With Beginning Visual C#, you will learn how to use Visual C# from first principles. Visual C# is an object-oriented programming language designed specifically for programming Microsoft’s new platform, the .NET Framework. You’ll quickly and easily learn how to write Visual C# code and create your own applications - for both Windows and the Web.
Welcome to the first chapter of the first section of this book. Over the course of this section we’ll be taking a look at the basic knowledge required to get up and running. In this first chapter we’ll be looking at an overview of C# and the .NET Framework, and we’ll consider what these technologies are, the motivation behind using them, and how they relate to each other.
We’ll start with a general discussion of the .NET Framework. This is a new technology, and contains many concepts that are tricky to get to grips with at first (mainly because the Framework introduces a “new way of doing things” to application development). This means that the discussion will, by necessity, cover many new concepts in a short space of time. However, a quick look at the basics is essential to understand how to program in C#, so this is a necessary evil. Later on in the book we’ll revisit many of the topics covered here in more detail.
After this discussion, we’ll move on to a simple description of C# itself, including its origins and similarities to C++.
Finally, we’ll look at the main tool that will be used throughout this book: Visual Studio .NET (VS).