Any recommened resources for a PHP developer going into C#/WPF?

Question

i am currently a PHP web developer (university student next year). i want to learn more about C#/WPF development (mainly windows development first).

i know of Channel 9, Windows Client, C# How do i.

since i know programming, i dont want to spend so much time with the very basic syntax etc, which i sometime find that books do (i am reading Accelerated C# 2010, tho i find it kind of wordy, i prefer something more visual, like videos, diagrams etc if possible).

i know of PHP blogs like zend casts or killerphp, there are books like survive the deep end that are shorter than 600 pages book. such resources are what i am looking for

Answer 1

To be honest, if all of your experience is with PHP, you probably want to focus on OOP (Object-Oriented Programming) in general, rather than the specific syntax and frameworks of C#. The language itself shouldn't be massively alien to you, but the idioms and standard approaches to many problems likely will be.

Two books I would recommend for anyone starting on an OOP language:

• The Pragmatic Programmer - An invaluable reference for any programmer, but it really does focus on static OOP languages such as C#.
• Head First Object Oriented Analysis and Design - A java book, ironically, but the concepts taught within are perfectly applicable to C#, and it's an excellent, clear, easy to follow introduction on the proper design of object oriented software.

Answer 2

It's been almost 8 years since I started with C#, so I don't know where all the 'cool' kids go, but MSDN is usually a good place to start:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/beginner/default.aspx

If you've done java then C# will be pretty easy to pick up. Difference worth noting because they make life a lot easier are things like Properties, Lambda expressions and LINQ, so once you get grounded it's worth getting into that.

If you're doing WPF then I HIGHLY recommend you get your head around "MVVM" and Expression Blend, they'll change your life ;) http://hugeonion.com/2009/02/15/intro-to-wpf-mvvm/

Also, feel free to read blogs on Silverlight, most of the stuff applies to WPF as well.

Answer 3

I'm also PHP dev (my primary profession), but I'm also doing C# codding (for personal needs and fun).
I've learned C# simply by experimenting.
My suggestion to you is to download Visual Studio Express 2010 and Google search for C# beginners tutorial (Search , Example Result) .

Only thing you need to get started is basic syntax knowledge and idea. VSE 2010 will generate lots of code for you (especially for Windows Forms project where you just need to design form and then click elements to add events).

As far as WPF concerned, I can't tell you more because I've never worked with that.

Happy codding ;)