Hey all, I have some quick questions I’m hoping I can get advice on. I primarily deal with support and networking, but I want to start learning how to program. The problem is that I have absolutely no background in it. I’ve never taken any programming courses (was not required for my degree) and the only exposure I’ve had is very little VB.NET for an ASP.NET application.
I want to learn VB.NET and possibly C# (can’t decide which) but I don’t know where to start short of waiting until I can take some courses at a community college. I’ve bought several books on VB.NET but I have a very hard time sitting down and reading them because I feel the silly little examples they use to teach doesn’t demonstrate anything useful; I prefer to learn by having a case study and working to build that up, not doing a bunch of independent examples that I feel don’t teach me anything.
Maybe I’m going about it the wrong way? I’m just confused by the prospect of it all and have a difficult time comprehending what I do, probably because I have had no classes on theory and logic.
So, is there any way that I could get myself into the right mindset and try to learn this.. I want to make myself as diverse as possible, plus the little programming I have done is enjoyable, I just don’t know enough to do anything useful yet. Are there any good books that teach in the way I described (i.e. includes a case study of some kind that allows you to learn by developing a ‘real world’ type application and/or has one as the final chapter to let you use what you’ve learned already), or is this a lost cause and I should try and take some courses?
Many, many thanks in advance!
