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C# for free?

Asked by Rathamon,

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Rathamon

Posted
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OK here's something to chew on....

I've got a 1 month mid semester holiday coming up and I thought I'd spend at least some of the time learning a little C# , only problem is im a poor student and therefor dont actually want to spend any money. What I want to know is whether or not it is possible to get

The Framework + SDK

A decent , simple to use IDE

Documentation & decent tutorial information

all without spending a penny?

Its also worth noting that I know C++ , PHP and Java pretty well so im not expecting most of it to be too tricky

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robinmthomas

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Yes, you can learn to develop in C# for free.

The .NET SDK includes a command line compiler

The .NET SDK includes a ton of documentation including Quick Start Tutorials.

Head over to www.gotdotnet.com for some awesome intro stuff.

As for the IDE:

http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navc...q=C%23+Ide+Free

(I'm sorry to post a link to google, but.....)

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BeeJay

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What I want to know is whether or not it is possible to get

The Framework + SDK

A decent , simple to use IDE

Documentation & decent tutorial information

Rathamon,

I have not gotten too far into .NET programming yet, so I have only played around with everything so far... but here is some information that should help. Where to start... there are so many possible resources I have come across. Here are some of the top ones off the top of my head. ;)

I think SharpDevelop looks really promising. I've been downloading the new releases whenever they come out, though I haven't done anything more than build a simple 'Hello world!' command line application in C# with it yet. I don't think this has built-in templates for ASP.NET Web Forms yet... but for that you have the ASP.NET Web Matrix Project:) :)

Both tools are still in development, so I expect both tools to be outstanding by the time they the 1.0! SharpDevelop has been around for quite a while and despite is (current) 0.92 version number, it has a very polished look and is quite stable. ASP.NET Web Matrix is a Microsoft project which is at version 0.5.464. Web Matrix has a definite beta feel to it. It's interface is pretty solid, but I ran into a few strange inconsistencies when coding. (Sorry, I don't recall what they were at the moment.)

BTW... check out the rest of the ASP.NET web site for lots of other good freebies (such as an extremely kick-ass ASP.NET Forums software which... reminds me a bit of Neowin's forum software).

Oh, and just because you can... it's "fun" to poke through the .NET Common Language Infrastructure (CLI) Shared Source.

Good luck with you learning! I hope some of the resources I have provided will be helpful.

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robinmthomas

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Rathamon - It's just you.

C# and Java share some similarities and no body is arguing that C# wasn't designed with Java's features in mind, but C# addresses some of Java's shortcomings.

Basically, C# said what is good about Java and used it and then said what is bad about Java and fixed it.

But yes they are both compiled down to an intermediate lanuage (MSIL - Bytecode) and then interpreted by a JIT compilter (JRT and CLR) and both are significant advances over C++ (Garbage collection).

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ThunderRiver

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of course you can use C# for free. You don't need the compiler from Microsoft. Indeed, just go on google, and search for keyword "mono C#" you should able to find free GNU C# compiler.

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warr

Posted
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is it just me or is C# just Java with a few kewords changed so they dont get sued?

It is true that they design C# with Java bare in mind.

Not to rise a war, but mention a bit: M$ is good at this. :rolleyes:

Well, you don't really have to learn C# in order to use the .NET.

C++ managed, VB .NET, both work.

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aemon

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Rathamon, in .NET, C# and VB as so much alike that all you have to do is decide if you want to use semi colons. OK, well maybe they aren't THAT close but they are really very very similar. As to performance, Manged C++, C# and VB all compile to the same IL code so the only real thing to consider is syntax.

Since VB and C# are now essentially the same thing, why do you dislike VB?

SharpDevelop Homepage

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neowin_hipster

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I've installed the .NET framework and tested out c# and VB.net. I think C# is better than java in some respects. I found it frustrating to use Managed C++ because of the weird c++ libraries and the lack of "standard" ones. I didn't mind coding with it in c. As for c# vs VB, i think i'd choose c#.

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Steven

Posted
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hehe i got a fully legit copy of visual studio for FREE!! :D

got mine at the student tour thingy. MSDN Academic Alliance.

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[C#]

Posted
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ixsis :

Does VB.NET have unsigned types, operator overloading or pointers ?

Nope.

How about shift operators ?

Nope.

Can you use non CLS complinat libraries from VB.NET ?

Nope.

"VB and C# are now essentially the same thing".

Yeah....right. Repeat yourself the lie many times and maybe you'll believe it.

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aemon

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C#

you are absolutly correct in those items you mentioned, in fact operator overloading would be very nice. Pointer use in C# however is a grey area. You can only use pointers in C# in unmanaged code thus negating some of the benefits offered by .NET in the first place. Microsoft takes every opportunity discourage the use of pointers in C#. If I had a need for unsigned types, operator overloading AND pointers I'd skip C# completely and use C++.

And let me quote what I said earlier:

Rathamon, in .NET, C# and VB as so much alike that all you have to do is decide if you want to use semi colons. OK, well maybe they aren't THAT close but they are really very very similar. As to performance, Manged C++, C# and VB all compile to the same IL code so the only real thing to consider is syntax.

I do note that they really are not as similar as I implied. I purposely did NOT say they were equal as far as languages. They DO create the same IL however.

Edited by ixsis
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codemonkey

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OK here's something to chew on....

I've got a 1 month mid semester holiday coming up and I thought I'd spend at least some of the time learning a little C# , only problem is im a poor student and therefor dont actually want to spend any money. What I want to know is whether or not it is possible to get

The Framework + SDK

A decent , simple to use IDE

Documentation & decent tutorial information

all without spending a penny?

Its also worth noting that I know C++ , PHP and Java pretty well so im not expecting most of it to be too tricky

The framework and good tutorials info, I use codeproject.com [ http://www.codeproject.com ]. There a few good IDE's out there now, if you don't need design-time stuff ( i.e. see the form as you put it together ) check out eclipse [ http://www.eclipse.org ]. There is a free c# plugin that you can get for it.

HTH, da 'monkey

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