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Originally Posted by dcw9996
I'm 53 and disabled. I was a quadriplegic for a few years, and rehabed back to a functional state.
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Congratulations. That sounds like quite an achievement, and if you can apply the same singlemindedness to programming, you should do great.
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Originally Posted by dcw9996
While rehabbing I taught myself about computers, and have built several of them for friends and family. I am also self taught in Excel, and recently took the Microsoft Office Specialist test and received an Expert certification. I often work with Visual Basics for Applications to write my own macros for Excel.
I do work part time. My work involves keeping statistics for the physical therapy dept of a hospital and I have built a handful of databases (in excel) with macros for my bosses. A few years ago I bought a book & software to try and learn VB.Net. I devoured the book and loved doing the excercises.
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Sounds like you have the necessary mindset. I mean, 90% of learning anything is the motivation, and the best motivation is deriving enjoyment from it, and it seems like you enjoy it.
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Originally Posted by dcw9996
But I had 2 problems. The first being---did I start with the right language? Is there a better language? There are somany options and variations my head is swimming.
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Well, there really is no 'right' or 'wrong' language in general, despite what some language fanboys will tell you. I myself am partial to C, C++, and C#, but that doesn't mean they are intrinsically better. Certainly, some languages are better for certain tasks, but if someone tells you one language is the best all-around, they're full of shit.
That said, I'd recommend grabbing a copy of one (or more) of the 'express' editions of the Visual Studio languages, as they're
freely available from Microsoft's site. The learning curve for C++ might be a bit steep (but by no means insurmountable) if all you've been exposed to is VBA, but VB.NET should be easy to pick up. C# will be midway between the two in terms of difficulty, but many people prefer the syntax of C# to VB.NET. All of these have ample tutorials and other materials online, so you won't suffer from a lack of resources.
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Originally Posted by dcw9996
The second, and bigger, problem is---what do I "do" with it? When I finished the VB.Net book I was so excited to get started, but so utterly frustrated in not knowing how to proceed or what to build/do/create with it that I walked away from it all.
So I guess what I'm asking is-- what would you tell a complete beginner to do to get his feet wet? I guess because of my work it would be beneficial to learn how to create/work with databases.
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This is probably your biggest problem. The best way to approach this is to look for an unfulfilled need that you can meet with programming. As an example, say you've got a lot of CDs, DVDs, LPs, or what have you. You could write a program to track them all, so that you could enter artist, album, etc information, and then look stuff up later. This way, you could quickly find which album had a certain song on it, for example. While there are programs to do this sort of thing, it's really not a hard program to write, and it has the advantages of a) potentially being useful, and b) giving you an opportunity to learn about accessing databases in code. Of course, it might not be useful to you, but you get the idea- pick something that you will enjoy somewhat, and give it a go. You'll no doubt encounter problems, but that's what we're here for.
Another idea is a simple game, such as Tic-Tac-Toe, Tetris, or Scrabble. The latter also offers a chance to tie in databases for the 'dictionary' used to validate words, though it's an awful lot of typing unless you secure the word list from elsewhere. All three of these game ideas can potentially be made into online multiplayer games, giving you the chance to learn about sockets and such, so you can play against a friend in another location.
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Originally Posted by dcw9996
I don't really have the money to attend college courses. So any suggestions about which path to start down, and any recommended resources, would be most appreciated.
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Well, you don't really need money. In fact, despite my college courses, I found I learned far more practical material on my own. Really, the most important reason for going to school for this sort of thing is to get some kind of certification, to show employers you've learned the skills. Unless you're planning to take this up as a career, you're probably best off saving your money.
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Originally Posted by dcw9996
Again, I'm sorry for such a wide open question. I know the respnses can be many, and varied. But I appreciate you takig the time to read this.
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My pleasure. Your post was clear, not full of 'leet speak' or other such crap, and you weren't demanding answers to homework questions. The only issue was the double thread post, but we've all been there when the forum glitches, and we submit a post more than once.
Welcome to the forums.
