Beginning programming with C#

You've read Daniel's article on becoming a coder, you've had a look at PHP/Python, and maybe even written some programs. Now you've decided to move on and create some nifty code that uses a GUI, with menus, buttons, and all the other things that users expect. Using Python or PHP this can be done, but with rather a lot of difficulty.

In my opinion, a much better solution, especially for Windows developers, is to use Microsoft's C# (pronounced as C-Sharp) language. You can download Visual Studio Express 2008 C# edition for free, a complete C# Integrated Development Environment, with an easy-to-use form editor and a nice code editor. Also in the install program is the option to install SQL Server Express, a database server that works well with C#. SQL Server is a nice addition to have, if you decide to do some programs with databases, but be wary that it is an additional ~30mb to download.