The .Net Languages: A Quick Translation Guide

By Brian Bischof

"The .NET Languages: A Quick Translation Guide" answers two questions posed by the introduction of the .NET Framework: "How do I quickly upgrade my skills to this new language?" and "How do I understand the code that another developer has written?" Author Brian Bischof offers a complete translation guide for converting programs among the three primary Microsoft languages: Visual Basic 6.0, Visual Basic .NET, and C#. Bischof makes it easy for the thousands of Visual Basic 6.0 programmers to take the knowledge they already have and use it to write for the .NET platform. Each chapter is laid out in a clear and concise format. Most chapters begin with a syntax conversion chart displaying how each language translates into the other languages. Included are detailed points explaining these conversions. Each chapter ends with a fully comprehensive example, written in each language, that demonstrates that particular chapters concepts. This provides you with all the information you need for converting your programs: quick lookup charts, detailed explanations, and thorough examples. Nothing is left out.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1893115488
• ISBN13: 9781893115484
• Release Date: December 2001
• Publisher: Apress
• Length: 408 Pages
• Weight: 1.53 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 7.5" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

It Accomplishes Its Goal

I use this book a LOT. The reason I love it is because it does exactly what it was meant to do: take a starting point that I can relate to, Visual Basic 6, and cross-reference my previous knowledge to VB.NET and C#. I have not found any other book that cross-references all three languages the way this one does. For instance, if I know what command I would use in VB 6, but I'm new to C# then it's a 15 minute search to find something equivalent in MSDN. But if I pull out my trusty Translation Guide there it is in a few seconds! From there if I need more in-depth detail I can go straight to the correct article in MSDN, however in most cases it tells me everything I need to know because I already understand the concepts, I just need to know how to do the same type of task in another language. This book is absolutely invaluable to me as a reformed VB6 programmer!

Well organized, concise, indispensable

As an author who provides all our code examples in both C# and VB.NET, this book is indispensable. Whenever I have a question about how to express some code in one language or the other, it provides the concise information I need. I highly recommend it.

Regarding .NET Final Release

As the author, I wanted to let you know that this book was written with .NET Release Candidate 1. Now that .NET Final has been released, I recompiled all the code and it is 100% compatible. As a result, this is the only edition being printed for VS.NET. You can download Chapter 2 from my website. Thanks to everyone for the positive emails.

Excellent to ramp up quickly

At first I was not too sure about the book, thinking it might be another quick book that was just banged out on .NET. I was wrong! This book doesn't waste time. It gets right to the point in getting you up to speed with the main .NET languages (VB.NET and C#). The wonderful thing about it is that it shows you the VB (6 and .NET) and C# syntax side-by-side, so that in one pass, you can learn both languages. I had already been programming with VB.NET for almost a year before I read this book, and I had even done some C# work. Thanks to this book, now I know C# as well as VB.NET, and can easily work both languages. They also have a few "bonus" chapters that show you how to quickly start using things like ADO.NET, and GDI+,-- painting and printing. I was surprised to see something there, since it doesn't directly deal with the language. The bonus chapters aren't a full reference, but they are enough to quickly get you up and running! Bottom line: You want to upgrade to .NET? Read this book.