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RE: Starting to Program

cjones 47715 — Mon, 09 Jul 2012 08:07:07 GMT

This isn't a tutorial but has a ton of syntax examples in both VB.NET and C#, comparing them. I've found it useful when knowing how to do something in one and not sure of the syntax in the other. It's also shown me that certain things can be done in both languages that I wasn't taking advantage of.[url=http://www.harding.edu/fmccown/vbnet_csharp_comparison.html]http://www.harding.edu/fmccown/vbnet_csharp_comparison.html[/url]

RE: Starting to Program

Michael Meierruth — Mon, 09 Jul 2012 00:54:34 GMT

Jeff, what exactly do you mean by "Unit 0"?

RE: Starting to Program

aniket25 — Sun, 08 Jul 2012 17:29:16 GMT

i am looking to learn C# in my spare times and this is the bookmarks to learn C# Basics.[url=http://www.homeandlearn.co.uk/csharp/csharp.html]Visual C# .NET for Complete Beginners - a free programming course[/url] [url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/67ef8sbd.aspx]C# Programming Guide[/url] [url=http://cplus.about.com/od/learnc/Learn_how_to_Program_in_C.htm]Learn all about programming in C#[/url]. [url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/hh341490]Learn Visual C# on MSDN[/url] Videos : [url=http://channel9.msdn.com/Series/C-Sharp-Fundamentals-Development-for-Absolute-Beginners#tab_sortBy_sequential]C# Fundamentals: Development for Absolute Beginners | Channel 9 [/url][url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd492171.aspx]Getting Started Tutorials [/url][url=http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/22769/Introduction-to-Object-Oriented-Programming-Concep]Introduction to Object Oriented Programming Concepts (OOP) and More - CodeProject® [/url][url=http://www.csharp-station.com/]C# Station[/url] [url=http://www.csharp-station.com/ExternLinks/CSharpSites]C# Station Links: C# Sites[/url] My Fav :[url=http://visualcsharptutorials.com/fundamentals]Language Fundamentals | Visual C# Tutorials [/url]

RE: Starting to Program

Jeff Moden — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 15:41:09 GMT

[quote][b]Robert Domitz (7/6/2012)[/b][hr]You must be a youngster - that's an 029 keypunch! When I punched FORTRAN cards, I used an 026!:-D[img]http://www.columbia.edu/cu/computinghistory/026.jpg[/img](Thanks to www.columbia.edu for the image!)[/quote]They left out "Unit 0" from the drawing.

RE: Starting to Program

michaelm-746562 — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 13:03:45 GMT

I live in the, "accidental DBA" world and therefore lack the years-deep knowledge to use these systems as well as they are intended. I've maxed out Access and needed something better for crunching business data. But SQL server isn't turnkey with wizards and Northwind and whatnot. Part of the problem with getting up to speed with SQL Server or any given MS technology is that one must have both a good grasp of the the historical taxonomical development of the given MS technology as well as cursory knowledge of current platform-wide practices. And that's tough to build when you're on your own.To get to the question at hand, I have found [url]www.learnvisualstudio.net[/url] to be a very useful tool. In addition to covering the subject at hand, the host tends to chatter and chase concepts upstream a little. That's great with me, because I'm there to learn a broader structure and not just a new syntax for doing the same old thing. Note that this isn't an ad. I pay to use the service and find it very useful as I'm a beginner in the broader ocean of SQL server.

RE: Starting to Program

Bob Thiele — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 12:33:31 GMT

I've been programming for 25+ years and helped in the DBA realm for ~15 along with system administration of various platforms. Most 3rd generation languages have the similar control structures (except COBOL and FORTRAN), so the language itself isn't the most important thing. If you learn to read and maybe even write it you should be able to pick up what a programmer is trying to do. Unless it is really bad programming, in which case another programmer would have problems as well:). That being said for a DBA I think Visual Basic or BASIC itself would be a good start place. Having worked in COBOL, FORTRAN, BASIC, C, C++, C#, ADA, Pascal and Java, my preferred language is C# hands down. VB.Net is linked to many things that can be used in other areas (Microsoft Word, Excel...), but C# or Java is what the majority of companies use to write their code.First learn basic programming structures to understand how to accomplish things. Not all are available in each language, but there are similar constructs.1) documentation: how to add comments to your code2) I/O: disk/screen input/output3) variables: data types, assignment, arrays, basic math functions +-/*%...3) breaking programs into small pieces: functions, subroutines including recurssion, programming stack4) loops: for, foreach, while, do while5) branching: if then else statements, switch or select6) string manipulation and data transforms (convert double to int, first word in a string...)7) GOTO: Yes, I'm saying this so they also learn NEVER to do it and recognize that if it is there, it's probably bad code to start8) error handling9) classes and structures: If the language supports it classes are the way to go.10) Try and write an actual simple database application to hold data for a hobby. It should have at least 3 related tables (one code table, one master table, one child table). If you get this working you'll know where to go from there.Personally I recommend getting a book. Start at your local library and check out a few different languages to see what you like best. I generally get a new book for each version of Visual Studio. Authors have a different style of trying to teach, so if after 30 minutes or so of reading it doesn't make sense, you might try a different author. Visual Studio is a good IDE, but there are others available as well. Visual Studio has a free version (Express) that you can download so you can't beat the price and there are a TON of examples on the internet. Google, StackOverflow and DeveloperExpress are good sites to find answers.To start either work through the examples in the book or pick assignments you can find online. Or come up with some on your own. To start the classic "Hello World" is obligatory. My favorite one to give newbies is display the top n prime numbers. This can be refined/reworked to see what is most efficient with various tools through step 4. For step 11 it could hold recipes, video collection, song collection, genealogy, book collection...Good luck in whichever you choose.

RE: Starting to Program

mstjean — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 11:47:37 GMT

[quote]Michael Meierruth>As for the card punch model 029 vs 026, I must say that the keyboard of the 026 looks really awful. It gives me the creeps.[/quote]I dunno... I think it looks kinda like gramma's car...

RE: Starting to Program

Michael Meierruth — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 11:43:49 GMT

Never dropped my punched cards - ever.As for that sequence number, I never knew about these card sorters. But it's a bit like not knowing all of that new stuff in today's technology.As for the card punch model 029 vs 026, I must say that the keyboard of the 026 looks really awful. It gives me the creeps.

RE: Starting to Program

mstjean — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 11:25:42 GMT

[quote][quote]mstjean (7/6/2012)--------------------------------------------------------------------------------Keypunch/Show of HandsAnd how many decks of cards did YOU drop before you learned to be certain the switch on that machine was set to PRINT = ON ?(and that there was actually ink printing the sequence number on your card)IIRC (and I may not) one of those 4 switches centered over the keyboard was the one to look for.[/quote]If you have the sequence numbers punched in the cards, then all you needed was a card sorter. Much easier than doing it by hand.Lynn Pettis[/quote]Heh... my school didn't have that kinda newfangled toy. I also suspect they deliberately double-waxed the floors in the data center.

RE: Starting to Program

Lynn Pettis — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 11:20:06 GMT

[quote][b]mstjean (7/6/2012)[/b][hr][b]Keypunch/Show of Hands[/b]And how many decks of cards did YOU drop before you learned to be certain the switch on that machine was set to PRINT = ON ?(and that there was actually ink printing the sequence number on your card)IIRC (and I may not) one of those 4 switches centered over the keyboard was the one to look for.[/quote]If you have the sequence numbers punched in the cards, then all you needed was a card sorter. Much easier than doing it by hand.

RE: Starting to Program

Lynn Pettis — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 11:18:41 GMT

[quote][b]Steve Jones - SSC Editor (7/6/2012)[/b][hr][quote][b]Michael Meierruth (7/6/2012)[/b][hr]Steve,I got a real bang seeing that photo on the right hand side of your editorial. Not many people can say they actually ever used a card punch machine. I can say that I used it and enjoyed it. and was really good at it.. and it brings back some good feelings of the past - like BASIC, FORTRAN, ASSEMBLER and yes COBOL.[/quote]Thought a few people would like that. I didn't do cards, but I did do early compiles where I could watch the lines of code compile on the screen. And read them as they went by[/quote]Oh yes, memories. Did you know that you could actually run a Burroughs B3500 computer using the aforementioned card punch and the card reader and line printer on the B3500? Actually had to do it twice while stationed in England many years ago.

RE: Starting to Program

mstjean — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 11:09:53 GMT

[b]Keypunch/Show of Hands[/b]And how many decks of cards did YOU drop before you learned to be certain the switch on that machine was set to PRINT = ON ?(and that there was actually ink printing the sequence number on your card)IIRC (and I may not) one of those 4 switches centered over the keyboard was the one to look for.

RE: Starting to Program

Steph Locke — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 09:41:31 GMT

Coming from a fairly non-technical background and getting into BI via the gateway program (i.e. excel which makes you want to go on to harder, more powerful programs and languages like sql) I've found that actual coding I can do, but what I struggle with is finding resources pegged at a non-geek level regarding network/server configuration tasks.It's things like:- multiple domain mapping- core cmd-line requirements- security groups/firewalls- simple how-tos for iis- framework installations and configurationsMany of these tasks are simple (theoretically) but I find these hard because the writers seem to assume a level of intimacy with the jargon that's way beyond me. I've been working recently on setting up a blog, and the aim was to have a wordpress blog set on an ec2 instance and having two domains (.com and .info) pointing to it with subdomains (steph. and oz.). It was such a nightmare of a task that in the end I paid someone $10 (via fiverr.com an awesome site) to do it since I could not find any resources written at the right level. Of course now I'm having to learn linux cmd-line stuff because the server doesn't have a gui, but at least there's some very simple articles out there on it.

RE: Starting to Program

Steve Jones - SSC Editor — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 09:38:12 GMT

[quote][b]Michael Meierruth (7/6/2012)[/b][hr]Steve,I got a real bang seeing that photo on the right hand side of your editorial. Not many people can say they actually ever used a card punch machine. I can say that I used it and enjoyed it. and was really good at it.. and it brings back some good feelings of the past - like BASIC, FORTRAN, ASSEMBLER and yes COBOL.[/quote]Thought a few people would like that. I didn't do cards, but I did do early compiles where I could watch the lines of code compile on the screen. And read them as they went by

RE: Starting to Program

Rod at work — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 09:27:37 GMT

Ah, programming. Definitely where I feel most "at home", as I am a programmer first, and then an accidental DBA second. However, I've been programming for a long time. What I started on is probably no longer relevant. If its a new programming language I'm trying to learn, then I'll often go to Amazon.com to see if I can find a book on it. If there's a tough problem I've encountered while programming I'll post a message on Microsoft's MSDN forums (social.msdn.microsoft.com) and on StackOverflow (stackoverflow.com). Both are excellent.

RE: Starting to Program

Robert Domitz — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 08:57:41 GMT

You must be a youngster - that's an 029 keypunch! When I punched FORTRAN cards, I used an 026!:-D[img]http://www.columbia.edu/cu/computinghistory/026.jpg[/img](Thanks to www.columbia.edu for the image!)

RE: Starting to Program

GBimberg — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 08:48:28 GMT

As an old programmer, I recommend a .net language. I prefer C#, but VB is closer to English and is used in Microsoft Applications like Access and Excel.

RE: Starting to Program

thadeushuck — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 08:47:35 GMT

.net stuff[url]http://www.homeandlearn.co.uk/net/vbnet.html[/url] [url]http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=.net%20basics%20tutorial&source=web&cd=3&ved=0CFgQFjAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdownload.microsoft.com%2Fdownload%2F8%2Fe%2F7%2F8e725d96-7ec3-498b-9fa7-86779aed101f%2Fdotnet%2520tutorial%2520for%2520beginners.pdf&ei=Hvf2T_uBHefo0QHg3ui9Bg&usg=AFQjCNGMBVWUAloXCkrDy6q7BCidxw_zQA[/url] PDF tutorial [url]http://asp.net-tutorials.com/basics/introduction/[/url] ASP tutorialpowershell stuff[url]http://www.powershellpro.com/powershell-tutorial-introduction/tutorial-windows-powershell-console/[/url] use sidebars to nav[url]http://powertoe.wordpress.com/2009/11/10/powershell-part-1/[/url] navigate thru it [url]http://technet.microsoft.com/library/ee332526.aspx[/url] task based I'd suggest picking to learn one or two language flavors to do what you need. I like to have monitoring pages and dashboards to look at and into the complex environments, I work in. So .net and powershell make a formatable supporting cast since most of what I want to know I get from SQL. All the secrets are kept in these things called books...

RE: Starting to Program

Michael Meierruth — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 08:45:23 GMT

Steve,I got a real bang seeing that photo on the right hand side of your editorial. Not many people can say they actually ever used a card punch machine. I can say that I used it and enjoyed it. and was really good at it.. and it brings back some good feelings of the past - like BASIC, FORTRAN, ASSEMBLER and yes COBOL.

RE: Starting to Program

chrisn-585491 — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 07:44:29 GMT

As a programmer, three skills I suggest are: version control, project management and documentation. As for a .NET language to use with SQL Server and it's features, I hate the fact that VB is supported more than C#.

RE: Starting to Program

paul.knibbs — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 07:28:49 GMT

I was a programmer long before I had anything to do with SQL. I started coding in BASIC on a ZX Spectrum 30-odd years ago. I've done Pascal, C, C++, C#, and assembly in my time, and yet the language I find the most frustratingly difficult to figure out is, you guessed it, SQL. The mindset you need to be in to do things in a set-based fashion as opposed to a procedural fashion is utterly different, and I suspect it's actually easier to come at this from the SQL side to the procedural side than it is to do it the other way round!As for learning procedural languages, I actually think a BASIC variant is a pretty good place to start. The syntax is certainly more akin to SQL than, say, C is (using <> for "not equals" and Boolean operators spelt out as their English names, for instance), and modern BASICs are considerably more structured than the famed spaghetti code generators of yore. You can also use VB.NET to write your CLR routines once you're done!

RE: Starting to Program

jasona.work — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 07:24:23 GMT

I've done some Powershell, although mostly I've found scripts to accomplish what I need in general, then fine-tune them. An excellent resource for picking up on Powershell is the Sapien Press book: [url=http://www.sapien.com/books/Windows-PowerShell-2]TFM - Windows Powershell 2.0[/url]Also, as Frank W stated, the Microsoft Scripting Guys are also a big help.Jason

RE: Starting to Program

Eric M Russell — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 06:57:00 GMT

I've actually started tinkering around lately with, Inform, a natural language programming tool for writing interactive fiction (remember Zork?). There are tons of tutorials and examples out there, and most of the stories are published free along with the source code. This would make an excellent entry point for school kids who are interested in programming computers. Also, for those of us who program professionally, it's nice to cleanse the pallet at the end of the day and program something that doesn't involve number crunching and deadlines. Inform website.[url]http://inform7.com/learn/[/url]A website hosting an Inform interperter, IDE, place for writers to post their stories.[url]http://playfic.com/[/url]

RE: Starting to Program

Nadrek — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 05:54:58 GMT

The same advice holds true for a DBA learning to program as anyone else learning to program; determine your goals.For any DBA, I'd say learning SQL would be the most important - not just memorizing Microsoft additions, but really working with the language at a detailed level. You'll note that the advanced scripts we see use a variety of concepts to achieve their aims, some of which are little Microsoft based tricks, and some of which are very sound, generalizable algorithms and techniques. SQL Parameters are essentially no different than variables in other languages, passing arguments is similar - make use of OUTPUT parameters in stored procedures, and that'll be a sound base for other procedural languages.If you're not serious, then play around with whatever you like - I'd recommend, in general, a scripting language. A simple set would be SQL, batch files or Powershell, and x.NET or Python or another modern easy to write language.If you are serious, pick about three disparate languages... and learn your algorithms and underlying constructs. Learn about sorting algorithms, from bubble and selection sorts to hash and quick sorts. Learn about pointers and trees and linked lists and hash tables and other data structures. Learn about network coding - at a minimum, TCP and UDP. Learn about disk access, buffered and unbuffered, sequential and random. Learn about CPU instruction sets. Learn about stack based vs. register based coding. Learn about word alignment. Learn about data types. Learn about parallel programming. Learn about memory management. A very serious set would be, say, SQL, C, and some CPU's assembly language - after learning these three, anything other procedural language is just syntax. (1)C++ can be learned as an adjunct for object oriented programming, but for the very serious, learn C first; object orientation is an abstraction layer for the programmer that doesn't survive at the instructions the CPU executes. A moderate set would be, say, SQL, x.NET or Python or another modern easy to write language, and either C or an assembly language. x.NET - all .NET languages are essentially a front end to a very large library of functions and procedures, with minor syntactical differences. VB.net is case insensitive, C#.net is case sensititive.

RE: Starting to Program

P Jones — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 05:07:02 GMT

VB should be the start as SSIS uses it and particularly VB.NET. I'd recommend a course first but my favourite website for getting to grips with vb.net web apps was 4guysfromrolla.com

RE: Starting to Program

Alex Gay — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 02:44:33 GMT

When I needed to learn XPath and XQuery I went to W3Schools (www.w3schools.com), the tutorial was straight forward and has a good reference section.I started off as a VB6/VBA programmer years ago with the Microsoft Press book Visual Basic Step-By-Step and added SQL to this later. CodeAcademy (http://www.codecademy.com) has a basic introduction to Java.However most of the time I learn best from books (not e-books) and have found the O'Reilly books some of the best references with their "In A Nutshell" range. I also have a large collection of Microsoft Press books for topics such as ADO.NET, Powershell and C#.

RE: Starting to Program

Frank W Fulton Jr — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 23:30:40 GMT

My usual starting point for Powershell is with "The Scripting Guy" at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/scriptcenter/dd901334.aspxIf he does not provide what I am looking for I then do a Google and/or Bing search.

Starting to Program

Steve Jones - SSC Editor — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 22:22:48 GMT

Comments posted to this topic are about the item [B]Starting to Program[/B]