this post was submitted on 04 Jan 2025
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Programming

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I have some background in Python and Bash (this is entirely self-taught and i think the easiest language from all). I know that C# is much different, propably this is why it is hard. I've been learning it for more than 4 months now, and the most impressive thing i can do with some luck is to write a console application that reads 2 values from the terminal, adds them together and prints out the result. Yes, seriously. The main problem is that there are not much usable resources to learn C#. For bash, there is Linux, a shit ton of distros, even BSD, MacOS and Solaris uses it. For python, there are games and qtile window manager. For C, there is dwm. I don't know anything like these for C#, except Codingame, but that just goes straight to the deep waters and i have no idea what to do. Is my whole approach wrong? How am i supposed to learn C#? I'm seriously not the sharpest tool in the shed, but i have a pretty good understanding of hardware, networking, security, privacy. Programming is beyond me however, except for small basic scripts

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[–] sudo 9 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 21 hours ago)

People seem to be misunderstanding your question. It doesn't sound like you are lacking educational resources to learn C# but a lack of reasons. It sounds like you have been learning by getting you're hands dirty with foss software.

C# is a sort of "enterprise-grade language" like Java. It's meant for large applications developed by one or more teams for almost exclusively commercial purposes. If you want to learn it, deeply, you'll have to come up with an excuse to write in it. A game is probably the best choice for this. Then learning c# is learning how to make your game.

If you're looking for open source C# software to hack on you can try anything from the *arr stack. (Sonarr, radarr, lidarr).

[–] [email protected] 3 points 22 hours ago

Start with "absolute beginner" courses. Here's one from Bob Taylor. He puts out a lot of good stuff.

Sit your self down and study it for a good bit, then build some things. https://youtu.be/0QUgvfuKvWU

[–] [email protected] 2 points 22 hours ago

I learned it because I had to write a WPF desktop application, so you could start with WPF tutorials. I was already very familiar with Java, which is very similar, so it wasn't too hard. Last time I used it was in Unity. You might want to find a good free online course for C# to get a good grasp of C#/Java's style of OOP, design patterns, and all that kind of stuff.

[–] Michal 39 points 1 day ago (3 children)

You think Bash is the easiest language? I have to Google the syntax every time i need to write and IF statement!

[–] alex 3 points 22 hours ago

There's a few languages I come back to after a while to fix something and have to consult their reference manual / docs. But bash is the only one where that's necessary just to read back my own code. Like [[ -z ${ARG} ]]? Wtf is -z doing here. Wtf kind of syntax is that.

Next time I think oh this could be automated with a little bash scrip I'm going to investigate one of those compiles-to-bash languages.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago

it's the second language that comes to mind when I think of the word "footgun", right after old c++

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago

Thisss, it's atrocious

[–] briggsyj 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

When I was learning c#, I found the .Net framework tutorials available on freecodecamp to be good.

Also, using the Jetbrains Rider IDE (assuming this is for private non-commercial purposes, as per the terms of their free license) rather than VSCode or Visual Studio. VSCode is still lacking in features when it comes to c#, and Visual Studio probably makes more sense if you're already accustomed to c# dev.

[–] [email protected] 35 points 1 day ago (1 children)

one of the most popular languages, used in one of the most popular game engines, has no learning resources?

Press X to doubt

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

Yeah but then you have to learn MATH and I'm not doing that.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Starting with Visual Studio (not code) helps a ton. Make a simple winforms application with a button and some labels and you will start to see how it 'starts up' from program.cs to your form.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

I did it once but needed a lot of assistance and it was very confusing

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

An IDE with auto-complete would help a lot.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 23 hours ago

I use visual studio

[–] [email protected] 45 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

The heck you're talking about? There's a ton of free resources to learn the basics.

https://dotnet.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/csharp official Microsoft learning resources.

https://dotnettutorials.net/course/csharp-dot-net-tutorials/ for C# basics and .NET framework (which is backend standard).

For game engines you need specific tutorials in those engines.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

This is how I feel about music

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Don't learn a language unless you need to use it for something.

That's why you're finding it hard. If you needed to program a game, decided on Unity, and had a specific thing to do, it would be easy to figure out how to do that in C#.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 days ago* (last edited 1 day ago)
  1. Start writing a small game in Godot using GDScript (basically Python)
  2. Use the Godot docs to read about C# alternatives to GDScript as you go, compare them and see how they differ
  3. Translate bit by bit of your game to C# using the docs
  4. Congrats, you have written a game in C#
[–] kogasa 5 points 1 day ago

Start with the goal to create something, be it a console app, website, web api, or game. It's hard to just study a language abstractly and learn it. Use the Microsoft Learn documentation as reference, and look for open source .NET projects on GitHub to get different perspectives on how to build things with .NET. There is a free course on freecodecamp that will get you started by building an app, and I believe it was done in partnership with Microsoft

[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 days ago (7 children)

It sounds like you'd benefit from having a project in mind. I always learned programming languages by building something I wanted, or by tinkering on someone else's project.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago
  1. Make a text adventure game that runs in the console.
  2. Tic tac toe in the console.

Then if you want to go for a GUI web app with react use "dotnet new react" and create a to-do list with a client/server setup.

If you want to learn to make games you could make a tic tac toe again but with a GUI in Godot.

Once that's done make tetris.

You research what you need right before you need it and use it immediately so it sticks better. You'll need to get comfy with typing systems and I recommend using an IDE like Rider or Visual Studio to program it since they help out a lot.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 days ago (7 children)

Microsoft produces a plethora of good learning materials if you're struggling with the basics or specific concepts. I recommend their C# for Beginners course to get a good overview of real C#.

Once you have a good handle on the basics, I would echo others' advice that having some kind of project or goal to work towards is the surest path to learning, because you have external motivation to use what you're learning and look up things as you need them. Is there some reason you chose C# specifically as your next language, maybe for game dev, web dev, or Windows apps?

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[–] DrDeadCrash 8 points 2 days ago (8 children)

Check out this reference (not mine): https://gist.github.com/DanielKoehler/606b022ec522a67a0cf3

The first difference that I would point out is c# use of static typing, where python is dynamic. This author is using the var keyword to avoid specifying a type for variables. The type is, instead infered by the code that follows the equals sign.

The next main difference is the use of whitespace. Python is very whitespace aware, it uses indentation and line breaks to organize code. C# is whitespace agnostic in most cases and separates blocks of code using curly braces {...}, statements must end with a semicolon;

In C# collections are organized by how the data is accessed and whether elements can be added or removed. Arrays are initialized with a set of items and can't be made longer, a List can be added to and can be removed. The key point is that all items in a collection are of the same type.

Complex objects (that have properties and methods) can be structs, classes, or records but they all basically do the same thing and interact in the samish way. You have to use the new keyword to make a new instance.

Classes and records can inherit from another where as structs cannot. Properties must have a type, methods must return a type or void. Method parameters must be typed, when calling a method the provided parameters must be of the proper type.

An interface describes requirements an implementing class, record or stuct must meet (i.e. properties and methods). You can't make a new interface, it's more of a qualification.

I hope this helps some

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Java and C# are very similar, worst case scenario learn Java, then C# will be easy.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago

That's a waste of effort IMO C# is a bit easier imo

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 days ago

Tim Corey on YouTube has excellent beginner C# material. I would start there.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I learned C# from the Aurora guide book I picked up with Neverwinter Nights back in the day.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

What is aurora and what is this guide book?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Aurora is the engine Neverwinter Nights ran on. The scripting system was driven by C#. The guidebook was the official "strategy guide" but for the toolset, not the game itself.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

I heard Watch Dogs uses C# too. Should i start modding these games, with mods that add additional logic? I only have experience with localization and texture mods

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

A lot of games use C#, actually. And, in my own personal experience, learning by doing is the best. It definitely would be widely transferrable if you wanted to mod games.

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