ASP.NET / .NET Framework: YO, DOOOOOD! It's in the Quickstarts!
If I had a dollar for every forum or newsgroup post I've seen that could easily be answered by just looking at the ASP.NET / .NET Framework Quickstarts, I'd be a very rich man.
I don't know whether it's because people are just lonely and are looking for some sort of validation, or that they are just plain STUPID, or a combination of the two.
Here's the deal: People make posts to newsgroups and forums with these questions. And they wait for an answer, which often never even comes (either because their posting netiquette is really poor, or because the post isn't really very interesting to most readers and they respond to other posts). And so the posters get frustrated.
The Microsoft people have invested a HUGE amount of time and effort to provide you with tools to make the learning experience easy and productive. A significant amount of this effort for both .NET 1.1 and .NET 2.0 has gone into the production of the Quickstarts tutorials and the Samples applications.
What never ceases to amaze me is that a significant percentage of users do not realize that these applications are available as part of the installation tree for BOTH Visual Studio.NET (2003 and 2005) AND the .NET Framework SDK (1.1. and 2.0).
They are FREE -- and all you need to do is install them, follow the easy setup instructions, and "dive in". The example code is provided in both VB.NET and C#; the language preference is yours.
Not only that, but both quickstarts for ASP.NET (versions 1.1 and 2.0) are available online if you are too lazy to install them on your local machine!
http://samples.gotdotnet.com/quickstart/ -- that's the 1.1. Quickstarts.
http://asp.net/QuickStart/aspnet/Default.aspx -- and that's the 2.0 Quickstarts.
There is also a Windows Forms "Quickstart" with over 900 code samples here.
N.B. --I had a couple of comments to this post intimating that I am being "arrogant". Perhaps I could have worded it in a more benign manner, but my objective here is not to be arrogant or come off as "holier than thou" -- it's to enlighten people to the fact that these excellent resources exist, and to encourage people to use them as a more productive first step. I've been programming with .NET since 2000, and I still often refer to the quickstarts as a convenent way to find sample code on "How to do X" - either because I've forgotten how to do it, or because (arrogant "hotshot" that I may be) I actually do not know how to do it.
Folks: HOW ABOUT IT? QUICKSTARTS!
Rest my case.
I don't know whether it's because people are just lonely and are looking for some sort of validation, or that they are just plain STUPID, or a combination of the two.
Here's the deal: People make posts to newsgroups and forums with these questions. And they wait for an answer, which often never even comes (either because their posting netiquette is really poor, or because the post isn't really very interesting to most readers and they respond to other posts). And so the posters get frustrated.
The Microsoft people have invested a HUGE amount of time and effort to provide you with tools to make the learning experience easy and productive. A significant amount of this effort for both .NET 1.1 and .NET 2.0 has gone into the production of the Quickstarts tutorials and the Samples applications.
What never ceases to amaze me is that a significant percentage of users do not realize that these applications are available as part of the installation tree for BOTH Visual Studio.NET (2003 and 2005) AND the .NET Framework SDK (1.1. and 2.0).
They are FREE -- and all you need to do is install them, follow the easy setup instructions, and "dive in". The example code is provided in both VB.NET and C#; the language preference is yours.
Not only that, but both quickstarts for ASP.NET (versions 1.1 and 2.0) are available online if you are too lazy to install them on your local machine!
http://samples.gotdotnet.com/quickstart/ -- that's the 1.1. Quickstarts.
http://asp.net/QuickStart/aspnet/Default.aspx -- and that's the 2.0 Quickstarts.
There is also a Windows Forms "Quickstart" with over 900 code samples here.
N.B. --I had a couple of comments to this post intimating that I am being "arrogant". Perhaps I could have worded it in a more benign manner, but my objective here is not to be arrogant or come off as "holier than thou" -- it's to enlighten people to the fact that these excellent resources exist, and to encourage people to use them as a more productive first step. I've been programming with .NET since 2000, and I still often refer to the quickstarts as a convenent way to find sample code on "How to do X" - either because I've forgotten how to do it, or because (arrogant "hotshot" that I may be) I actually do not know how to do it.
Folks: HOW ABOUT IT? QUICKSTARTS!
Rest my case.
I guess if we were all hot-shot MVP mensa guys who weren't new to a framework that has a bu-zillion classes, and didn't have bosses breathing down our necks asking when it's going to be finished, and didn't need to spend some time with our families at night, we'd have time to work through all these tutorials at our leisure and wouldn't need to ask questions online. What an arrogant ass you are, Peter.
ReplyDeleteFair point - I have beem guily of this in the past.
ReplyDeleteActually, my anonymous friend, if you look at my answers to various forum and newsgroup posts, you'll see that almost without exception I am exactly the opposite. I answer the question AND I point the poster to the quickstarts apps if appropriate.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I have a boss who breathes down my neck and have a family that requires my time. In fact, I have an autistic son who requires a GREAT DEAL more time than the average.
I also have opinions as you have just seen.
So, say what you will pal.
Dear Mr. Mensa MVP, anonymous here again. Listen to my story and tell me if I'm stupid because this is a perfect example. I'm new to .NET. I have a ColdFusion background and have done a smattering of classical ASP (probably less than 1000 lines total). Six months ago my boss says we're switching to .NET and I'm supposed to convert a website before Christmas. So I go out and buy three twelve-hundred page books on ASP.NET 1.1 and get to work. My work process basically went like this. Need to do something? Read about it in book 1 and hopefully there's an example. No luck? Skip to book #2 and read that section. Still no help, go to book 3. If you still can't find any useful information you Google it and cross your fingers. So finally I get the site converted, two months behind schedule by the way. Two weeks ago I'm told, forget about .NET 1.1, we might as well just move on to .NET 2.0 so we're not behind everyone else plus it has all these great new features. And oh yea, we need you to convert the company phonebook to ASP.NET 2.0 (the one that gets 10,000 hits in a day). So now I go out and buy the "Pro ASP.NET 2.0 in C# 2005" book from Apress and I'm reading it every night after work (until midnight, in fact) so that I can quickly come up to speed on 2.0. I'm writing some demo code yesterday in order to learn some new controls and I get an execution error. The stack trace tells me to set debug=true in my web.config file. So I look in my Solution Explorer window (which doesn't quite look like the 1.1 window) and low and behold there's no web.config file! Where the hell did it go? So first I try looking up web.config in VS 2005's Help and, after grinding away doing an online lookup (?) for four minutes, I get hundreds of hits. So I begin scrolling, "no, no, no, that's not it, that doesn't look relevant, no not that." Finally I give up with VS2005 Help. Too many hits and, from the brief descriptions, none of them look like they're going to tell me where web.config went. So I start poking around on the menu bar and I stumble onto the ASP.NET Properties window. Hmmm... maybe that's it. I open it up and think now I'm getting closer, there's something about application variables. I open it up. Hmmm..., there's two textboxes for entering a name-value pair but I need to enter a parameter that's within a tag that's within another tag in my web.config file. Two tags plus one value but I only see two textboxes here. What the f@#&! So next I drag out my new APress book and flip to the index and I find 32 references to web.config. Oh well, better call the way and say I'll be late. I check the first four or five references but none of them say where web.config went to! I have Show All Files checked. Where the hell is it??!!! I run a Google search and still nothing useful. Now let's say I take your advice, Mr. Mensa, and go to the ASP.NET 2.0 tutorials. Let's see "What's New in ASP.NET 2.0?" Nothing there. Let's look at "Building a Web Application," that looks pertinent. Crap. You mean I've got to work through these 22 tutorial pages and hope they mention something about where web.config went to? Let's look at something else. "Managing ASP.NET Applications," I bet that's it. So now I'm looking through these sections and I still don't see anything that says, "The web.config file no longer appears by default in the Solution Explorer Window. To view the web.config file, do..."
ReplyDeleteNow Mr. Mensa, I think you can see where this is leading. Am I really, REALLY stupid? To do my work, I need to know various things much faster than I can read books and tutorials. I have very little .NET experience, it's a overwhelming huge framework to learn even if you are an experienced developer, the online help isn't good at providing relevant information, and Microsoft has changed their tool on me. Do I spend umpteen hours skimming books, working tutorials, and Googling and waste my employers time and money or, if after making a sincere effort to find an answer to a simple problem, do I log in to a discussion board and ask someone like yourself who has much more experience than I a simple question so that I can solve this one stupid problem and move on. You tell me.
Dood,
ReplyDeleteI can understand your frustration, but you know, giving me the history of the world on my UnBlog isn't gonna get you to first base any faster.
The problem isn't you, it's your employer's unreasonable demands, and you're projecting it onto me or whoever else you want to vent your spleen at.
I'd suggest you get some sleep and polish up your resume so you can find a better work environment with a boss who has some concept of reality.
Cheers.
Dear Anonymous,
ReplyDelete1 martini glass (frozen)
1 martini shaker (fill with shaved ice)
2 shots Grey Goose Vodka
3/4 shot of pineapple juice
drink
rinse glass and repeat
Hi Peter, i have a serious problem here using Asp.net
ReplyDeleteit seem i my web session seem to leak out as client A login can see Client B data ,i duno how it could happen ,but it happen sometime and when u check in it jst show smoothly
could u guide me how to enchance the session declare
my email is benson@time.net.my
pls mail me to keep in contact
i hope u able to help out the poor one here
cheers,
Ben
Ben,
ReplyDeletepost the question at the forums at eggheadcafe.com. Thanks.
I was going to write something virulent about human lasines. But suddenly I realised that Humman lasines came hand in hand with stuppidity, so it would of been a waist of my time. Instead I will make this post a waist of your time, you lazy asses outthere. I've seen ppl like you, in real life, as well on diffrent forums. Never is a pleasent experience.
ReplyDeleteoh MR guru, can you do this and that? Oh MR guru, how great you are... you are so smart... how did you do that? (and than behind your back -> that MF! who does he think he is? some kind of Computer genious? FY) It makes me sick.
So my final message is this... Never Stop Learning, Never Stop Reading, Never Stop. And for those that do not have time... and think Of Me as arrogant well, I am talking behind your back all the time ;))
Amen, Bro. I had to search google on "human lasines" to figure out you meant "human laziness", but I got the picture.
ReplyDelete