john Wesley

is there anybody here willing to give advice about VB, im currently doing a course ( IT for Practitioners Software Development & Design ) though just starting here and not really done much coding im trying my darnest to teach myself VB6 at home also with the help of e-books, source code and greatly appreciated forum replies, but other than asking here for something specific that i can use, memorise and learn i would like to know just what a people's general views are about programming and what they think is helpful in moving forward when using VB. also am i wasting my time with VB6 when there is .NET
Thanks a bunch for any replies, they shall be thoroughly read.

zorin

Theres loads of these topics about tutorials search the forums and you'll find them. You can find example source code here. I think visual basics a good language to start with although every member will probably disagree right now. VB .NET is good and its free so if you want you could learn that without doing visual basic first. If you learn VB .NET employers are much more likley to employ you because its used in the business world where as visual basics pretty much dead as far as jobs go, don't get me wrong though there are still a few visual basic jobs around. Visual basic was one of the first languages that I learned and I still use it for small programs. I would reccomend C++ because its used pratically never ending jobs that require C++ skills so if you learn that then you should always have a job if your good at what you do. I would suggest that you learn VB first which will teach you the basics of programming and then when your confertable with that move onto another language.

john Wesley

how would you advise me to get ahead with VB other than stuff im already doing, as i said e books and source code i am using, though i find actually talking, or posting with programmers blows the subject wide open and i feel im learning the most this way by a person answering questions not a writer.
where should i set my targets if im just starting? i know a few lines of code but have only been vb'ing for a couple of weeks.
i do plan to learn c++ but thats eventually, im open to that but understand the time its going to take and not concentrating on where to go next but how to get there.
thanks alot for your reply.

Toro

It's going to one hell of a mirgration from VB to C++. You will get confused easily! HP Learning Center had a online class for Visual BASIC. Maybe you can register for the next one. It was fairly easy. But instead of looking into VB, I recommend C#.

Ooble

Does your course recommend or teach Visual Basic, or is it something you've just decided to learn?

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King

If you have to learn VB, definitely learn VB.Net. If you are just looking for a language to start learning programming, I recommend C#. C# is still pretty easy to learn, and also a way better language then VB (IMO).

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john Wesley

my course is having me use Access as of a start, apparently in order to prepare me for the use of databasing. But as i move on from here im not even sure what they have planned, so as im using Access for now in teaching ( i find this course isnt actually teaching me anything more than myself or anyone else helping me through my quest is) i looked at learning VB to get ahead.
Also i will state that since posting this thread originally i feel i have come a long way from the starting point already; thats not to blow my own horn, and i know my status is still 99% away from the end of learning this language.

I understand Toro the jump that it will be from VB to any C language but simply needed a foot in the door to give me a feel for programming and the common uses it entails.

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zorin

If you get the basic concepts of programming then you can think of moving onto another language. Most programers use more than one language for the simple reason that different languages are suited to different things. Don't be put off by people saying jumping to another language will be hard, these are just asumptions or what they have heared from someone else. Everything is hard at first but thats why we learn it. I found visual basic hard at first but you pick things up fast, just the same as with other languages. Read some books, tutorials etc:- and practice coding. If you are dedicated to learn somthing that you want to learn then you should do good.

I can see why your using visual basic with microsoft access and thats because you can code buttons and other features to function with the database. I would imagine that they are teaching you access so in the future you can move onto more complex databases like MySQL.

chepfaust

i just want to throw my two cents in--

if you have the ability to learn a different language, then strongly consider doing so. at least shoot for VB.NET or C#.

i use VB6 and am desperately trying to wrap up a project i am currently working on so i can start learning C# and ditch VB6 altogether.

i started using VB6 not very long before VB.NET was introduced, and now i am finding it increasingly difficult to research my VB6 problems because all the information out there seems to be slanted towards .NET. so i am having my share of regrets not learning something more scalable than VB6--if i could do it all over again, i would pick up a VB.NET book and learn from there.

cheers

john Wesley

I beleive this also and obviously it is a major factor of programming, im working with the concept of; they can teach me databases and il teach myself coding. ( though i say myself as to not refer to college, i actually have a good friend in programming that is helping me with my wanderings of VB6)

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