Visual Basic

[NJLOAD]

What is the best version of VB and where is the best place to buy? I have never programed before but looking to get into it.

Any help appreciated.

Thanks

 

[mysticfm]

As to which one, it kinda depends on what you plan or hope to do with it. VB6 is better for prototyping quick little applications and is probably a little easier, but VB.NET has more future and may teach (somewhat) better programming habits.

The best place to buy is the one with the cheapest price. I don't know where that would happen to be at the moment.

 

[mundane]

I believe there's still the Visual Studio Express 2005 Beta going on:http://lab.msdn.microsoft.com/express/vbasic/default.aspx

It's supposed to be targeted at HS students, from what I was told. But the IDE is free to download and at least toy around with. I've used the C++ and C# versions, and liked them. It'll give you a good feel for the product. You can check the license agreement too - if you're not doing commercial work, you might be able to use it (but don't hold me to that).

 

[mysticfm]

Oh yeah, I keep forgetting about the 2005 beta (no time to spend on it right now). That might be a good starting spot ... at least the price can't be beat.

 

[notfred]

Best place to buy is a university bookstore.

 

[kmmatney]

The 2005 beta is pretty awesome, and its free.

The easiest version just to start fooling around is VB 6.0, but you can't buy that anymore, as far as I know, and its use will be limited in the future. The current version of VB.Net is not bad, but the new 2005 version will be a huge improvement. I would download the free beta edition (it's solid) and then get a student or standard edition of the 2005 version when it comes out.

I started out in Visual Basic 3.0 and was hooked, and still program in VB 6. I haven't decided if I'll do any new development in VB.NET or C#, but C# seems like the better choice from a career standpoint.

 

[kmmatney]

Oh yeah, you can download a free C# and VB.NET IDE:

SharpDevelop

Its a very nice program considering its open source. Last time I tried it the VB.NET support was a bit weak, but it is improving. You can't beat the price, and its only a 6.43 MB download. The C# support is pretty good.

 

[BigToque]

My ignorance may show here, but with VS.net, do all the languages end up getting compiled into .NET code?

It was my understanding that it didn't matter which of the languages you used VB.NET, C#, etc, that they would all be translated to .NET code.

Is this correct?

 

[imported_jb]

i'm under the impression that w/ those betas, you can't make anything not .NET.

 

[NJLOAD]

Folks, thanks for all the advice. My wife works for Rutgers University so maybe after some fooling around that would be a good place to look for the program.

Thanks for all the help.

NJLOAD

 

[MrChad]

Originally posted by: jb
i'm under the impression that w/ those betas, you can't make anything not .NET.

Yes. Visual Studio 2002, 2003 and 2005 Beta will only compile VB.NET binaries. Visual Studio 6 is still required for "standard" VB apps (and will still likely be around for quite some time until the .NET CLR becomes more universally adopted).

 

[Apathetic]

Originally posted by: Stefan
My ignorance may show here, but with VS.net, do all the languages end up getting compiled into .NET code?

It was my understanding that it didn't matter which of the languages you used VB.NET, C#, etc, that they would all be translated to .NET code.

Is this correct?

Yup. All the .NET languages use the same runtime libraries and are compiled into the same intermediate code called "IL" which is kinda like a higher level stack based assembly language.

Dave