Tips on learning C#, Mono?

[bsodmike]

I am thinking of jumping onto the c# bandwagon and was thinking of giving Mono a go on OS X. I'm sure directhex will be along shortly, but anyone got any advice?

Thanks

[Stringent]

Why?

[bsodmike]

Why not? I think exposure in general, to various languages could be useful; sure, c# is not radically different to c++ (as per what I could gather on its wikipedia entry).

The reason is, that even with my Masters in robotics I might be looking to work in a more 'IT' related field; more along the lines of web technologies (Java(script), AJAX, PHP) and most companies expect a general knowledge of .NET/C#

It isn't good when you shake your head at .NET in interviews (however much one maybe a fan of open source/non-M$)

[finlay666]

C# ...... XNA would be good as a fun way to learn it

[directhex]

Write an app.

That's the general suggestion on how to learn a language.

As an example, there's a Free Software .NET IRC client called Smuxi - it's designed to be extensible, and offer different GUIs on top of a common core which integrate into your desktop (e.g. a GTK+ GUI, a KDE GUI) - you could try writing a Cocoa# GUI for it, for mac integration

[Funkstar]

Write an app.

That's the general suggestion on how to learn a language.

Defintieyl a good idea. I've wanted to learn C#/.NET for a while but never had a reason to. Now I have a couple of ideas for MediaPortal plugins, but I don't have the time right now to sit down and learn anything

[bsodmike]

Write an app.

That's the general suggestion on how to learn a language.

As an example, there's a Free Software .NET IRC client called Smuxi - it's designed to be extensible, and offer different GUIs on top of a common core which integrate into your desktop (e.g. a GTK+ GUI, a KDE GUI) - you could try writing a Cocoa# GUI for it, for mac integration

Actually, that is exactly my intention. I understand that Mono has it's own C# compiler; would you recommend this as a starting point? Thanks

[directhex]

Actually, that is exactly my intention. I understand that Mono has it's own C# compiler; would you recommend this as a starting point? Thanks

Sure. gmcs is a pretty complete C# compiler, and included in any Mono distribution (e.g. available on Linux distros, as well as Mono for Mac & Windows). Unlike Microsoft's compiler, gmcs is written in C#, which gives it many advantages over Microsoft's compiler (Mono 2.2 will include features which MS will only add into MS.NET ~2010)

Mono for Mac includes the MonoDevelop IDE, but unfortunately no tools for generating Cocoa# GUIs (only GTK#)

[bsodmike]

Sure. gmcs is a pretty complete C# compiler, and included in any Mono distribution (e.g. available on Linux distros, as well as Mono for Mac & Windows). Unlike Microsoft's compiler, gmcs is written in C#, which gives it many advantages over Microsoft's compiler (Mono 2.2 will include features which MS will only add into MS.NET ~2010)

Mono for Mac includes the MonoDevelop IDE, but unfortunately no tools for generating Cocoa# GUIs (only GTK#)

Thanks dhex, I have got mono and MonoDev installed and running. I also noticed the lack of cocoa# GUI support ~ is there anything else I can do regarding this, i.e. some 3rd-party app? I have some experience in python/GTK/GLADE, although only a couple years back

[directhex]

Thanks dhex, I have got mono and MonoDev installed and running. I also noticed the lack of cocoa# GUI support ~ is there anything else I can do regarding this, i.e. some 3rd-party app? I have some experience in python/GTK/GLADE, although only a couple years back

Cocoa# uses standard Mac .nib files, i.e. the same ones used by most other Mac GUi apps. You design them in Interface Builder, which is probably part of XCode (and is pretty much like Glade for Mac). http://cocoa-sharp.com/index.php?opt...&id=2&Itemid=4 covers a trivial example

[TheAnimus]

Defintieyl a good idea. I've wanted to learn C#/.NET for a while but never had a reason to. Now I have a couple of ideas for MediaPortal plugins, but I don't have the time right now to sit down and learn anything

Try writing them for MCE! Its well documented, and its got some very nice (ie WPF like) ideas and uses XAML to ensure a seperation of concerns.

[Funkstar]

Try writing them for MCE! Its well documented, and its got some very nice (ie WPF like) ideas and uses XAML to ensure a seperation of concerns.

But I don't use MCE, so there would be little point.