Beginning C# 3.0

2.4. Using C# to Implement Our Program Plan

Now you need to write a program to solve the task at hand. You're going to do this by using the objects provided by Visual Studio and .NET in concert with your own program logic using C#. It won't be difficult for you to do this because . . . you have a plan! The fact that you started with a plan rather than by just dragging and dropping objects onto a form puts you light years ahead of most beginning programmers.

True, you too will be dragging and dropping objects onto a form soon enough, but your approach to the problem is different. There's a method to your dragging and dropping . . . it is guided by "the plan." Too often beginning programmers start dragging labels and textboxes onto a form without a plan. They do this because they really don't know what to do first, and because the user interface is the easiest thing to create, they equate movement (dragging and dropping) with solving the problem. However, movement without a plan generates more heat than light. Therefore, the lesson to learn is: Never start coding a program without a plan. You can try to code a program without one but, ultimately, you are going to have to think through the problem and develop one. Because you're going to have to create a plan anyway, you may as well begin by developing a plan in the first place. Creating a plan first saves you time in the long run.

While you have performed some of the steps presented in the next few sections in Chapter 1, I didn't ...