best way to learn Visual Studio

[johndavid]

I am an energy engineer, so my exposure to software is limited. I have started designing web pages (data driven), out of the need to create web energy reports. I used asp and vb scripting. In the process, I have discovered that I like programming. Now I need to take myself to the next level (since asp is kind of outdated). I would like to start learning Visual Studio and the .NET technology. I would like to learn how to develop web and windows applications. Most of the things I know, I have taught myself. My problem now is that the .NET and Visual Sudio knowledge base is so huge, that I don't know where to start. Best method for me to learn, is if you show me a compelete project, I can then grasp most of the concepts. So I learn best by examples.

Do you have any suggestions on the easiest way to start learning Visual Studio?. What software to download? I guess I need to download the free trial software first. I just need a place to start..

[Bryan]

I've been a .NET developer for 6-7 years. If you want to learn, I'd recommend you grab a reference book, come up with an idea for a simple project, and just get to work trying to build it. Between the book, and Google searches, you should be able to find a solution for any issue you end up having.

If you're building ASP.NET sites, I found the forums at asp.net to be very helpful.

Different people learn best via different ways. So for you, maybe a class or two on the topic might help?

[Unknown Webmaster]

Just some general "learn programming" advice since you are self taught. I may be shooting below the goal

Get into the habit of documenting your code thoroughly. You won't need it for your first many projects, but if you do it anyway, you will be much better at writing good descriptions when you do a project that is so big/complicated that you actually need the documentation.

Get a good understanding of design patterns and object oriented programming. You don't "need" this, but it will pay dividends when you do a big project.
Head First Design Patterns are good Head First Design Patterns | O'Reilly Media (easy enjoyable)
Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software (Gang of Four) Amazon.com: Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software (Addison-Wesley Professional Computing Series): Erich Gamma, Richard Helm, Ralph Johnson, John M. Vlissides: Books (somewhat advanced)

Like Bryan said, the best way to learn programming is to find a simple project to work. That is at least how I learned to code. I think it would be a good idea to try and find either a video tutorial or book (Head First is good for this) that show you how to do something and then go through it while making sure to do things exactly like you would if you didn't have it i.e. looking up and reading the references, experimenting with parameters and documenting everything in detail.

You may also want to learn some UML ( Unified Modeling Language - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ) so you can make models of your projects. It seems like a waste of time with small projects, but having experience with it is invaluable when you want to create something big.

[Vickegureo]

I am using Visual Studio 2008 (visual basic windows Form Application) i have made a key gen and i want to save it like the key gen available online i don't want to save it as a setup file but like a key gen please help me save it and i will give you the keys to any software in the world?