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Hello all....
Great web site. Love the info and suggestions I can get here.
So, I have been doing IT work for over 25 years (servers, networks, hardware, etc...) and never delved into the development field. I now have the opportunity to learn writing and modifying code, but I am having a hard time making this logic click.
I have several beginner books on Visual Studio (2005,2010,2012)and have done the training classes offered by a local business.
I am focusing on Visual Basic as my language of choice because the company I work for uses this only.
Any suggestions on how I can make all this info click?
I understand the concepts, but just could not write the code behind a app i lay out in VS Designer to save my life.
EDIT:
Thanks all for the great advice. I sort of suspected I was trying to bite off more than I could chew.
Going to go back simple and work my way up.
modified 19-Feb-13 15:53pm.
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Learning Visual Basic will tar you as a n00b forever, and firmly establish a reputation that will be very difficult to get out of. If you are going to learn a CLR language, C# might be a better choice. And if you want to expand your horizons beyond Microsoft, java might be the one.
--
Harvey
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haha...maybe a Old n00b...
I have read that once you have a language down, it makes learning other languages easier. Vb and VB.Net are what our dev guy uses here, so I need to get this to assist. C# is on my list as well as Java for personal enrichment.
Any suggestions on a n00b learning C# and Java (as well as VB)? Don't seem to have a issue with the tools to design apps, just making it do what I want.
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ITWino wrote: I have read that once you have a language down, it makes learning other languages easier...
This is indeed true to a certain extent. I know about 100 computer languages, and at least in the early days, it was all really just syntax. I was usually able to learn a new language by reading the language reference. There were several exceptions to this (assembly, APL, C). Nowadays that is not quite so true.
What is more important to grasp is the concepts and programming paradigms involved: [assembly], object oriented programming, functional programming, web, templates, lambdas, ...
Next to that is frameworks and environment: MFC, WTL, CLR, unix/linux, ...
Finally: Concurrency
Each of these is a separate skill, and shifting from one language to another is a much smaller step if you understand the paradigms involved.
--
Harvey
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If you are good with one assembly language, you will not have much trouble with another.
Group all kinds of programing languages by their closeness to the hardware and their generations (also roughly equivalent to the prevailing programing model) and you get an accurate impression of how small or big the step from one to another may be.
And in the end they all produce just a lot of bytes that the processor will try to execute as instructions.
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What's about Object oriented Assembler?
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True. I used that years ago. It was based on MASM, if I remember correctly.
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MASM means Macro Assembler, doesn't it? It was good choise for asembler coding 40 years ago. But now 
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H.Brydon wrote: at least in the early days, it was all really just syntax.
I am experiencing something like this right now. I know about 3 or more languages (depends on what you consider 'knowing' a language). I was given a test in a language I had never attempted to learn before. I had to fix 3 bugs. The first was just strings that are really dates being sorted alphabetically like "1-Feb-2012" coming before "1-Jan-2012". I had to make it sort chronologically. I got the syntax down, found out how the date types work, and I fixed it. The other 2 bugs had nothing to do with the main code language they were using. The template system they use needed to be modified for the second bug. The third bug involved changing an oracle database table to include two more columns, and having their build scripts and code generation tools pick up these two extra values. I fixed 2 out of 3. I felt awesome when I made that brand new language do what I wanted, and then stupid for not knowing nearly enough about the other components that drive their application. I am on a mission now to learn these things, and what you just said really hit home.
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A large part of learning a .Net language is learning the framework, Visual Studio, OO concepts and design patterns eg MVC. Somebody who is a competant VB.Net developer won't have much trouble picking up C# - same framework, same IDE, same OO concepts baked in. The difference is mainly down to syntax. Hence why there are websites offering VB.Net to C# converters and visa-versa!
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Of course you will be noob, only because you program on language without ";".
VB.Net and Csharp are 97% like same, only compiler AST are different, in most cases, IL generated are same.
Even in new framework, the compiler will be the same.
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Start with developing smaller apps. An Address management app for example...
Edit: Address for Adress. Thanks OG.
modified 19-Feb-13 15:13pm.
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Marco Bertschi wrote: Adress management app
Two methods? "On" and "Off"? 
If you get an email telling you that you can catch Swine Flu from tinned pork then just delete it. It's Spam.
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Let's begin with 16 address bits, giving you a memory space of 64k.
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My memory space isn't 64 bits, let alone 64Kb!
I think I have a 5 item stack for a memory. Ask me to remember a sixth thing and...<splash>...in the bit bucket!
If you get an email telling you that you can catch Swine Flu from tinned pork then just delete it. It's Spam.
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So you are one of the older models with 16 additional bones - mechanical brain.
Sorry, could not resist...
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I wish! Mine is steam powered... 
If you get an email telling you that you can catch Swine Flu from tinned pork then just delete it. It's Spam.
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OriginalGriff wrote: Mine is steam powered...
Still better than having a donkey running around an Axis to keep the brain running (example)[^]
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Dammit, I tripped into one of these traps fo non-native english speakers 
No, I thought something where you can manage contacts (real people, not electronic contacts).
Every contact has a surname, last name, street name & number, postal code, phone number and email address.
Creating, editing, deleting and displaying them should be a good start. Afterwards he can add the possibility to save them when the application is closed and load them when the app is started and learns about file handling this way.
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Awww! You're no fun! An app that could remove a dress that quick would sell like hot cakes... 
If you get an email telling you that you can catch Swine Flu from tinned pork then just delete it. It's Spam.
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Maaan I always mess things up. Especially the address thing because it is "Adresse" in german  .
Edit:
OriginalGriff wrote: An app that could remove a dress that quick would sell like hot cakes...
Does already exist. Called scissors. If no scissors are available use anything else which can cut trough a dress.
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It is possible that Swiss ladies don't start running away and screaming for help when you approach them with scissors (or a large knife) and an evil glint in your eye, but British ones will either scream and run, or kick you where the pain starts...and IIRC aren't all Swiss tooled up?
An App would be a lot safer!
If you get an email telling you that you can catch Swine Flu from tinned pork then just delete it. It's Spam.
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OriginalGriff wrote: IIRC aren't all Swiss tooled up?
We are. But there is a set of different tools, see details here[^].
OriginalGriff wrote: It is possible that Swiss ladies don't start running away and screaming for help when you approach them with scissors (or a large knife)
A colleague of mine stated it this way: Talk to her, hit her really hard and use the moment of surprise to put the chloroformed handkerchief on her mouth until she does not move anymore.
I want to state clearly that a colleague of mine said this. I prefer to get women by good-looking and a nice personality . They stay longer with me than they would do with him (The a dress app is a good idea anyways) .
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+5 At last a relevant suggestion meant to be helpful !
thanks, Bill
This thing we tell of can never be found by seeking, yet only seekers find it.
Abu Yazid Al-Bistami (Persian, Sufi, 804-872)
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