.Net advice

[Fer]

Hi,
I have just been told of a possible assignment at my company working on .Net. Since my knowledge of this subject is limited (ok, non existant) I was wondering if anyone could recommend any good books to get me started. I have some VB, C experience, but not worked with .Net. Just been down to Foyles to be confronted with a wall of books, so I thought I should go consult an expert.

Also is it just MS .Net? Do I need to go cap in hand to the FD for Visual Studio, or are there any other options.

TIA, apu,
Chris

[pdV6]

See: www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?f=95&h=&t=110795

.Net is MS only, so its VS.Net £££kerching!

[Fer]

Thanks (again) Pete. Sorry I missed this one, guess it did not register on the radar, but then again, only told of the possibility this morning.

[Alex]

You can download the .NET 2005 Express Beta editions from the MS website for free.

Also, the .NET framework is free. You can develop programs without Visual Studio if you know what you are doing.

There is a free .NET IDE here, but I haven't tried it myself.

>> Edited by Alex on Thursday 5th August 13:33

[Fer]

Thanks for the advice, "Beginning VB.NET 2003" purchased, now to see about downloading that IDE.

[anonymous-user]

Alex said:

Also, the .NET framework is free. You can develop programs without Visual Studio if you know what you are doing. There is a free .NET IDE here, but I haven't tried it myself.

I've tried it and it's not too bad at all. There's also WebMatrix for ASP.Net development.

Alternatively, if you're feeling adventurous, you could try Notepad and Nant.