First Time Developing a Windows Application....Pointers?

[OneOfTheseDays]

I've been taking programming courses for quite some time, and have learned thoroughly about C/C++/Java. However, I have yet to actually take a class where we developed a windows application.

The internship I am going to be starting is basically a project requiring me to create a program with a GUI interface that can launch other programs. The jist of it is that I need to be able to create a program that allows me to launch other programs by clicking on a button/label/picture.

I've been mucking around with VS C# for an hour or two, and can already see how easy it is to develop a nice looking application. I'm wondering if this is the best way to go, and also how would I go about eventually creating an executable file that can run this program? Thanks.

 

[mAdMaLuDaWg]

Yeah, that should be fine. I'm assuming you are using Visual C# Express which is a great tool. You will get an exe file after you compile your project, but be aware that the computer you are deploying the program on will have to have the .NET Framework installed on it for the program to work.

 

[OneOfTheseDays]

Originally posted by: mAdMaLuDaWg
Yeah, that should be fine. I'm assuming you are using Visual C# Express which is a great tool. You will get an exe file after you compile your project, but be aware that the computer you are deploying the program on will have to have the .NET Framework installed on it for the program to work.

Yea that won't be a problem at all because I am going to be demonstrating the application on the computer of my choice, and this executable will not be distributed to other computers. And yea after years of using VIM/GVIM, Visual C# Express is absolutely amazing to use.

I do have one big question.........what the hell is a namespace? I see it all over the place in the sample code. And also, what is a partial class? These terms are new to me as I've never used C# before.

 

[mAdMaLuDaWg]

A namespace is basically a logical and hierachial arrangement of classes. When writing C# programs, you use the .NET namespaces to access the functions (which is sort of why you see the 'using' statements on top). Everything in your project will likely be declared under a single namespace, so you could interact between files and classes. For example, if class1 is declared in class1.cs and class2 is declared in class2.cs.. and both of them are in the Project1 namespace, you can access class2 from class1 and vice versa (of course, they need to have the right access modifiers)

Partial classes basically allow you to split up the specification of your classes into different source code files, and the IDE uses that a lot which is why you'd see it.

I'd really suggest getting a good C# book... especially if you are moving from another language.