How long would it take a non-programmer to learn C the NET Framework and SQL

Question

I am not that good at programming  I finished my masters degree in electronics  I want to learn C   the  NET Framework  and SQL  How much time do you think it would take  if I have 5 hours a day to devote to it    Also  what order do I learn them in  I have Visual Web Developer 2008  is that enough to begin   Copied from a new question by the same user  I should have specified that I wish to make a career out  NET Development  I d like to give myself 2 months to get the  basics  down  As a developer  what is expected out of you in IT companies   What skillset do they require and what are the responsibilities as a junior or mid-level developer   I don t have any industry experience  will I be able to get a feel of the job duties while at home

User · Answer

You ll pick up c  fairly quickly  the language syntax is not that complicated    It will take you a long time to really learn the  NET framework  but you ll pick up the heavily used parts of the framework fairly quickly  and you should start seeing patterns in the framework   My advice to you  don t just learn from a book or website   They will teach you the language and framework  but they will not teach you how to program anything useful     Writing little code snippets will teach you how to do a very specific tasks  but they do not teach you how to write applications   My suggestion is that you think of an app that might be fun to work on  and doable    e g  don t think that you re going to write an operating system or crysis or something in a month or two    Personally  when I was learning  wrote my own full featured IRC app  complete with  rich text  personal messaging  etc

User · Answer

All  relativity  aside  not fast  Based on the fact that you said you never programmed before   to become a basic programmer  a few years     And to become a good to outstanding  using design patterns and industry recognized standards that relate to common standards as defined by ISO IEC 9126 Standard such as testability  maintainability  etc   programmer  it takes years of experience and coding often   you do not become  Sr   or an  Architect  overnight and the same thing is true for a mid-level developer who doesn t code slop   It s always a process where you improve   So learning is relative   But to learn the basics  seems simple until you start to design classes and interfaces   And even Leads stumble on the basics  doing things wrong   Everyone does   There is so much to be aware of   If you re just going to be adding features  using classes your Lead or Architect has stubbed out for the team  and not really adding new classes  etc  it s easier    but you should take care in coding using standards and you still have to know complex areas of OOP   But that s not really OOP   When you start to creating classes  interfaces and knowing about inheritance  heap  references  etc  yada yada   and REALLY understanding it takes time no matter how smart you are or think you may be   So  for a new programmer   Not easy   Be prepared to code a lot   And if you are not  find a job where you are   It s all about coding as much possible so you can get better   Read these books FIRST   Do not dive into any others out there because they are not geared toward teaching you the language in a way you can get up to speed fast   http   www amazon com Head-First-Object-Oriented-Analysis-Design dp 0596008678 ref pd bbs sr 4 ie UTF8 amp s books amp qid 1231280335 amp sr 8-4  http   www amazon com Head-First-SQL-Brain-Learners dp 0596526849 ref pd bbs sr 7 ie UTF8 amp s books amp qid 1231280335 amp sr 8-7  http   www amazon com Head-First-C-Brain-Friendly-Guides dp 0596514824 ref pd bbs sr 1 ie UTF8 amp s books amp qid 1231280393 amp sr 8-1  http   www amazon com First-Design-Patterns-Elisabeth-Freeman dp 0596007124 ref pd bbs sr 3 ie UTF8 amp s books amp qid 1231280393 amp sr 8-3  they will get you the fasted jump start into understanding  better than any books out there    Also for these lame type of responses  ignore them    Then again  plenty of people  most normal people  non-programmers  never learn those subjects  so if you re like  most  people then the answer would be  it would take forever  or  it will never happen     Those come from developers  typically leads  who have some Ego trip that DON T want you to learn    Everyone learns differently and at different paces and eventually you will become  fast    I get very tired of hearing Sr  developers say statements like this when their sh   also stinks many times no matter how good they are   Instead they should be helping the team to succeed and learn as long as their team is working hard to keep abreast and doing what they can on their own as well  not leachers    Make sure you try to get a Jr  Level Developer position first

User · Answer

It really depends on what you mean by  learn    You could probably spend a week and get a couple of pages up on the web that had some minimal level of interactivity to save information entered by the user in some database  and then have some other pages for querying and displaying the information   You could then spend the next 10 years of your life learning all the intricacies of the  Net framework  SQL  and mastering using the IDE

User · Answer

When I switched careers out of Finance  I took 9 months off to study C   full-time out of a book by Ivor Horton   I had a lot of support from my best friend  who is a guru  and I had been programming as a hobby since high school  I was 36 at the time      It s not just the syntax that s an issue   The idea of things like pointers  passing by reference  multi-tiered architectures  struct s vs classes  etc   these all take time to understand and learn to use   And you re adding to that the  Net framework  which is huge and constantly evolving  and SQL  which is a totally different skill set than C    You also haven t mentioned various subsets of the framework that are becoming more widely used  like WPF  WCF  WF  etc   You re an academic so you can definitely do it  but it s going to take serious effort for a long time  and you definitely will need some projects to work on and learn from   Good luck to you

User · Answer

That s like asking how long it would take to learn French    1 day to learn what it is 1 week to learn it to an infant elementary level 1 year to be considered a beginner by professionals Several years to be considered an experienced professional Plus there s  deep  knowledge of those subjects which a mere mortal such as you or I will never learn   Then again  plenty of people  most normal people  non-programmers  never learn those subjects  so if you re like  most  people then the answer would be  it would take forever  or  it will never happen

User · Answer

The period of which you are capable of learning really depends on your ability to grasp the logic behind programming while where to learn from depends on your learning style    If you are a learn-by-a-book type of guy  just jump on Amazon com and perform a quick search  pick up the book with the best reviews or wait for someone here to recommend a book  I m not a programming by book guy   If you prefer screencasts  video feeds demonstrating what to do  or tutorials  then go straight to the source  http   www asp net learn   There are tons of videos and tutorials explaining everything you need to get started   Visual Web Developer 2008 Express should be all you need to get started  Basically  the express editions are Visual Studio chopped down to a precise set of functionality to accomplish one thing  They don t have some of the bells and whistles needed for large scale development  but everything you should need

User · Answer

All  relativity  aside  not fast  Based on the fact that you said you never programmed before   to become a basic programmer  a few years     And to become a good to outstanding  using design patterns and industry recognized standards that relate to common standards as defined by ISO IEC 9126 Standard such as testability  maintainability  etc   programmer  it takes years of experience and coding often   you do not become  Sr   or an  Architect  overnight and the same thing is true for a mid-level developer who doesn t code slop   It s always a process where you improve   So learning is relative   But to learn the basics  seems simple until you start to design classes and interfaces   And even Leads stumble on the basics  doing things wrong   Everyone does   There is so much to be aware of   If you re just going to be adding features  using classes your Lead or Architect has stubbed out for the team  and not really adding new classes  etc  it s easier    but you should take care in coding using standards and you still have to know complex areas of OOP   But that s not really OOP   When you start to creating classes  interfaces and knowing about inheritance  heap  references  etc  yada yada   and REALLY understanding it takes time no matter how smart you are or think you may be   So  for a new programmer   Not easy   Be prepared to code a lot   And if you are not  find a job where you are   It s all about coding as much possible so you can get better   Read these books FIRST   Do not dive into any others out there because they are not geared toward teaching you the language in a way you can get up to speed fast   http   www amazon com Head-First-Object-Oriented-Analysis-Design dp 0596008678 ref pd bbs sr 4 ie UTF8 amp s books amp qid 1231280335 amp sr 8-4  http   www amazon com Head-First-SQL-Brain-Learners dp 0596526849 ref pd bbs sr 7 ie UTF8 amp s books amp qid 1231280335 amp sr 8-7  http   www amazon com Head-First-C-Brain-Friendly-Guides dp 0596514824 ref pd bbs sr 1 ie UTF8 amp s books amp qid 1231280393 amp sr 8-1  http   www amazon com First-Design-Patterns-Elisabeth-Freeman dp 0596007124 ref pd bbs sr 3 ie UTF8 amp s books amp qid 1231280393 amp sr 8-3  they will get you the fasted jump start into understanding  better than any books out there    Also for these lame type of responses  ignore them    Then again  plenty of people  most normal people  non-programmers  never learn those subjects  so if you re like  most  people then the answer would be  it would take forever  or  it will never happen     Those come from developers  typically leads  who have some Ego trip that DON T want you to learn    Everyone learns differently and at different paces and eventually you will become  fast    I get very tired of hearing Sr  developers say statements like this when their sh   also stinks many times no matter how good they are   Instead they should be helping the team to succeed and learn as long as their team is working hard to keep abreast and doing what they can on their own as well  not leachers    Make sure you try to get a Jr  Level Developer position first

User · Answer

2-3 months to learn the basics   no way   Unless you re gonna code spaghetti sure   Same goes for the 1-2 years   Spaghetti it is then

User · Answer

How long is a piece of string  I think this is subjective   I know programmers that have learned an extraordinary amount in a very short time based on the experience that they ve exposed themselves to   Basically  get your hands dirty and you re bound to learn more

User · Answer

If you have any programming experience  you can probably learn the C  syntax in a few hours  and be comfortable with it within a week or so  However  you will not be writing complex structures unless you write a lot of code with it  It s really the same as learning any language  you can learn all the words and grammer fairly quickly  but it takes a while to be fluent   EDIT  A book you may want to pick up for learning C  is C  in a Nutshell  3 0  which I found to be very useful  and has been recommended by several people here

User · Answer

According to Malcolm Gladwell  it will take you 10 000 hours to get really good   So get cracking

User · Answer

Simple answer   a lot longer than two months   Learning to program competently will take longer than that  no matter what   It took me years to learn to be a competent object-oriented programmer  and I m good at this stuff   More detailed answers   it doesn t really matter whether you learn C  or SQL first  as they re very different   I d probably suggest SQL  as it s easier to learn and more independently useful   You will have a hard time getting used to the on-the-job realities at home  much as if you were studying plumbing or quantitative finance   You re going to have a hard time putting all the information together without one or more projects you try to do   You re going to need to have other people to tell you when you re being stupid  when you re being overclever and will pay for it later  and when you re actually getting it   Try to find an open source project you find vaguely interesting   Study their code   Figure out why they do what they do   Look at the bug list  and try to find something as trivial as possible to fix   Work from there   Learning to contribute is going to teach you things that are useful in the work world  and it will give you something to point at   It will be far easier to get your first job if you have some experience to point to

User · Answer

The best thing about C  is that it is very catchy  Easy to pick up  and you ll also have fun doing it   But  Net framework is a very big library full of wonderful things to discover  and yet again due to the nature of  Net you ll also have fun learning it  It s a coherent  object oriented  well documented library  and C  makes it so simple to work with it that you can simply discover your way through it while coding    The vast majority of articles  books or resources about  Net and C  simply concentrate on explaining functionality and the framework and far less about how to avoid quirks  workarounds or exceptional cases  like it happens with other languages I don t want to name   cough C     so in the end the experience of learning C  and  Net is very enjoyable from start to finish  and the things you can accomplish using  Net also makes it very rewarding   You picked a good language to start with  in my opinion  and finally to answer your question  it will take you about    2 to 3 months to learn the basics  1 to 2 years to become a versed developer 5 years or more to become a expert or  depending on your dedication  a  guru     But then again  beating the numbers and breaking the limits lies inside human nature  Can you do it faster than this   -

User · Answer

That s like asking how long it would take to learn French    1 day to learn what it is 1 week to learn it to an infant elementary level 1 year to be considered a beginner by professionals Several years to be considered an experienced professional Plus there s  deep  knowledge of those subjects which a mere mortal such as you or I will never learn   Then again  plenty of people  most normal people  non-programmers  never learn those subjects  so if you re like  most  people then the answer would be  it would take forever  or  it will never happen

User · Answer

If you have any programming experience  you can probably learn the C  syntax in a few hours  and be comfortable with it within a week or so  However  you will not be writing complex structures unless you write a lot of code with it  It s really the same as learning any language  you can learn all the words and grammer fairly quickly  but it takes a while to be fluent   EDIT  A book you may want to pick up for learning C  is C  in a Nutshell  3 0  which I found to be very useful  and has been recommended by several people here

User · Answer

How long is a piece of string  I think this is subjective   I know programmers that have learned an extraordinary amount in a very short time based on the experience that they ve exposed themselves to   Basically  get your hands dirty and you re bound to learn more

User · Answer

It really depends on what you mean by  learn    You could probably spend a week and get a couple of pages up on the web that had some minimal level of interactivity to save information entered by the user in some database  and then have some other pages for querying and displaying the information   You could then spend the next 10 years of your life learning all the intricacies of the  Net framework  SQL  and mastering using the IDE

User · Answer

The answer in my view is related to whether you have a tangible problem to solve or if you just want to learn for example to be prepared for a possible new job  If you have a problem then you are in better shape  You can start by looking around and seeing how other people went about solving that problem  Languages in general you should be able to pick up fairly quickly  after all you hold an MS in EE  no small feat IMO     What you need to be on the lookout for is good programming practices  You ll probably see yourself asking  why is this method so small    why is this method empty and what the heck is this abstract word doing here   That will give you perspective beyond syntax towards good writing

User · Answer

Can t tell how long it would take  it really depends on your existing knowlege  I managed to learn the C   NET 2 0 core basics in about 2 months  My suggestion to you  Try to learn towards exams  they make sure your learning covers all important parts and also guide you through this new technology  See Microsoft Learning

User · Answer

According to Malcolm Gladwell  it will take you 10 000 hours to get really good   So get cracking

User · Answer

You ll pick up c  fairly quickly  the language syntax is not that complicated    It will take you a long time to really learn the  NET framework  but you ll pick up the heavily used parts of the framework fairly quickly  and you should start seeing patterns in the framework   My advice to you  don t just learn from a book or website   They will teach you the language and framework  but they will not teach you how to program anything useful     Writing little code snippets will teach you how to do a very specific tasks  but they do not teach you how to write applications   My suggestion is that you think of an app that might be fun to work on  and doable    e g  don t think that you re going to write an operating system or crysis or something in a month or two    Personally  when I was learning  wrote my own full featured IRC app  complete with  rich text  personal messaging  etc

User · Answer

Build on what you already know and have a look at lot of job adverts     E g I have seen jobs asking for WinForms WPF AND electronics for the writing of a UI to control a custom bit of hardware    You may find the    robotics     net toolkit interesting     Net is now too big for anyone to learn both WEB and Desktop so you have to decide the way you are going to go    Web has lots more jobs  but there are very few people with good desktop stills

User · Answer

Well  it will take you forever  There is so much to learn about programming that 10 years are not enough   http   norvig com 21-days html  Don t get me wrong  you will learn the basics quickly enough  but to become good at it will take much longer    You should focus on an area and try to make some examples  if you choose web development  start with an hello world web page  then add some code to it  Learn about postbacks  viewstate and Sessions  Try to master ifs  cycles and functions  you really have a lot to cover  it s not easy to say  this is the best way to learn    I guess in the end you will learn on a need to do basis

User · Answer

The period of which you are capable of learning really depends on your ability to grasp the logic behind programming while where to learn from depends on your learning style    If you are a learn-by-a-book type of guy  just jump on Amazon com and perform a quick search  pick up the book with the best reviews or wait for someone here to recommend a book  I m not a programming by book guy   If you prefer screencasts  video feeds demonstrating what to do  or tutorials  then go straight to the source  http   www asp net learn   There are tons of videos and tutorials explaining everything you need to get started   Visual Web Developer 2008 Express should be all you need to get started  Basically  the express editions are Visual Studio chopped down to a precise set of functionality to accomplish one thing  They don t have some of the bells and whistles needed for large scale development  but everything you should need

User · Answer

When I switched careers out of Finance  I took 9 months off to study C   full-time out of a book by Ivor Horton   I had a lot of support from my best friend  who is a guru  and I had been programming as a hobby since high school  I was 36 at the time      It s not just the syntax that s an issue   The idea of things like pointers  passing by reference  multi-tiered architectures  struct s vs classes  etc   these all take time to understand and learn to use   And you re adding to that the  Net framework  which is huge and constantly evolving  and SQL  which is a totally different skill set than C    You also haven t mentioned various subsets of the framework that are becoming more widely used  like WPF  WCF  WF  etc   You re an academic so you can definitely do it  but it s going to take serious effort for a long time  and you definitely will need some projects to work on and learn from   Good luck to you

User · Answer

All  relativity  aside  not fast  Based on the fact that you said you never programmed before   to become a basic programmer  a few years     And to become a good to outstanding  using design patterns and industry recognized standards that relate to common standards as defined by ISO IEC 9126 Standard such as testability  maintainability  etc   programmer  it takes years of experience and coding often   you do not become  Sr   or an  Architect  overnight and the same thing is true for a mid-level developer who doesn t code slop   It s always a process where you improve   So learning is relative   But to learn the basics  seems simple until you start to design classes and interfaces   And even Leads stumble on the basics  doing things wrong   Everyone does   There is so much to be aware of   If you re just going to be adding features  using classes your Lead or Architect has stubbed out for the team  and not really adding new classes  etc  it s easier    but you should take care in coding using standards and you still have to know complex areas of OOP   But that s not really OOP   When you start to creating classes  interfaces and knowing about inheritance  heap  references  etc  yada yada   and REALLY understanding it takes time no matter how smart you are or think you may be   So  for a new programmer   Not easy   Be prepared to code a lot   And if you are not  find a job where you are   It s all about coding as much possible so you can get better   Read these books FIRST   Do not dive into any others out there because they are not geared toward teaching you the language in a way you can get up to speed fast   http   www amazon com Head-First-Object-Oriented-Analysis-Design dp 0596008678 ref pd bbs sr 4 ie UTF8 amp s books amp qid 1231280335 amp sr 8-4  http   www amazon com Head-First-SQL-Brain-Learners dp 0596526849 ref pd bbs sr 7 ie UTF8 amp s books amp qid 1231280335 amp sr 8-7  http   www amazon com Head-First-C-Brain-Friendly-Guides dp 0596514824 ref pd bbs sr 1 ie UTF8 amp s books amp qid 1231280393 amp sr 8-1  http   www amazon com First-Design-Patterns-Elisabeth-Freeman dp 0596007124 ref pd bbs sr 3 ie UTF8 amp s books amp qid 1231280393 amp sr 8-3  they will get you the fasted jump start into understanding  better than any books out there    Also for these lame type of responses  ignore them    Then again  plenty of people  most normal people  non-programmers  never learn those subjects  so if you re like  most  people then the answer would be  it would take forever  or  it will never happen     Those come from developers  typically leads  who have some Ego trip that DON T want you to learn    Everyone learns differently and at different paces and eventually you will become  fast    I get very tired of hearing Sr  developers say statements like this when their sh   also stinks many times no matter how good they are   Instead they should be helping the team to succeed and learn as long as their team is working hard to keep abreast and doing what they can on their own as well  not leachers    Make sure you try to get a Jr  Level Developer position first

User · Answer

Can t tell how long it would take  it really depends on your existing knowlege  I managed to learn the C   NET 2 0 core basics in about 2 months  My suggestion to you  Try to learn towards exams  they make sure your learning covers all important parts and also guide you through this new technology  See Microsoft Learning

User · Answer

When I switched careers out of Finance  I took 9 months off to study C   full-time out of a book by Ivor Horton   I had a lot of support from my best friend  who is a guru  and I had been programming as a hobby since high school  I was 36 at the time      It s not just the syntax that s an issue   The idea of things like pointers  passing by reference  multi-tiered architectures  struct s vs classes  etc   these all take time to understand and learn to use   And you re adding to that the  Net framework  which is huge and constantly evolving  and SQL  which is a totally different skill set than C    You also haven t mentioned various subsets of the framework that are becoming more widely used  like WPF  WCF  WF  etc   You re an academic so you can definitely do it  but it s going to take serious effort for a long time  and you definitely will need some projects to work on and learn from   Good luck to you

User · Answer

Well  it will take you forever  There is so much to learn about programming that 10 years are not enough   http   norvig com 21-days html  Don t get me wrong  you will learn the basics quickly enough  but to become good at it will take much longer    You should focus on an area and try to make some examples  if you choose web development  start with an hello world web page  then add some code to it  Learn about postbacks  viewstate and Sessions  Try to master ifs  cycles and functions  you really have a lot to cover  it s not easy to say  this is the best way to learn    I guess in the end you will learn on a need to do basis

User · Answer

Just do it   Don t sweat the details

User · Answer

It really depends on what you mean by  learn    You could probably spend a week and get a couple of pages up on the web that had some minimal level of interactivity to save information entered by the user in some database  and then have some other pages for querying and displaying the information   You could then spend the next 10 years of your life learning all the intricacies of the  Net framework  SQL  and mastering using the IDE

User · Answer

2-3 months to learn the basics   no way   Unless you re gonna code spaghetti sure   Same goes for the 1-2 years   Spaghetti it is then

User · Answer

You ll pick up c  fairly quickly  the language syntax is not that complicated    It will take you a long time to really learn the  NET framework  but you ll pick up the heavily used parts of the framework fairly quickly  and you should start seeing patterns in the framework   My advice to you  don t just learn from a book or website   They will teach you the language and framework  but they will not teach you how to program anything useful     Writing little code snippets will teach you how to do a very specific tasks  but they do not teach you how to write applications   My suggestion is that you think of an app that might be fun to work on  and doable    e g  don t think that you re going to write an operating system or crysis or something in a month or two    Personally  when I was learning  wrote my own full featured IRC app  complete with  rich text  personal messaging  etc

User · Answer

The period of which you are capable of learning really depends on your ability to grasp the logic behind programming while where to learn from depends on your learning style    If you are a learn-by-a-book type of guy  just jump on Amazon com and perform a quick search  pick up the book with the best reviews or wait for someone here to recommend a book  I m not a programming by book guy   If you prefer screencasts  video feeds demonstrating what to do  or tutorials  then go straight to the source  http   www asp net learn   There are tons of videos and tutorials explaining everything you need to get started   Visual Web Developer 2008 Express should be all you need to get started  Basically  the express editions are Visual Studio chopped down to a precise set of functionality to accomplish one thing  They don t have some of the bells and whistles needed for large scale development  but everything you should need

User · Answer

Dive right it  make it a hobby  and have fun     Coming from an electronics background myself I can tell you that you should pick it up pretty quickly   And having an electronics background will give you a deeper understanding of the underlying hardware   IMHO the root of information technology is electronics   For example    Think of objects as components   The  NET framework is essentially drawers full of standard components   For example you know what a 7400  NAND gate  is capable of doing   You have a data sheet showing the pin outs and sample configurations   You don t typically care about the circuitry inside   Software objects are the same way   We have inputs and we have methods that do something to the inputs to produce predictable outputs   As developers we typically don t care how the object was written    just that it does what it says it will do   You also know that you can build additional logic circuits by using two or more NAND gates   This of this as instantiation   You also know that you can take a NAND gate and place it inside a circuit where you can modify the input signals coming in so the outputs have different behaviors   This is a crude example but you can think of this as inheritance   I have also learned it helps to have a project to work on   It could be a hobbyist project or a work project   Start small  get something very basic working  and work up from there   To answer your specific question on  what should I learn first    1  Take your project you have in mind and break it into steps   For example    get a number from the user  add one to the number  display the result   Think of this as your design   2  Learn basic C    Write a simple console application that does something   Learn what an if statement is  this is all boolean logic so it should be somewhat familiar   learn about loops  learn about mathematical operations  learn about functions  subroutines    Play with simple file i o  reading and writing text files    The basic C  can be thought of as your wiring and discrete components  resistors  caps  transistors  etc  to your chips  object      3  Learn how to instantiate and use objects from the framework   You have already been doing this but now it s time to delve in further   For example    play with System Console some more    try making the speaker beep   Also start looking for objects that you may want to use for database work   4  Learn basic SQL   Lots of help and examples online   Pick a database you want to work with   I personally think MS Access is a great beginners database   I would not use it for multi-user or cross platform desktop applications    but it is a great single user database for Windows users    and it is a great way to learn the basics of SQL   There are other simple free databases available  Open Office has one for example  if you don t want to shell out   for Access   5  Expand your app to do something with a database

User · Answer

If you have any programming experience  you can probably learn the C  syntax in a few hours  and be comfortable with it within a week or so  However  you will not be writing complex structures unless you write a lot of code with it  It s really the same as learning any language  you can learn all the words and grammer fairly quickly  but it takes a while to be fluent   EDIT  A book you may want to pick up for learning C  is C  in a Nutshell  3 0  which I found to be very useful  and has been recommended by several people here

User · Answer

Build on what you already know and have a look at lot of job adverts     E g I have seen jobs asking for WinForms WPF AND electronics for the writing of a UI to control a custom bit of hardware    You may find the    robotics     net toolkit interesting     Net is now too big for anyone to learn both WEB and Desktop so you have to decide the way you are going to go    Web has lots more jobs  but there are very few people with good desktop stills

User · Answer

That s like asking how long it would take to learn French    1 day to learn what it is 1 week to learn it to an infant elementary level 1 year to be considered a beginner by professionals Several years to be considered an experienced professional Plus there s  deep  knowledge of those subjects which a mere mortal such as you or I will never learn   Then again  plenty of people  most normal people  non-programmers  never learn those subjects  so if you re like  most  people then the answer would be  it would take forever  or  it will never happen

User · Answer

According to Malcolm Gladwell  it will take you 10 000 hours to get really good   So get cracking

User · Answer

When I switched careers out of Finance  I took 9 months off to study C   full-time out of a book by Ivor Horton   I had a lot of support from my best friend  who is a guru  and I had been programming as a hobby since high school  I was 36 at the time      It s not just the syntax that s an issue   The idea of things like pointers  passing by reference  multi-tiered architectures  struct s vs classes  etc   these all take time to understand and learn to use   And you re adding to that the  Net framework  which is huge and constantly evolving  and SQL  which is a totally different skill set than C    You also haven t mentioned various subsets of the framework that are becoming more widely used  like WPF  WCF  WF  etc   You re an academic so you can definitely do it  but it s going to take serious effort for a long time  and you definitely will need some projects to work on and learn from   Good luck to you

User · Answer

The period of which you are capable of learning really depends on your ability to grasp the logic behind programming while where to learn from depends on your learning style    If you are a learn-by-a-book type of guy  just jump on Amazon com and perform a quick search  pick up the book with the best reviews or wait for someone here to recommend a book  I m not a programming by book guy   If you prefer screencasts  video feeds demonstrating what to do  or tutorials  then go straight to the source  http   www asp net learn   There are tons of videos and tutorials explaining everything you need to get started   Visual Web Developer 2008 Express should be all you need to get started  Basically  the express editions are Visual Studio chopped down to a precise set of functionality to accomplish one thing  They don t have some of the bells and whistles needed for large scale development  but everything you should need

User · Answer

Well  it will take you forever  There is so much to learn about programming that 10 years are not enough   http   norvig com 21-days html  Don t get me wrong  you will learn the basics quickly enough  but to become good at it will take much longer    You should focus on an area and try to make some examples  if you choose web development  start with an hello world web page  then add some code to it  Learn about postbacks  viewstate and Sessions  Try to master ifs  cycles and functions  you really have a lot to cover  it s not easy to say  this is the best way to learn    I guess in the end you will learn on a need to do basis

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Dive right it  make it a hobby  and have fun     Coming from an electronics background myself I can tell you that you should pick it up pretty quickly   And having an electronics background will give you a deeper understanding of the underlying hardware   IMHO the root of information technology is electronics   For example    Think of objects as components   The  NET framework is essentially drawers full of standard components   For example you know what a 7400  NAND gate  is capable of doing   You have a data sheet showing the pin outs and sample configurations   You don t typically care about the circuitry inside   Software objects are the same way   We have inputs and we have methods that do something to the inputs to produce predictable outputs   As developers we typically don t care how the object was written    just that it does what it says it will do   You also know that you can build additional logic circuits by using two or more NAND gates   This of this as instantiation   You also know that you can take a NAND gate and place it inside a circuit where you can modify the input signals coming in so the outputs have different behaviors   This is a crude example but you can think of this as inheritance   I have also learned it helps to have a project to work on   It could be a hobbyist project or a work project   Start small  get something very basic working  and work up from there   To answer your specific question on  what should I learn first    1  Take your project you have in mind and break it into steps   For example    get a number from the user  add one to the number  display the result   Think of this as your design   2  Learn basic C    Write a simple console application that does something   Learn what an if statement is  this is all boolean logic so it should be somewhat familiar   learn about loops  learn about mathematical operations  learn about functions  subroutines    Play with simple file i o  reading and writing text files    The basic C  can be thought of as your wiring and discrete components  resistors  caps  transistors  etc  to your chips  object      3  Learn how to instantiate and use objects from the framework   You have already been doing this but now it s time to delve in further   For example    play with System Console some more    try making the speaker beep   Also start looking for objects that you may want to use for database work   4  Learn basic SQL   Lots of help and examples online   Pick a database you want to work with   I personally think MS Access is a great beginners database   I would not use it for multi-user or cross platform desktop applications    but it is a great single user database for Windows users    and it is a great way to learn the basics of SQL   There are other simple free databases available  Open Office has one for example  if you don t want to shell out   for Access   5  Expand your app to do something with a database

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Dive right it  make it a hobby  and have fun     Coming from an electronics background myself I can tell you that you should pick it up pretty quickly   And having an electronics background will give you a deeper understanding of the underlying hardware   IMHO the root of information technology is electronics   For example    Think of objects as components   The  NET framework is essentially drawers full of standard components   For example you know what a 7400  NAND gate  is capable of doing   You have a data sheet showing the pin outs and sample configurations   You don t typically care about the circuitry inside   Software objects are the same way   We have inputs and we have methods that do something to the inputs to produce predictable outputs   As developers we typically don t care how the object was written    just that it does what it says it will do   You also know that you can build additional logic circuits by using two or more NAND gates   This of this as instantiation   You also know that you can take a NAND gate and place it inside a circuit where you can modify the input signals coming in so the outputs have different behaviors   This is a crude example but you can think of this as inheritance   I have also learned it helps to have a project to work on   It could be a hobbyist project or a work project   Start small  get something very basic working  and work up from there   To answer your specific question on  what should I learn first    1  Take your project you have in mind and break it into steps   For example    get a number from the user  add one to the number  display the result   Think of this as your design   2  Learn basic C    Write a simple console application that does something   Learn what an if statement is  this is all boolean logic so it should be somewhat familiar   learn about loops  learn about mathematical operations  learn about functions  subroutines    Play with simple file i o  reading and writing text files    The basic C  can be thought of as your wiring and discrete components  resistors  caps  transistors  etc  to your chips  object      3  Learn how to instantiate and use objects from the framework   You have already been doing this but now it s time to delve in further   For example    play with System Console some more    try making the speaker beep   Also start looking for objects that you may want to use for database work   4  Learn basic SQL   Lots of help and examples online   Pick a database you want to work with   I personally think MS Access is a great beginners database   I would not use it for multi-user or cross platform desktop applications    but it is a great single user database for Windows users    and it is a great way to learn the basics of SQL   There are other simple free databases available  Open Office has one for example  if you don t want to shell out   for Access   5  Expand your app to do something with a database

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The answer in my view is related to whether you have a tangible problem to solve or if you just want to learn for example to be prepared for a possible new job  If you have a problem then you are in better shape  You can start by looking around and seeing how other people went about solving that problem  Languages in general you should be able to pick up fairly quickly  after all you hold an MS in EE  no small feat IMO     What you need to be on the lookout for is good programming practices  You ll probably see yourself asking  why is this method so small    why is this method empty and what the heck is this abstract word doing here   That will give you perspective beyond syntax towards good writing

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Can t tell how long it would take  it really depends on your existing knowlege  I managed to learn the C   NET 2 0 core basics in about 2 months  My suggestion to you  Try to learn towards exams  they make sure your learning covers all important parts and also guide you through this new technology  See Microsoft Learning

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The answer in my view is related to whether you have a tangible problem to solve or if you just want to learn for example to be prepared for a possible new job  If you have a problem then you are in better shape  You can start by looking around and seeing how other people went about solving that problem  Languages in general you should be able to pick up fairly quickly  after all you hold an MS in EE  no small feat IMO     What you need to be on the lookout for is good programming practices  You ll probably see yourself asking  why is this method so small    why is this method empty and what the heck is this abstract word doing here   That will give you perspective beyond syntax towards good writing

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You ll pick up c  fairly quickly  the language syntax is not that complicated    It will take you a long time to really learn the  NET framework  but you ll pick up the heavily used parts of the framework fairly quickly  and you should start seeing patterns in the framework   My advice to you  don t just learn from a book or website   They will teach you the language and framework  but they will not teach you how to program anything useful     Writing little code snippets will teach you how to do a very specific tasks  but they do not teach you how to write applications   My suggestion is that you think of an app that might be fun to work on  and doable    e g  don t think that you re going to write an operating system or crysis or something in a month or two    Personally  when I was learning  wrote my own full featured IRC app  complete with  rich text  personal messaging  etc

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If you have any programming experience  you can probably learn the C  syntax in a few hours  and be comfortable with it within a week or so  However  you will not be writing complex structures unless you write a lot of code with it  It s really the same as learning any language  you can learn all the words and grammer fairly quickly  but it takes a while to be fluent   EDIT  A book you may want to pick up for learning C  is C  in a Nutshell  3 0  which I found to be very useful  and has been recommended by several people here

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Just do it   Don t sweat the details

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The best thing about C  is that it is very catchy  Easy to pick up  and you ll also have fun doing it   But  Net framework is a very big library full of wonderful things to discover  and yet again due to the nature of  Net you ll also have fun learning it  It s a coherent  object oriented  well documented library  and C  makes it so simple to work with it that you can simply discover your way through it while coding    The vast majority of articles  books or resources about  Net and C  simply concentrate on explaining functionality and the framework and far less about how to avoid quirks  workarounds or exceptional cases  like it happens with other languages I don t want to name   cough C     so in the end the experience of learning C  and  Net is very enjoyable from start to finish  and the things you can accomplish using  Net also makes it very rewarding   You picked a good language to start with  in my opinion  and finally to answer your question  it will take you about    2 to 3 months to learn the basics  1 to 2 years to become a versed developer 5 years or more to become a expert or  depending on your dedication  a  guru     But then again  beating the numbers and breaking the limits lies inside human nature  Can you do it faster than this   -

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That s like asking how long it would take to learn French    1 day to learn what it is 1 week to learn it to an infant elementary level 1 year to be considered a beginner by professionals Several years to be considered an experienced professional Plus there s  deep  knowledge of those subjects which a mere mortal such as you or I will never learn   Then again  plenty of people  most normal people  non-programmers  never learn those subjects  so if you re like  most  people then the answer would be  it would take forever  or  it will never happen

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According to Malcolm Gladwell  it will take you 10 000 hours to get really good   So get cracking

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Simple answer   a lot longer than two months   Learning to program competently will take longer than that  no matter what   It took me years to learn to be a competent object-oriented programmer  and I m good at this stuff   More detailed answers   it doesn t really matter whether you learn C  or SQL first  as they re very different   I d probably suggest SQL  as it s easier to learn and more independently useful   You will have a hard time getting used to the on-the-job realities at home  much as if you were studying plumbing or quantitative finance   You re going to have a hard time putting all the information together without one or more projects you try to do   You re going to need to have other people to tell you when you re being stupid  when you re being overclever and will pay for it later  and when you re actually getting it   Try to find an open source project you find vaguely interesting   Study their code   Figure out why they do what they do   Look at the bug list  and try to find something as trivial as possible to fix   Work from there   Learning to contribute is going to teach you things that are useful in the work world  and it will give you something to point at   It will be far easier to get your first job if you have some experience to point to

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The best thing about C  is that it is very catchy  Easy to pick up  and you ll also have fun doing it   But  Net framework is a very big library full of wonderful things to discover  and yet again due to the nature of  Net you ll also have fun learning it  It s a coherent  object oriented  well documented library  and C  makes it so simple to work with it that you can simply discover your way through it while coding    The vast majority of articles  books or resources about  Net and C  simply concentrate on explaining functionality and the framework and far less about how to avoid quirks  workarounds or exceptional cases  like it happens with other languages I don t want to name   cough C     so in the end the experience of learning C  and  Net is very enjoyable from start to finish  and the things you can accomplish using  Net also makes it very rewarding   You picked a good language to start with  in my opinion  and finally to answer your question  it will take you about    2 to 3 months to learn the basics  1 to 2 years to become a versed developer 5 years or more to become a expert or  depending on your dedication  a  guru     But then again  beating the numbers and breaking the limits lies inside human nature  Can you do it faster than this   -

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All  relativity  aside  not fast  Based on the fact that you said you never programmed before   to become a basic programmer  a few years     And to become a good to outstanding  using design patterns and industry recognized standards that relate to common standards as defined by ISO IEC 9126 Standard such as testability  maintainability  etc   programmer  it takes years of experience and coding often   you do not become  Sr   or an  Architect  overnight and the same thing is true for a mid-level developer who doesn t code slop   It s always a process where you improve   So learning is relative   But to learn the basics  seems simple until you start to design classes and interfaces   And even Leads stumble on the basics  doing things wrong   Everyone does   There is so much to be aware of   If you re just going to be adding features  using classes your Lead or Architect has stubbed out for the team  and not really adding new classes  etc  it s easier    but you should take care in coding using standards and you still have to know complex areas of OOP   But that s not really OOP   When you start to creating classes  interfaces and knowing about inheritance  heap  references  etc  yada yada   and REALLY understanding it takes time no matter how smart you are or think you may be   So  for a new programmer   Not easy   Be prepared to code a lot   And if you are not  find a job where you are   It s all about coding as much possible so you can get better   Read these books FIRST   Do not dive into any others out there because they are not geared toward teaching you the language in a way you can get up to speed fast   http   www amazon com Head-First-Object-Oriented-Analysis-Design dp 0596008678 ref pd bbs sr 4 ie UTF8 amp s books amp qid 1231280335 amp sr 8-4  http   www amazon com Head-First-SQL-Brain-Learners dp 0596526849 ref pd bbs sr 7 ie UTF8 amp s books amp qid 1231280335 amp sr 8-7  http   www amazon com Head-First-C-Brain-Friendly-Guides dp 0596514824 ref pd bbs sr 1 ie UTF8 amp s books amp qid 1231280393 amp sr 8-1  http   www amazon com First-Design-Patterns-Elisabeth-Freeman dp 0596007124 ref pd bbs sr 3 ie UTF8 amp s books amp qid 1231280393 amp sr 8-3  they will get you the fasted jump start into understanding  better than any books out there    Also for these lame type of responses  ignore them    Then again  plenty of people  most normal people  non-programmers  never learn those subjects  so if you re like  most  people then the answer would be  it would take forever  or  it will never happen     Those come from developers  typically leads  who have some Ego trip that DON T want you to learn    Everyone learns differently and at different paces and eventually you will become  fast    I get very tired of hearing Sr  developers say statements like this when their sh   also stinks many times no matter how good they are   Instead they should be helping the team to succeed and learn as long as their team is working hard to keep abreast and doing what they can on their own as well  not leachers    Make sure you try to get a Jr  Level Developer position first

User · Answer

Well  it will take you forever  There is so much to learn about programming that 10 years are not enough   http   norvig com 21-days html  Don t get me wrong  you will learn the basics quickly enough  but to become good at it will take much longer    You should focus on an area and try to make some examples  if you choose web development  start with an hello world web page  then add some code to it  Learn about postbacks  viewstate and Sessions  Try to master ifs  cycles and functions  you really have a lot to cover  it s not easy to say  this is the best way to learn    I guess in the end you will learn on a need to do basis

User · Answer

Simple answer   a lot longer than two months   Learning to program competently will take longer than that  no matter what   It took me years to learn to be a competent object-oriented programmer  and I m good at this stuff   More detailed answers   it doesn t really matter whether you learn C  or SQL first  as they re very different   I d probably suggest SQL  as it s easier to learn and more independently useful   You will have a hard time getting used to the on-the-job realities at home  much as if you were studying plumbing or quantitative finance   You re going to have a hard time putting all the information together without one or more projects you try to do   You re going to need to have other people to tell you when you re being stupid  when you re being overclever and will pay for it later  and when you re actually getting it   Try to find an open source project you find vaguely interesting   Study their code   Figure out why they do what they do   Look at the bug list  and try to find something as trivial as possible to fix   Work from there   Learning to contribute is going to teach you things that are useful in the work world  and it will give you something to point at   It will be far easier to get your first job if you have some experience to point to

User · Answer

Just do it   Don t sweat the details

User · Answer

2-3 months to learn the basics   no way   Unless you re gonna code spaghetti sure   Same goes for the 1-2 years   Spaghetti it is then

User · Answer

The best thing about C  is that it is very catchy  Easy to pick up  and you ll also have fun doing it   But  Net framework is a very big library full of wonderful things to discover  and yet again due to the nature of  Net you ll also have fun learning it  It s a coherent  object oriented  well documented library  and C  makes it so simple to work with it that you can simply discover your way through it while coding    The vast majority of articles  books or resources about  Net and C  simply concentrate on explaining functionality and the framework and far less about how to avoid quirks  workarounds or exceptional cases  like it happens with other languages I don t want to name   cough C     so in the end the experience of learning C  and  Net is very enjoyable from start to finish  and the things you can accomplish using  Net also makes it very rewarding   You picked a good language to start with  in my opinion  and finally to answer your question  it will take you about    2 to 3 months to learn the basics  1 to 2 years to become a versed developer 5 years or more to become a expert or  depending on your dedication  a  guru     But then again  beating the numbers and breaking the limits lies inside human nature  Can you do it faster than this   -

User · Answer

Simple answer   a lot longer than two months   Learning to program competently will take longer than that  no matter what   It took me years to learn to be a competent object-oriented programmer  and I m good at this stuff   More detailed answers   it doesn t really matter whether you learn C  or SQL first  as they re very different   I d probably suggest SQL  as it s easier to learn and more independently useful   You will have a hard time getting used to the on-the-job realities at home  much as if you were studying plumbing or quantitative finance   You re going to have a hard time putting all the information together without one or more projects you try to do   You re going to need to have other people to tell you when you re being stupid  when you re being overclever and will pay for it later  and when you re actually getting it   Try to find an open source project you find vaguely interesting   Study their code   Figure out why they do what they do   Look at the bug list  and try to find something as trivial as possible to fix   Work from there   Learning to contribute is going to teach you things that are useful in the work world  and it will give you something to point at   It will be far easier to get your first job if you have some experience to point to

User · Answer

How long is a piece of string  I think this is subjective   I know programmers that have learned an extraordinary amount in a very short time based on the experience that they ve exposed themselves to   Basically  get your hands dirty and you re bound to learn more

User · Answer

How long is a piece of string  I think this is subjective   I know programmers that have learned an extraordinary amount in a very short time based on the experience that they ve exposed themselves to   Basically  get your hands dirty and you re bound to learn more

User · Answer

If you want to learn  REALLY want to learn  then time is not of consequence   Just move forward everyday   Let your passion for this stuff drive you forward  And one day you ll see that you are good at C   NET

User · Answer

If you want to learn  REALLY want to learn  then time is not of consequence   Just move forward everyday   Let your passion for this stuff drive you forward  And one day you ll see that you are good at C   NET

User · Answer

If you want to learn  REALLY want to learn  then time is not of consequence   Just move forward everyday   Let your passion for this stuff drive you forward  And one day you ll see that you are good at C   NET

User · Answer

2-3 months to learn the basics   no way   Unless you re gonna code spaghetti sure   Same goes for the 1-2 years   Spaghetti it is then

User · Answer

Can t tell how long it would take  it really depends on your existing knowlege  I managed to learn the C   NET 2 0 core basics in about 2 months  My suggestion to you  Try to learn towards exams  they make sure your learning covers all important parts and also guide you through this new technology  See Microsoft Learning

User · Answer

If you want to learn  REALLY want to learn  then time is not of consequence   Just move forward everyday   Let your passion for this stuff drive you forward  And one day you ll see that you are good at C   NET

User · Answer

Dive right it  make it a hobby  and have fun     Coming from an electronics background myself I can tell you that you should pick it up pretty quickly   And having an electronics background will give you a deeper understanding of the underlying hardware   IMHO the root of information technology is electronics   For example    Think of objects as components   The  NET framework is essentially drawers full of standard components   For example you know what a 7400  NAND gate  is capable of doing   You have a data sheet showing the pin outs and sample configurations   You don t typically care about the circuitry inside   Software objects are the same way   We have inputs and we have methods that do something to the inputs to produce predictable outputs   As developers we typically don t care how the object was written    just that it does what it says it will do   You also know that you can build additional logic circuits by using two or more NAND gates   This of this as instantiation   You also know that you can take a NAND gate and place it inside a circuit where you can modify the input signals coming in so the outputs have different behaviors   This is a crude example but you can think of this as inheritance   I have also learned it helps to have a project to work on   It could be a hobbyist project or a work project   Start small  get something very basic working  and work up from there   To answer your specific question on  what should I learn first    1  Take your project you have in mind and break it into steps   For example    get a number from the user  add one to the number  display the result   Think of this as your design   2  Learn basic C    Write a simple console application that does something   Learn what an if statement is  this is all boolean logic so it should be somewhat familiar   learn about loops  learn about mathematical operations  learn about functions  subroutines    Play with simple file i o  reading and writing text files    The basic C  can be thought of as your wiring and discrete components  resistors  caps  transistors  etc  to your chips  object      3  Learn how to instantiate and use objects from the framework   You have already been doing this but now it s time to delve in further   For example    play with System Console some more    try making the speaker beep   Also start looking for objects that you may want to use for database work   4  Learn basic SQL   Lots of help and examples online   Pick a database you want to work with   I personally think MS Access is a great beginners database   I would not use it for multi-user or cross platform desktop applications    but it is a great single user database for Windows users    and it is a great way to learn the basics of SQL   There are other simple free databases available  Open Office has one for example  if you don t want to shell out   for Access   5  Expand your app to do something with a database

User · Answer

Just do it   Don t sweat the details

User · Answer

The answer in my view is related to whether you have a tangible problem to solve or if you just want to learn for example to be prepared for a possible new job  If you have a problem then you are in better shape  You can start by looking around and seeing how other people went about solving that problem  Languages in general you should be able to pick up fairly quickly  after all you hold an MS in EE  no small feat IMO     What you need to be on the lookout for is good programming practices  You ll probably see yourself asking  why is this method so small    why is this method empty and what the heck is this abstract word doing here   That will give you perspective beyond syntax towards good writing

User · Answer

It really depends on what you mean by  learn    You could probably spend a week and get a couple of pages up on the web that had some minimal level of interactivity to save information entered by the user in some database  and then have some other pages for querying and displaying the information   You could then spend the next 10 years of your life learning all the intricacies of the  Net framework  SQL  and mastering using the IDE

[c#] How long would it take a non-programmer to learn C#, the .NET Framework, and SQL?

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