Worth buying/using old programming books - Visual Basic C# 2005, asp.net 2.0?

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Are there significant differences between VB 2008 and VB 2005? It's just that I'm thinking of using some (cheaper) programming books on Visual Basic and C# 2005 (and asp.net 2.0)

 

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.NET framework has changed and many new features were introduced since then. I wouldn't

 

I'm not a Visual Basic programmer so can't give you a definitive answer.

Here is the microsoft changes from Visual Basic .Net 2005 -> Visual Basic .Net 2008

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/we86c8x2.aspx

There doesn't appear to be that many changes for VB.

and heres C#

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb383815.aspx

Around 31 breaking changes for C# 2008, so if you're interested in C# I'd definitely get new books.


Visual Studio VB / C# .Net 2005 was based on .Net framework 2.0

Visual Studio VB / C# .Net 2008 can use .Net framework 2.0, 3.0 or 3.5.

For framework changes see here :-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.NET_Framework

I would have thought the 2005 books would still be quite usable for VB and for general framework knowledge, if they are heavilly discounted and you are on a budget might be worth it.

I think high quality books are important though as you don't want to get unecessarilly confused, so generally if I'm going to invest 100's of hours reading a book, I want to read the most upto date one.

I'd also choose one preferred CLR language (probably C#) and stick with it for a bit.

 

But wouldn't the 'old' books be useful for the basics?

 

Yes but depends what basics, they appear to have changed the language and grammar for C# quite a bit, you might therefore be taught out of date syntax that is no longer legal.

The chances of this happening with VB are less because it looks like they made less changes.

The core .Net framework 2.0 has not changed that much, 3.0 and 3.5 are mainly extensions, also frameworks constantly change anyway so I wouldn't sweat that so much.

So thats what I said in my reply, for example the MS book 70-536, the core framework training kit, you could probably get by with either version.

If I was buying a core language book on C#, I'd make sure it was for C# 2008 flavour.

Then there are changes to the Visual Studio IDE, again these are less important, but could still confuse a beginner.

 

psh. I've just been on a 2 day ".Net 3.5 for .Net 2.0 developers" course. The differences, whilst numerous, arent particularly dealbreakers I would say.

.Net 3.5 is built around the .Net 2.0 CLR, just extending the functionality. Anything you can do in .Net 2.0, you can do exactly the same in .Net 3.5. 3.5 Just adds new functionality (LINQ, anonymous types, etc) that 2 doesnt possess.

If you can get the .Net 2.0 books dirt cheap, go for it. If the difference isnt much, cough up for the newer versions.

 

Just go with the new .NET books. It's a small difference in cash but a potentially big difference in your career.