How to learn X++ without any programming experience

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Hi All,

I have almost 5 years of experience in Navision (functional) and i want to switch to AX technical how much time will it take to learn X++.Does it require any prior programming experience?I do have a technical background however from the last 5 years i have not written a single line of code.

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Vilmos Kintera 46,149 on at

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RE: How to learn X++ without any programming experience

Well, it does sound like you know how to drive a car and now you want try to fly an aeroplane without knowing basic aerodynamic principles :) The short answer is that there is no shortcut, you need to know a lot of generic techniques of programming.

AX has a bit from many popular programming languages. Without prior knowledge of what is OOP (Object Oriented Programming) and how to implement code using those techniques you would not be able to have a full understanding of what AX is capable of.

www.webopedia.com/.../object_oriented_programming_OOP.html

Also a strong relational database knowledge is required, and being able to manage yourself fairly comfortably with Microsoft SQL Server is advantageous.

The X++ language is somewhat similar to Java programming, and generic techniques applicable for similar languages can be almost identically used in AX. The IDE is unique to AX, it is called MorphX.

I would advise to get a generic programming language book or online course, familiarize yourself a bit with C# for example and the .Net framework, then once you feel comfortable with that, you could move on to getting the hang of AX in instructor-lead courses. I really like the Head First book series, which tries to teach through practical examples.

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Martin Dráb 236,353 Most Valuable Professional on at

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RE: How to learn X++ without any programming experience

As Vilmos said, it's important to realize that learning the language isn't the same as learning how to program, therefore "how much time will it take to learn X++" isn't a good question. Also, time needed to learn something is extremely subjective.

What you need is really a mix of several things: understanding object-oriented principles, X++ language, DB design and querying and supporting tools (debugger, cross-references etc.).

When choosing resources for learning object-oriented programming, picking C# is a particularly good choice, because it's similar to X++ (I didn't say they're the same), you can utilize the same libraries in X++, later you can write some libraries in C#... (these are advanced topics that you don't have to worry about for now, but later the knowledge may come in handy). And you'll find a huge amount of resources.

Prior programming experience isn't strictly needed, but you'll obviously have to learn more than if you already knew most principles from another environment.

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RE: How to learn X++ without any programming experience

Thank you for reply.

Can i start with c,c++ and then move to C# or i can directly start with C# please suggest?

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Vilmos Kintera 46,149 on at

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RE: How to learn X++ without any programming experience

C and C++ are much different from C#, and I would say they are somewhat harder to master. They allow a deeper level of programming for various interfaces and hardware, while C# is more geared towards Windows-based application, which Dynamics AX is. Go with the latter one.

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Martin Dráb 236,353 Most Valuable Professional on at

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RE: How to learn X++ without any programming experience

I also wouldn't recommend spending any time with C and C++ in your situation; it wouldn't help you much and it would distract you from things that you really need. You can return to C++ or maybe Objective-C a few years later, if you need them for some other work.

But don't forget that the goal isn't learning C#, the goal is learning object-oriented programming. The problem is that resources about X++ won't teach you that very well, therefore you have to look for resources written for other languages and C# is a convenient choice.

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Community Member on at

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RE: How to learn X++ without any programming experience

Thanks for your guidance.

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Community Member on at

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RE: How to learn X++ without any programming experience

Thankyou so much.This was helpful.

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Vilmos Kintera 46,149 on at

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RE: How to learn X++ without any programming experience

Please make sure you mark helpful answers next to each post to resolve the thread. Cheers

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Konrad U 804 on at

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RE: How to learn X++ without any programming experience

If you are in general familiar with programming you can learn X++ from AX itself since source code is provided by picking a function (form maybe), right click and select personalize and then selecting the form for edit. From there you can get an idea of how things are programmed. Compared to C# and C++ X++ is sort of stunted as a language but it is extremely useful. I believe the AOT still has code examples contained within. Packt publishing and Microsoft has published books on programming AX that can help get a start. And of course searching the web will show many examples of code for AX.

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