Visual Basic..... Bruce, Laurie, anyone? (

[VMX_SKYmx99]

Well, next semester I will start my computer science major.  My 1st class will be Visual Basic.  I have no experience whatsoever in this field, but I am eager to learn.  What I was wondering is if anyone knew of any good sites out there that could teach me some basic stuff so I willhave a slight grasp of what is going on in this class. 

Thanks,



Sky

[DBR_Dodgy]

www.google.com
thats as much as i know.

Ian.

[Crucify]

here is one I used, it will get you started.
http://www.programmersheaven.com/zone1/index.htm

[cR]

I could give u a msn addy from someone who's pretty good whit it, he was working on something like MSN messenger, so his pretty good 

[AMA_DirtTwister]

Will you be learning Visual Basic .NET?  If so I would recommend actuallly learning C#.  Visual Basic 6.0 and Visual Basic .NET are quite different.  I don't think at this time it is worthwhile learning Visual Basic 6.0.   If you are doing .NET then C# is probably the best language to learn.  If you don't have a choice and are learning Visual Basic .NET then I would recommend also learning some C# along with it.  When learning .NET the language isn't as important as learning the Common Language Runtime and the FCL (Framework Class Library).

Which ever language you are using just send me an e-mail with some info on what experience you have and I can help get you started.  I actually taught Jeff (MCMNut) VB though e-mail and he then immediately created the VB version of APM.  Jeff had a LabView/C background.

Bruce

[VMX_SKYmx99]

Thanks Bruce. I appreciate the help.  My advisor did not tell me which VB i was learning.  It is intro to prgramming.  I would guess it is probably the most common one.  Is that .net?  I would really appreciate any help you can give, because I have no background in programming, but it is something I am really eager to learn.  If you could email me at alex.lewis@gmail.com with some stuff to get started, I would really appreciate it.

Thanks,



Sky 

[AMA_DirtTwister]

It's kind of wierd right now.  .NET is the current one, but real world stuff is still mostly in Visual Basic 6.0. 

I assume that it will be .NET, but if I got you started on .NET and it was VB 6.0 then I wouldn't have helped you much.

It's important to find out which one because they are really two different animals.  Knowing VB 6.0 helps you with the raw language of VB .Net, but the real work is done in the libraries and controls that you use and they are tremendously different.

Bruce

[VMX_SKYmx99]

ok, I'll find out monday.  Is there a program I need, or do I just use code for this?

[AMA_DirtTwister]

Both VB 6.0 and VB .NET you need to use the corresponding version developer tool.  There are student discounts they most likely will be only available for VB .NET.

http://www.academicsuperstore.com/market/marketdisp.html?PartNo=629546&qk_srch=visual+basic

You need to get what is required for your class.

If you have Excel, Access, or Word than you have a VB 6.0 language.  You can use the VBA editor to create programs.

It's also possible to just use notepad and write Visual Basic Script.  For example if you enter the following in notepad and save it has HelloWorld.VBS.

MsgBox "Hello World"

If you enter the above, save it, and then double click on it in Windows Explorer it will run and show a popup with the words "Hello World".  VB Script is a subset of Visual Basic but it's a good place to start.

Bruce

[AMA_DirtTwister]

I was just browsing around on the MSDN site (MicroSoft Developer Network) and I found this offer:

http://www.aspnetwebcasts.com/Default.aspx

It seems too good to be true, but Microsoft does like to give out stuff to hook you.  It says if you attend 3 live or on-demand webcasts you'll receive a complementary gift that includes Visual Basic .NET Standard Edition and an ASP.NET book.  The webcasts are about 1.5 hours long and certainly worth listening to if you are interested in programming.

Bruce

[VMX_SKYmx99]

Ok, I just talked to an advisor in the CS department and he told me that Right now they teach Q basic and next semester (when I take it)  It will be Visual Basic.  He said he wasn't sure what version it was, but it is the one the is used in Visual Studio.  I don't think he taught the class. lol 

[AMA_DirtTwister]

QBasic is good place to start.  It's a DOS program though.  You can learn the language fundamentals without confusing it with all the Windows GUI stuff.

If you don't have it you can get it here:

http://download.microsoft.com/download/win95upg/tool_s/1.0/w95/en-us/olddos.exe

Bruce

[VMX_SKYmx99]

OK, Thanks man.  I'll try and learn some of this stuff.

[Fredde]

Hey I did some programing in Qbasic back in the day Its really easy to start there... Its olmost like writing english

I found the tutorials at www.qbasic.com really good to start with. But theres plenty to choose from...