Email of the week (December 1, 2012)

I just received this email from a fan of my Learn to Program with Visual C# book

Hello Mr. Smiley,

I recently purchased your book Learn to Program with Visual C# Express.
I know you've probably received many many Emails, letters, etc. saying thank you,
well here is another one... Lol.

I have read many many programming book in the last 30 years of my programming life.
But yours is so well done and was so great it was hard to put it down.  Most authors
write in a method that is so dry.  Your book was wonderful and engaging.  I enjoyed the
interaction with the students in the book.  You did a wonderful job of making me feel as
if I was part of the class. Thank you.  I hope all of the students from the class are doing well.

C# is not my first Visual programming experience.  But it is surely my favorite so far.

Anyway,  (Sorry to bore you) I was wondering if you have the C# intermediate class book published?

Sincerely,

Brad
Fort Worth, TX.

My Response...

Hi Brad

Thank you for your very kind email---I really appreciate it!

Actually, few people take the time to email me, but when they do it really makes my day!

Interestingly, I got the opportunity to write my first book when I emailed the publisher of a book I was using in my class to tell him how much I enjoyed using it, and offered a few suggestions to make it even better.

I don't have an Intermediate C# book that I've writen---I stick to introductory topics---but I can highly recommend the Murach C# book.

I'm currently using a Head First book in my HTML/CSS class, and I find the tone of the book (not dry, not too serious) to be very similar to mind. I'd recommend you check out the Head First C# book also.

As far as the students, the students in the book were based on actual students I taught at Penn State. Once in a while I'll hear from them, and I keep in contact with a few of them on Linkedin.

Thanks again for your email, and keep me posted on your C# progress.

John Smiley

-

My best selling books

Have I mentioned that my best selling book are in the C# area?

Kids Programming

Here are a couple of great websites for kids wanted to learn how to program Microsoft products...

C# for Kids
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/beginner/bb308756.aspx

Kids Corner
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/beginner/bb308754.aspx

Fan Mail post of the week

Hi John

I have purchased one of your books in the past and now I working on getting back into programming and wanted to get your new C# 08 express book. I look forward to reading it. I do have a question however, I have been a System Engineer / Sys Admin for about 17 years now and now I have the honor of working for a local health department as the Network Administrator.

I support a network of 70 staff and equipment and we use a lot of data bases and various programs to do our work as you can well imagine. I want to streamline a lot of the day to day activities by writing web based programs and pc based programs to better serve the staff here in their work.

My problem is that when programming I have used numerous books and although I do feel that yours is the best that I have read I still have the same problem when staring at the programming interface "how do I start?" what I mean is there is a lot of code in programs; now that being said nowadays most of the back-end coding is already done but I still have problems figuring out how and where to start, why would I use one command over another and are there cheat sheets a beginning programmer can keep around for quick reference?

I am interested in using Visual Web Developer 2008 Express with C# and using SQL for Database and am just at my wits end on figuring out the basics. Any advise would be helpful and I do appreciate any assistance you can give.

Thank you
Bob


My response:

Hi Bob

In the old days of team programming, we would just borrow some one's code and see what they did. That's a little harder these days, as there just aren't that many big programming shops---lot of people are doing things on their own. Plus, the technologies are much more advanced than when I started coding in COBOL.

Having said that, a book I use in my Internet classes that seems to meet your requirements is

Build Your Own ASP.Net 2.0 Web Site using C# and VB

It has a full featured Web application that you develop that could give you a good starting point.

You only need to know the C# you'll learn in my book, so that would be the next best step.

Links to my books

Recent analysis of my blog stats indicates that people are looking for links to the many computer books I have written, so here they are...

Learn to Program with VB.Net 2008 Express
ISBN: 978-0-615-24843-1 (Smiley Publishing, August 24, 2008)
Order an Autographed Copy for $48 ($45 via PayPal)
Order via Amazon
Order a copy for $39.99 via Lulu.com
Order an Electronic Version for $13.95 ($12.95 via PayPal)

Learn to Program with Visual C# 2008 Express
ISBN: 978-0-615-24842-4 (Smiley Publishing, June 20, 2008)
Note: If you already have the Visual C# 2005 Express edition, please don't order this one. The changes in the Editions, at the Introductory level of this book, are miniscule. Only screen shots have changed.
Order an Autographed Copy for $48 ($45 via PayPal)
Order via Amazon
Order a copy for $39.99 via Lulu.com
Order an Electronic Version for $13.95 ($12.95 via PayPal)

Learn to Program with Visual C# 2005 Express
ISBN: Not Assigned Yet (Smiley Publishing, April 7, 2008)
Order an Autographed Copy for $48 ($45 via PayPal)
Order a copy for $39.99 via Lulu.com
Order an Electronic Version for $13.95 ($12.95 via PayPal)

Learn to Program with VB.Net 2005 Express
ISBN: Not Assigned Yet (Smiley Publishing, May 16, 2007)
Order an Autographed Copy for $48 ($45 via PayPal)
Order a copy for $39.99 via Lulu.com
Order an Electronic Version for $13.95 ($12.95 via PayPal)

Learn to Program with JavaScript
ISBN: 978-1-84728-999-1 (Smiley Publishing, September 20, 2006)
Order an Autographed Copy for $48 ($45 via PayPal)
Order via Amazon
Order a copy for $39.99 via Lulu.com
Order an Electronic Version for $13.95 ($12.95 via PayPal)

Learn to Program with C++ (using the Borland C++ Batch Compiler)
Original ISBN: 0072-225-351 (Osborne/McGraw Hill, April 23, 2002)
ISBN: Pending: (Smiley Publishing, February 14, 2007)
Order an Autographed Copy for $48 ($45 via PayPal)
Order a copy for $39.99 via Lulu.com
Order an Electronic Version for $13.95 ($12.95 via PayPal)
Read a sample chapter (Chapter 6)
View Table of Contents

Learn to Program with C# (using the .Net C# Batch Compiler)
Original ISBN: 0072-222-611 (Osborne/McGraw Hill, April 23, 2002)
ISBN: Pending: (Smiley Publishing, December 11, 2006)
Order an Autographed Copy for $48 ($45 via PayPal)
Order a copy for $39.99 via Lulu.com
Order an Electronic Version for $13.95 ($12.95 via PayPal)
Read an article on Installing and configuring the C# Batch compiler
View Table of Contents

Learn to Program with Java
Original ISBN: 0072-131-896 (Osborne/McGraw Hill, November 2, 2001)
ISBN: Pending: (Smiley Publishing, August 13, 2007)
Order an Autographed Copy for $48 ($45 via PayPal)
Order a copy for $39.99 via Lulu.com
Order an Electronic Version for $13.95 ($12.95 via PayPal)
Read an article on Installing the Java Development Kit
Read the bonus chapter, Chapter 14 on Applet Creation, which is not in the book
Read a sample chapter (Chapter 7)
View Table of Contents

Learn to Program with Visual Basic.Net 2002/2003
Original ISBN: 0072-131-772 (Osborne/McGraw Hill, January 11, 2002)
ISBN: Pending: (Smiley Publishing, February 14, 2007)
Order an Autographed Copy for $48 ($45 via PayPal)
Order a copy for $39.99 via Lulu.com
Order an Electronic Version for $13.95 ($12.95 via PayPal)
Read a sample chapter (Chapter 8)
View Table of Contents

Learn to Program with Visual Basic Objects
Original ISBN: 1902-745-048 (Wrox Press, December 1, 1999)
ISBN: 1929-685-165 (Course Technology, March 1, 2001)
Order an Autographed Copy for $48 (Sorry, sold out)
Order via Amazon
Download the China Shop Project as of the end of the Intro book/beginning of this book
View Table of Contents

Learn to Program with Visual Basic Databases
Original ISBN: 1902-745-035 (Wrox Press, July 1, 1999)
ISBN: 1929-685-157 (Course Technology, March 1, 2001)
Order an Autographed Copy for $48 ($45 via PayPal) Hurry, only 1 left!
Order via Amazon
View Table of Contents

Learn to Program with Visual Basic Examples
Original ISBN: 1902-745-06X (Wrox Press, May 1, 1999)
ISBN: 1929-685-157 (Course Technology, March 1, 2001)
Order an Autographed Copy for $38 (Sorry, sold out)
Order via Amazon

Learn to Program with Visual Basic 6
Original ISBN: 1902-745-000 (Wrox Press, November 30, 1998)
ISBN: 1590-591-518 (Apress, July 3, 2003)
Now being published by Smiley Publishing (September 1, 2007)
Order an Autographed Copy for $48 (Sorry, sold out)
Order via Amazon
Order via Lulu.com (Coming soon!)
View Table of Contents

.NET 3.5 framework object models

My thanks to a student of mine, Steve, for pointing this out to me.

For anyone who might find this useful (I know I always do), Microsoft has a link where you can download the .Net 3.5 Framework Object Model Posters.

These come in quite handy if you are programming in any of the .Net languages, such as VB.Net or C#. Here's the link...

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=7B645F3A-6D22-4548-A0D8-C2A27E1917F8&display=en&displaylang=en

Here's the Tinyurl

http://tinyurl.com/asahe5

Printing the poster will be up to you---I have an old one here that came with my Visual Studio 2003 edition---it's about 3x5 feet, and it hung on my wall for many years.

Letter of the week (and my response) January 24, 2009

I received this email the other day---it illustrates the desire on the part of inexperienced people to learn programming. Check out the email and my response which is quite lengthy

Hello,

I was looking around for C# classes and was wondering what the difference was between Introduction to Visual C#---Any Version (8 weeks) vs. Introduction to C# using the .Net Batch compiler (8 weeks).

Would there be any discounts for students like me?

Do you also have any testimonials that these classes do help?

I really want to learn C# and am looking for something that would help me easily.

I have no prior experience in programming. I'm looking forward to your reply. Thank you.

My Repsonse

Hi J

Thanks for your interest in my classes!

The difference in the two courses is the course textbook I use--both of which I have written.
Intro to C# uses a book I wrote a few years ago which concentrates on learning C# using the C# Batch compiler.

Visual C# uses a book I recently wrote using C# Express, which is a Visual Tool.

Both courses are good, and you'll learn fundamental C# programming, but you'll learn more about creating your own objects (and what that means) in the C# Batch compiler class.

However, learning C# in the batch compiler world is harder than Visual C#.

Why have you chosen C# as your first programming language?

Unfortunately, I don't offer discounts to students, only active duty military.

Somewhere on my website I'm sure I have some accolades about my classes, but those naturally come from happy students, and I can be a bit more objective.

Students who do well in my Internet courses tend to be those who are independent.
As you can imagine, if we met 3 hours per week in a classroom, it would be a bit easier than using my electronic classroom to communicate (although I hope to have Webcam options available soon).

This much I can guarantee you---if you are serious about learning to program, and put in the time (about 10 hours per week for reading, working on assignments, etc), are willing to post questions and comments in my electronic classroom, you will know how to program when you finish the course. That doesn't mean you will be an expert, or will get a job in programming, but it does mean you are on your way.

From that point on, you can continue to learn C# on your own or continue with me in some other courses.

Programming is a big world--depending upon what you want to learn and do, your learning path can be a year or much longer.

On the other hand, if you are an impatient person, one who gets very frustrated when things don't work the first time, then my courses are probably not right for you.

I can't be with you all the time while you are coding your first program---and if you deal with programming errors as a sign that you are a failure, instead of a challenge, the programming world may not be for you.

I still remember my first COBOL programming attempt---over 4,000 errors on my first compile. I felt pretty low.

I corrected a single mispelling on one line of code, and the number went down to 2,000. I thought to myself, this is pretty cool.

I corrected another error---down to 1,000.

You get the point.

Within 10 minutes, I had reduced my errors from over 4,000 to about 28.

Of course, it took me about two days to correct the remaining 28 errors, but I did, and all time I was thinking this is the greatest way to spend my time.

I've been doing that ever since for 32 years.

So, if you are the type of person who sees a challenge in an error message from a computer, and not a reason to smack the keyboard (well, we all do that from time to time) then programming is for you, and my courses may be right for you also.

In an ideal environment, I would be with you in a classroom--but even though my Internet courses are remote, that doesn't mean you are alone.

I hope this helps you with your decision.

Let me know if there's anything else I can do for you.

Have a great day!

John Smiley

My Computer Programming Internet Courses

A lot of people don't realize that I teach Internet based Computer Programming Courses.

I teach courses in a variety of popular, up-to-date languages such as Visual Basic, C#, C++, Java and HTML.

The courses are convenient, since they are Internet based you don't have to 'be' somewhere at a particular place and time.

Except for 1 hour per week, the course is totally message board based using my Moodle (Open Source) electronic classroom.

1 time per week I host an interactive chat where you can talk with me and the other students in the class.

My courses are not free, but they are cheaper than College Courses---plus, you get the benefit of being taught by a popular author and consultant. Many of my courses use my best selling books at the course textbook.

Each course gives you a chance to practice with programming assignments and quizzes.

You can take my courses when they are scheduled---regularly throughout the year---or self-paced versions of the courses where you work at your own pace.

I also offer a yearly subscription to my courses wherein you can pay a single fee and take as many courses as you want for a full year.

A great feature of my courses is that, unlike other training venues, I never cancel a course---they are always held, regardless of the number of students who sign up. I'll hold a course for a single student, which can be a very intimate learning experience.

For more information on my courses, follow this link.

http://www.johnsmiley.com/main/training.htm

Fan Mail---Letter of the week

I just received this very nice email from a student/reader who bought my book last week---nice emails like this inspire me to keep writing in the face of overwhelming obstacles to just quit and watch the Eagles frustrate me with another close loss :)

By the way, here is the Amazon.com link to the book this reader is talking about....

http://www.amazon.com/Learn-Program-C-John-Smiley/dp/0072222611/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1227460659&sr=1-7

It's listed as being out-of-print, but I have the rights to sell it, and have republished it under my Smiley Publishing brand. I have a hundred copies right behind me if anyone needs one.

Hi John,

I hope you remember me. I purchased your book about a week and a half ago. I already passed half the book and I can tell you is that this the best introductory book I have ever read..It's worth every penny.

You know, I was getting frustrated with other books and sometimes I got to a point where I thought programming was not for me, but your book is so nicely written and so understandable that I am have progressed more in this short time then ever before.

I just want to thank you and I really really appreciate you took the dedication and time to write this book.

I think, thanks to your book I can eventually have a sucessful career. I am eager to learn more. By the way, do you have a continuation book for C#?....It would be great if you did. Or if you don't, can you recommend me one from another source....

I need to get up to pace because I would eventually like to get Microsoft Certified in .NET in the near future.

As you can tell I joined your C# group in Facebook but I am the only member there.

Introducing Self Paced courses in my Internet school

This is the text of an email I just sent out to my Yahoo groups concerning new offerings in my Internet based courses...



In the past, all of my courses have begun on a set starting date, and ended (more or less) or a set finishing date. This has caused me to lose some potential students who are ready to take a course, but the course isn't ready to begin.



For instance, Introduction to Visual C# begins on January 26th, 2009.



I just sold a Visual C# book today to a student who might be interested in taking the course along with reading the book, but the course isn't starting for 2 months.



I've also had students who would like to fly through an 8 week course in a week or so--but in my traditional courses, I've opened up a week of material at the beginning of each week. In other words, In Week 1, you couldn't see the classroom material for Week 2 through 8.



For these reasons, I've created self-paced versions of all of my Introductory courses---they all begin---anytime you want.



Self Paced courses are really no different from my regular classes.





You still have an active instructor (me) who will answer your questions, grade your assignments.Self-paced classes follow the same syllabus as the Regularly Scheduled course.



In almost every way are identical to Regularly scheduled courses, with the following differences:

• Self Paced courses can be started at any time---you don't have to wait around for the course to begin the way you do with a regularly scheduled course.
• You have up to 90 days from the time you register to finish the Self Paced course (twist my arm and I'll give you even longer)
• You can finish the Self Paced course at your own pace---faster or slower than the suggested pacing of the Regularly Scheduled course. All materials for the course are available from the first day you enter the classroom.
• Self Paced courses do not have a 1 hour weekly chat--although you can always chat with me weekly in the Alumni Chat Room of my Moodle University, which is hosted on alternating Wednesday evenings or Saturday mornings.
• Self Paced courses are offered at a $50 discount off the regularly scheduled course.
• There is no repeat rate pricing for a Self-paced course.
  
  

Right now, all of the Intro courses I offer are now available as Self Paced Courses, and you can register and join anytime you wish by following this link...

http://www.johnsmiley.com/main/training.htm#SELFPACED



I hope to offer additional courses in the Intermediate and Advanced levels in the coming weeks.



Thanks---and have a great day!

Wow, I just sold something

I just sold something for the first time since November 1st---a $13.95 Visual C# 2008 eBook.

http://www.johnsmiley.com/main/ebooks.htm

Many thanks to my new customer---I greatly appreciate your business.

I was very concerned---I hadn't sold a book, eBook, anything really since November 1st.

If you don't think we're in a recession, think again.

I was scared my eBooks were being stolen

I thought that my eBooks were being stolen again...actually, my C++ eBook is probably the most stolen eBook in existence. It seems that there are 100's of links to it on the Internet.

I was more scared about my new books, Introduction to Visual C# 2008 Express and Introduction to Visual Basic.Net 2008 Express.

My web statistics indicated that there were 100's of page views of those 2 eBooks yesterday, but in terms of download bandwith, just about 20.

I was scared because all eBook sales go through me---and as you well know, if you are a regular read of my smog, I mean blog, business is bad and I haven't sold anything since November 1st.

I forgot that I had sent out a number of emails to teachers providing them with links to the eBooks--it's great to see that they are downloading them.

Are my eBooks being stolen?

My writing/teaching/consulting business has been very poor in November---extremely poor.


While going through some Web statistics yesterday, I discovered that I had 10 downloads of my Visual C# Express 2008 eBook from my Web site last week---pretty interesting in that I only sold 1 eBook.


You see the disparity---10 download vs 1 sale---that's 9 too many.


The obvious conclusion I can come to is that 9 people who didn't pay for the eBook have downloaded it. There may be other reasons---some customers download it to their hard drive, then forget where they put it or delete it, and download it again. Some customers may download it to multiple computers--that's fine with me.


However, a ratio of 10 to 1 gives me reason to think something is up.


I don't ask for much for these eBooks---$12.95 via Paypal, or $13.95 via regular credit card, cash, money order, etc.


I sell about 40 of these a month which helps out with the bills---for some reason, I haven't sold a single one in November.


Could it be that someone has posted a link on the Internet to my site?


It's possible. The eBooks are password protected, and in my instruction email to my readers, I ask them to please NOT share the password. I also tell them if they of someone who can't afford one, then to have that person contact me and I will work out something with them---and I have gladly provided free eBooks to needy people.


I just spent 10 minutes changing the password of all of my eBooks---that may help.


More likely what will happen is that someone will post the eBook on a file sharing site, the way they have with my C++ eBook, and make it available for free to millions of people.


My books take about 6 to 9 months to write, and help pay for my two boy's college tuition.


I don't ask for much that people pay for my hard work, do I?

Developer Career Tip #0018---Is it time to learn C#?

Developer Career Tips #0018

Is it time to learn C#?

For those of you not familiar with C#, Microsoft, in June, announced C# as the 'replacement' for J++ in the next version of its Visual Studio Suite, which will be released sometime in 2001.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/nextgen/technology/csharpintro.asp

Those of you who read my Careers tip last week in which I discussed Visual Basic and Java salaries may be wondering whether C# is a language that you should learn?

The answer is not a simple one, for a number of reasons.

First, C# has not officially been released yet, and won't be until the next version of Visual Studio is released sometime in 2001. You can download a beta version from the Microsoft Web Site if you wish

http://msdn.microsoft.com/downloads/

and there is some preliminary documentation available from Microsoft as well

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?URL=/library/prelim/csref/vcoriCReference.htm

Second, at this point, there aren't many jobs calling for a knowledge of C#. I maintain a web page devoted to C# at

http://www.johnsmiley.com/csharp/csharp.htm

and if you check out some of the links that maintain job sections, you'll see that there are few jobs asking for a knowledge of C# (not surprising, since the product has not been released yet).

Third, and perhaps most importantly, the importance of the C# language in the grand scheme of things to me is cloudy at best. For instance, is C# a replacement for J++, a replacement for C++, or a possible competitor to Java?

If you read Microsoft's announcement concerning C#, Microsoft plainly states that their intention is to bring Rapid Application Development to the C++ programming community. In light of the advice I give to my students to learn Visual Basic (for its ease of use and marketability) and then, if possible, Java, for its hardware portability, C# just doesn't fit into that picture.

On the other hand, many analysts believe that Microsoft is positioning C# as a competitor to Java---in which case the picture changes a bit. If C# somehow manages to cut into the Java market, then learning C# isn't a bad idea. And being the first person on the block to know a suddenly popular language is a great place to be.

However, I think it's way too early to make that investment of time and energy. Learning C# at this point will be difficult for most people. Your options to learn C# are pretty limited---use the Microsoft documentation to learn the language, or purchase one of the few books on C# available on the market. And if learning this way is not your cup of tea, other options are virtually non-existent--as best as I can tell there are no formal classes on C# being offered.

The bottom line is that you should wait and see what becomes of C#--if it looks like a winner at this time next year, there will still be plenty of time to get up to speed and to enter the potentially lucrative C# programming pool.