB.NET, and C#). I came from a primarily VB 6.0 background, and I've been learning both C# and VB.NET. This book is amazing at quickly helping me to grasp the two newer languages as the majority of it consists of side-by-side example-code comparisons in the 3 languages. Understand, it's not a standalone means of breaking into .NET, you'll need more meat, but this is one excellent appetizer. It also serves as a quick syntax reference or, as it's title suggests, a basis for translating code between languages.

As I moved from theory into actual design and then development, I found .NET to be a different monster than I had encountered in my past 10 years experience. At first, my impression and my fear was that I'd have to learn so many concepts that I'd be dizzy before I could even start programming. Yes, there was/is a lot to learn, but you can begin developing more quickly than you might expect. As I said, I started with the .NET Framework Programming book which, in my opinion, although I thought it would be an excellent starting point, was not. It only served to overwhelm me with some complexities (not that the entire book is complex) that I was able to better learn after I had my foundation.

Dig into the nitty-gritties later. How do you know, in the computer profession, that you're equipped and ready to begin creating production-level systems? It seems you're only as ready as you are, because you could always know more. (Why God didn't make a 32-hour day exception for computer professionals I'll never know!) How many times--if you're of the variety who undergoes continuing self-education--are you reflecting on past designs and implementations with new enlightenment and the feeling that you could do it twice as good now.

In my opinion, if you're moving into .NET, take the incremental approach. This book along with Wrox's "Beginning C#" and "ADO.NET" were excellent starting points for me.

I use this book a LOT. The reason I love it is because it does exactly what it was meant to do: take a starting point that I can relate to, Visual Basic 6, and cross-reference my previous knowledge to VB.NET and C#. I have not found any other book that cross-references all three languages the way this one does. For instance, if I know what command I would use in VB 6, but I'm new to C# then it's a 15 minute search to find something equivalent in MSDN. But if I pull out my trusty Translation Guide there it is in a few seconds! From there if I need more in-depth detail I can go straight to the correct article in MSDN, however in most cases it tells me everything I need to know because I already understand the concepts, I just need to know how to do the same type of task in another language. This book is absolutely invaluable to me as a reformed VB6 programmer!

At first I was not too sure about the book, thinking it might be another quick book that was just banged out on .NET. I was wrong!

This book doesn't waste time. It gets right to the point in getting you up to speed with the main .NET languages (VB.NET and C#). The wonderful thing about it is that it shows you the VB (6 and .NET) and C# syntax side-by-side, so that in one pass, you can learn both languages.

I had already been programming with VB.NET for almost a year before I read this book, and I had even done some C# work. Thanks to this book, now I know C# as well as VB.NET, and can easily work both languages.

They also have a few "bonus" chapters that show you how to quickly start using things like ADO.NET, and GDI+,-- painting and printing. I was surprised to see something there, since it doesn't directly deal with the language. The bonus chapters aren't a full reference, but they are enough to quickly get you up and running!

Bottom line: You want to upgrade to .NET? Read this book.

Having coded in C#, and having to pick up a project all in VB.NET, which, btw, was ported from VB6, was not familiar with the synthax and conventions of the visualbasicers. My problem was mostly about the lack of knowledge on language synthax and idiom expression. Knew "how to do this and that", but didn't have the synthax on my fingertips. This book pretty much summarizes all my desires at this point: it has side by side examples in VB6, VB.NET, and C#, with a commentary on features that may be offered in one language or another, why they were offered, and within the same programming language, sometimes mentioned an alternate way of achieving the same result. For my particular situation, already knowing the .NET framework and have had some experience in it, this book proved to be extremely useful to jump into another .NET language. I think I found one incorrect statement: the book states that in .NET, Boolean and Integer are not interchangeable, which I found to be true in C#, but not in VB.NET. Also, the difference between static and shared is still confusing. Great book for those that just need a code example in front of their eyes when coding something new. And btw, nice insight on how C# picked up from VB6 the style on read-only property, while paradoxically, VB.NET did not. Also useful in the context covered by this book, are two other books, "Maximizing .NET Performance" and "Effective C#", which lists some traps that are specific to a programming language used in .NET.

Anytime I enter into the world of a new technology, I tend to inundate myself with books. I purchased many books as I prepared myself for the transition into .NET, particularly to adopting the use of C#.

While other books taught me about the ins and outs of the .NET framework, this one helped me to quickly grasp the language. It provides useful and practical examples for tasks I had long taken for granted in VB 6.0 and prior. In fact, the essense of the book is all about bridging one's understanding from the "old way" of coding to the "new way" and it does so quite well.

Many times I need to quickly recall syntax. The book is well organized and I can almost always find what I'm looking for in a minute. Other books leave me searching or even wondering where that one nugget of truth that I learned last month (but can only vaguely recall this month) must be.

This book is perfect for the person who wants to learn the language syntax (VB or C#) from practical patterns and examples.

As an author who provides all our code examples in both C# and VB.NET, this book is indispensable. Whenever I have a question about how to express some code in one language or the other, it provides the concise information I need. I highly recommend it.

As the author, I wanted to let you know that this book was written with .NET Release Candidate 1. Now that .NET Final has been released, I recompiled all the code and it is 100% compatible. As a result, this is the only edition being printed for VS.NET. You can download Chapter 2 from my website. Thanks to everyone for the positive emails.

I've purchased 7 .NET books so far, and my favorites so far are by Troelsen and Liberty. They both do a great job of teaching you C#. However, this book takes a different approach. Rather than trying to teach you everything about .NET, it focuses on showing you the syntax for the languages. It does it for BOTH languages. What makes it unusual is the way the material is presented. Its concise and to the point. There's no fluff. The beginning of each chapter has a three column table that compares the syntax for VB6, VB.NET and C#. If you know how to program in one language, just find what you want in your current language and look at the next column. It shows you how to do the exact same thing in the other languages. In my opinion, these "conversion" tables are the best part of the book. The rest of the chapter goes into details explaining what the differences are. These explanations were helpful the first time I read them, but I'm really going back to the tables for a refresher of the syntax I forgot.

The chapters at the end of the book (forms, COM, ADO.NET, graphics & printing, the Windows registry, dates & times) focus on comparing how to do something that you did in VB6 and showing you how to do it in .NET. This is really dealing with the .NET Framework.

I think that if you can't make up your mind which language to learn, then this book could help because you can see where the languages are similar and where they are different. Once you decide which language you like, the syntax tables make a great reference guide.

I bought this book because I had taken on a new job and had 2 weeks to learn VB.Net the way I know C#.Net. This book was and still is a great asset to have for anyone looking for a quick concise guide to translate between VB.Net and C#.Net It's not a learning guide for .Net (as it states in the intro) and does not get to specifics about winforms and webforms. What it does is very effectively explain syntax differences and other caveats to be aware of between the .Net languages (I skipped over all the VB6 stuff so I can't speak to that). The charts at the beginning of every chapter are an invaluable quick reference.
If you are new to .Net, get another book to learn it effectively...if you know a .Net language and need translate your knowledge to another, then this book is a great tool to have.

This text is a solid work that does a great job of explaining transitioning to .NET languages. What it has a bit of difficulty with using current versions. The text is copyright 2002 and it shows. I am not stating this as a detriment, but rather just pointing it out in case this is important to you.

If you want a text that covers .NET from top to bottom and focuses primarily on moving from VB6 then this is most definitely the text for you. It is well written, laid out and easy to understand.