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General discussion

programing question...PLZ HELP

Feb 22, 2004 5:27AM PST

I am just learning programing and i was trying to learn Visual basic. I want to know if it is compatible with windows xp and if this is a good language to start to learn.

Discussion is locked

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Re:programing question...PLZ HELP
Feb 22, 2004 5:48AM PST

There are no less than 5 versions of Visual Basic. I think outside of 1.0, all the others worked fine.

Bob

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Visual Basic ...
Feb 22, 2004 7:04AM PST

surely is possible. But your choice really depends on why you want to learn programming, and what you want to do with it. Most people would see programming not as a hobby, but as a profession.

There isn't anything wrong with Flash, Java or C# either, to name a few other programming languages that are frequently being used at the moment.
Visual Basic is a getting a little bit outdated, just like Delphi.

Let me warn you that you need a very good book or course to learn anything like real programming in any language and preferably coaching by a personal tutor or teacher.


Kees

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Re:programing question...PLZ HELP
Feb 22, 2004 10:20AM PST

VisualBasic is about as much programming as MadLibs is writing a novel. Besides the fact that a great many minds in the field of computer science have a great disdain for anything Basic because it teaches bad habits for learning other languages later. Not to mention it's not exactly free.

If you're just starting out with programming you might consider Ruby ( http://www.rubycentral.com ). It's a fairly simple, yet quite powerful, scripting language. It will give you a good foundation a lot of programming concepts without overloading you. You can download a copy of the Windows interpreter from that website, which also comes bundled with a lot of support libraries, a simple text editor for coding, and a free copy of a tutorial book in Windows Help format (the text of the book is also avaliable on that website and as a print book, and it's all completely legal).

Later on if you want to learn Java/C# (honestly, C# is just different enough from Java for MS to avoid another lawsuit from Sun) or some other language you'll have a good foundation of skills to build on. Even learning Visual Basic as a second or third language isn't such a bad thing. It's just anything Basic as a first language that screws the pooch for most would-be programmers.

Just be wary of any of Microsoft's Visual line of products. They are designed to lock you into the Windows platform, and that can hurt employment prospects if you decide you want to get into programming as a career. Learn C++ before learning Visual C++, and learn Java before Visual J#, etc. It will make your life easier in the long run. And there's nothing wrong with learning an older language. SmallTalk is about 20 years old, and you'd still be hard pressed to find a more elegant language. Just learn Pascal before learning Delphi.

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RE: Programming Help
Aug 25, 2005 11:57PM PDT

I am learning Visual Basic.NET at the moment. This is a good language to learn because it is up to date, and very versataille. You can use VB.NET to build webpages as well as windows applications etc..

I am learning from a book called; Visual Basic.NET Step By Step (Microsoft Press), I bought this on amazon for

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Let's hope download.com has this one.
Aug 26, 2005 5:01AM PDT