No, in all honesty, I don't see how this recommendation can do more harm than good, unless you have some hypothetical situation in mind, which I'd like to hear.
Your responses to this point indicate...

I don't see the controversy either. Personally, I think this person is trying to prove a point that doesn't exist.

No, you haven't really struck a nerve, I'm just explaining that your assumption that I was trying to promote Microsoft's products was wrong. I do like the product, and that's the only thing driving...

Visual C# 2005 Step By Step (John Sharp) has been really helpful to me so far.

Microsoft doesn't pay me anything. I have to pay the same for their products as anyone else.
The purpose of this forum is to HELP others who have similar interests, and to get help if it is needed...

Awesome! That worked.

I didn't know I could use the "not" operator (!) in that kind of situation. That simplifies a lot of things I had been thinking about for some other concepts.

Also, after...

I'm developing a practice program that simply converts a temperature value from fahrenheit to celsius when the user enters an integer, selects a radio button and then clicks a button.

I'm having...

SQL Express isn't free for distribution? If not, that pretty much settles it for me, since the other differences between that and Access seem to be mainly a matter of personal preference. Regarding...

I have a question about that. Why is SQL Express a better choice than an Access database? Is it easier, better performing, more flexible or what? Or is it more a matter of personal preference? Also,...

Here's what I want to be able to do:

I have a table that's storing, say a list of speeches, with several fields holding data for records. Within each record, I want to make a list of several...

Try this:

http://lab.msdn.microsoft.com/express/beginner/

This page has some very good beginner tutorials for C# Ezpress; the important thing is, one of them deals pretty thoroughly with XML...

Sharp Develop uses .NET 1.1
The VS 2005 betas use .NET 2.0. VS 2005 cannot use .NET 1.1

Learning an acedemic discipline is great, but it is no substitute for creativity. Part of the creative process of computer engineering is being able to identify problems to be solved or tasks to be...

I don't remember if this is still so, and haven't trested it, but if a drive is burning and a request is received to open the tray, Windows will display a message telling you the drive is in use, and...

What, no takers?

I'm having an issue with an application connected to a database, where when I open the application it seems there is a blank record that cannot be edited or saved. The user can't just start entering...

Thanks, gentlemen!
You know what? I feel pretty silly for not trying that. I actually thought about it, but I kept telling myself I couldn't directly use a variable for that parameter, even though...

I tried that, but I must still be doing something wrong. Seems to me the key is in the line:

Help.ShowHelp(this, HelpProvider1.HelpNamespace);

...but I can't find anything in my quite limited...

I want my application to be able to access an external help file. I also want the user to be able to install the program is his chosen folder. The problem this creates is that I don't know how to...

Thanks for the info.
What happened was when I created the database, I was using a particular naming convention for the tables. As an afterthought I added another table and didn't really think about...

I know that if I have a program with a connection to an Access database, if I change the name of a table in the database, when I try to access that table from within the program, it's going to throw...

With the release of Visual Studio 2005 set for November 7, 2005, I thought I'd conduct a little unofficial poll as to how people plan to respond to the release.

Let us know what you think!

Sorry, I should have provided code.

Out of frustration, I have removed that combo box from the application. What I'll do, is work on it again this evening and put it back. If I have the same...

Awesome! Thanks.

OK, according to Microsoft, it is not possible to cause C# Express to work with .NET 1.1
I don't mind, but I sure hope I can find a setup program that will deal with 2.0 by the time I'm ready to...

I have a question:

How can I access a Windows system variable from within my application? For example, if I want to store my help file in the Windows folder (the variable "windir", how to I tell...

I'm having the following problem and can't find a solution:

I have an app with four combo boxes, each of which gets its selection list from tables in a database. Each table has a form that can be...

Yeah, and naw.

I don't know of any freeware, but Setup Factory and QSetup can both do it. Setup Factory does it a bit more elegantly, but it takes a plugin, and I haven't checked lately to see if...

TGreer,

I'm aware of the license requirements. My post about distributing .NET is based on the assumption that a person developing programs using Microsoft developer tools has a valid, licensed...

Isn't the .NET 2.0 framework being released along with the rest of VS2005? If so, we're looking at just about 2 months. I haven't found a way to allow C# Express to use 1.1, but then I haven't really...

I'm not familiar with that version. I'm really new to programming, so the Express edition is all I know anything about, as far as C#.

Which version of C# are you using? The process you describe has been made almost TOO simple in C# 2005 Express.

I think that would work, but as far as having the connection string modified to connect to the new (or selected) database by that name, I don't know how to code. What I'm thinking is that I could use...

I think you would not want to force your user to have to download the framework separately. You can just package the .NET framework redistributable with your setup.
The only potential problem I see...

That's what I was thinking, but the problem (for me) is that if I want to allow the user to name the new database, wouldn't that affect my connection string? I thought about just allowing the user to...

You can do the same thing on Amazon (at least for many books). There is a feature that let's you browse a sample of the contents of the book. With the price of gas these days, I'd try that first......

Can some aspect of this concept also be applied to creating a new database file? For example, I'm developing a program that stores data in an Access database, and I'd like the user to be able to...

That feature does not exist in all versions. For example, the Express Edition doesn't have it. It has a publish feature, but that doesn't have the flexibility of those programs mentioned. Of course,...

"Programming in the Key of C#" is pretty good too, for getting the basics of the language itself. However, most of the examples, though the concepts are translatable to Windows Forms apps, are done...

I have two issues;

If I create a new datatable and use a datagrid on my form, when I run the application there is this new, blank record already there. If I try to enter anything in it, it won't...