[AccessD] Dot Net, where to start?

Gustav,

The book that helped me transition my Access/VB skills to the .NET world was

ASP.NET Tips, Tutorials, AND CODE (emphasis mine)

http://www.amazon.com/ASP-NET-Tips-Tutorials-Scott-Mitchell/dp/0672321432/re
f=sr_1_1/103-9789491-9429402?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1177683655&sr=8-1

1. The biggest advantage I found in this book over those that I looked into
before buying this 2 yrs ago were the code snippets that clearly explained
and helped me transition my VB knowledge into VB.NET. The main code samples
that benefited me were on datasets, datagrids, arraylists and hashtables
because I was looking for a quick way to understand how .NET handled the
data access layer. I was already proficient in ADO and the examples that
included ADO.NET were very helpful.

2. Majority of the code in the first few chapters were devoted to VB.NET.
This was a big plus since I didn't need to or want to jump to .NET from my
VBA/VB background. The writers of course have samples in C# and it doesn't
take long to quickly transition to the C# version once you are comfortable
in VB.NET.

3. I bought this book precisely for the good code samples. I don't have the
time or patience either to wade through 50 pages of explanation when a few
lines of code smattered with comments would suffice.

The application development environment that helped me transition from VB to
VB.NET was Web Matrix. This was the pre-cursor to Visual Studio. Best of all
was that it was free. It worked great for coding but was very poor for page
layout so I had to use Dreamweaver for that purpose.

Today I develop web-based applications that interface with SQL Server
2000/2005 using C# as the programming language with VS.NET 2003 as the
development environment. Since I am quite proficient in HTML and javascript
(same syntax as C#), I no longer switch to Dreamweaver for page layout.
Instead I switch to HTML view and modify HTML and javascript code manually.

I have not transitioned from .NET ver 1.1 to 2.0. One of these days I will
probably skip 2.0 and move to 3.0.

For reporting I create custom reports using the regular .NET application
development route. I have also used Crystal Reports (which closely resembles
the Access band-type report generator) with SQL stored procedures. I've
stayed away from SQL Reporting Services because the version prior to 2005 is
limited in functionality although I've had to modify SQL Reporting Services
2000 code in VS.NET and also transitioned some of these reports to Crystal
Reports. As far as I'm concerned the major advantages of these two reporting
engines is the ease with which you can export the report data to any number
of formats (Excel, PDF, Word, ASCII, etc...) without any coding other than
knowing how to call those functions or utilize those classes to output the
report.

Today I have built my own data access layer, security layer and
common/utility libraries which I use for every project I develop in C#. I
have also built a couple of my own web controls that encapsulate
functionality such as CRUD operations to speed up the development cycle.

And I do agree...even if VB.NET and C# produce the same DLL, you can
definitely charge more money and have more respect as a C# developer
compared to a VB.NET developer. It's that same "Access is just a toy"
mentality.

Eric 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Gustav Brock
Sent: Friday, April 27, 2007 7:10 AM
To: accessd at databaseadvisors.com
Subject: [AccessD] Dot Net, where to start?

Hi all

It seems to be the time for me to get into the Dot Net stuff. But where to
start?
The only books on Access I've ever had are the original references and
handbooks for Access 1 and 2 and the Application Development book for Access
97 so I'm reluctant to buy books - I just don't have the patience ...

In the Action Pack - which we subscribe to - I've noticed two discs for VS
2005 Express, "Corbis Image Disc" and "Getting Started". Are these tutorials
worth the effort to study?

I browsed our vb list archive, which I don't subsribe to, and traffic seems
to be low, so where to discuss Dot Net matters at the same level as we
discuss Access here?

One thing I think I've understood is that report design in VS is poor and
third party tools or Report Design Service of SQL Server 2005 are to be
preferred if you need reports on a level that match that of Access.

Of course, my main interest is anything related to databases - pure web
development is second, and game development won't come into play.
Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

/gustav