[.net] starting with c#

Ciao!

I suppose that it will be better for you to download an IDE such as Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 C# express. It's the 21st century, time to abandon notepad IMO :)

Yes, it's normal for the directory containing the csc executable not to be added to the path.

Take a look in the \bin directory of the SDK installation for a batch file named sdkvars.bat. You can run that batch file from a command prompt to set all the necessary environment variables.

The reason the SDK installer doesn't add this to the environment is because MS wants various versions of the SDK to coexist.

C# kicks ass! Visual Studio doesn't. Stick with notepad.

Thank you all. Just adding the bin directory to the path works :-)

Quote:

Original post by AvengerDr Ciao! I suppose that it will be better for you to download an IDE such as Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 C# express. It's the 21st century, time to abandon notepad IMO :)

Ciao! :-)
Yes, I heard about it, but I think not to use it, at least now. When I started to learn VC++ I used the visual tools, and this way I was able to make nice GUIs, but still now I don't know how MFC works internally. Instead, with Java I began with notepad, but even if I think to know c++ better than Java, still I'm happy to know how swing and work. I think that I will download some free IDE someday, but I'm going to begin with the basic stuff (that is compiling by hand an so on) as I did with java.
Thank you all for the help!

use a gui, at least you can step through your code that way.

The fact is that there is so much more in a GUI, that you should seriously consider it. Until VS05 is released, C# Express should be freely downloadable.

By using notepad you'll miss out on the biggest feature ever introduced: the debugger! Without it you'll have to use console output and you'll lose much more time this way. The IDE is a software layer whose purpose is to make your life easier. Code completion features come to mind: back in the old day we coders, being inherently lazy used to have very short variable names because we hated to type a long name each time it would have to be used. Now with code completion features, with as low as 5-6 keypresses you can type a whole line of code.. Instant help with the MSDN.. and refactoring! That's another big feature.

The IDE is all about saving time and making sure that the time you actually spend coding can be as productive as possible. In the end, that is all what you should care for!

Quote:

Original post by AvengerDr The fact is that there is so much more in a GUI, that you should seriously consider it. Until VS05 is released, C# Express should be freely downloadable. By using notepad you'll miss out on the biggest feature ever introduced: the debugger! Without it you'll have to use console output and you'll lose much more time this way. The IDE is a software layer whose purpose is to make your life easier. Code completion features come to mind: back in the old day we coders, being inherently lazy used to have very short variable names because we hated to type a long name each time it would have to be used. Now with code completion features, with as low as 5-6 keypresses you can type a whole line of code.. Instant help with the MSDN.. and refactoring! That's another big feature. The IDE is all about saving time and making sure that the time you actually spend coding can be as productive as possible. In the end, that is all what you should care for!

:-) Don't worry, currently I don't need c# at all. I'm learning it because I heard that many companies require it (or some other .net language) and I would like to add it to my resume once graduated.
I use Dev-c++ and code::blocks for c++, netbeans for java and the simple ide provided in the ocaml package for ocaml. Then turbo pascal for pascal. I don't use to code with notepad, but I found useful to begin with it before getting an IDE.

Quote:

Original post by Arild Fines Take a look in the \bin directory of the SDK installation for a batch file named sdkvars.bat. You can run that batch file from a command prompt to set all the necessary environment variables. The reason the SDK installer doesn't add this to the environment is because MS wants various versions of the SDK to coexist.

yup. I have vs2003 and vs2005 installed on my machine and have tons of different command prompts that visual studio installs by default. for example here is the batch file it runs for my vs 2003 command prompt:
@SET VSINSTALLDIR=G:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\Common7\IDE
@SET VCINSTALLDIR=G:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003
@SET FrameworkDir=G:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework
@SET FrameworkVersion=v1.1.4322
@SET FrameworkSDKDir=G:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\SDK\v1.1
@rem Root of Visual Studio common files.

@if "%VSINSTALLDIR%"=="" goto Usage
@if "%VCINSTALLDIR%"=="" set VCINSTALLDIR=%VSINSTALLDIR%

@rem
@rem Root of Visual Studio ide installed files.
@rem
@set DevEnvDir=%VSINSTALLDIR%

@rem
@rem Root of Visual C++ installed files.
@rem
@set MSVCDir=%VCINSTALLDIR%\VC7

@rem
@echo Setting environment for using Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003 tools.
@echo (If you have another version of Visual Studio or Visual C++ installed and wish
@echo to use its tools from the command line, run vcvars32.bat for that version.)
@rem

@REM %VCINSTALLDIR%\Common7\Tools dir is added only for real setup.

@set PATH=%DevEnvDir%;%MSVCDir%\BIN;%VCINSTALLDIR%\Common7\Tools;%VCINSTALLDIR%\Common7\Tools\bin\prerelease;%VCINSTALLDIR%\Common7\Tools\bin;%FrameworkSDKDir%\bin;%FrameworkDir%\%FrameworkVersion%;%PATH%;
@set INCLUDE=%MSVCDir%\ATLMFC\INCLUDE;%MSVCDir%\INCLUDE;%MSVCDir%\PlatformSDK\include\prerelease;%MSVCDir%\PlatformSDK\include;%FrameworkSDKDir%\include;%INCLUDE%
@set LIB=%MSVCDir%\ATLMFC\LIB;%MSVCDir%\LIB;%MSVCDir%\PlatformSDK\lib\prerelease;%MSVCDir%\PlatformSDK\lib;%FrameworkSDKDir%\lib;%LIB%

p.s. charles petzold newest "Programming Windows" book uses c# from the command prompt exclusivly to make windows apps but you'll probably also end up using batch files too if you aren't already.

Quote:

Original post by cignox1 :-) Don't worry, currently I don't need c# at all. I'm learning it because I heard that many companies require it (or some other .net language) and I would like to add it to my resume once graduated.

Said companies will almost certainly ask you for Visual Studio experience as well.