Visual Programming Newbie. Need Help!

[Psyber]

Hi,
I'm a Web application developer by trade, but I don't do many Win32 applications. I do mostly Servlet/JSP and CGI programming. Well I just took on a project that requires me to build a digital timer with a start, stop, and reset button. I'm thinking it would be better to do it Visual Basic or C++, but I've never used Visual Basic and the only C++ programming I've done is not visual (it just outputted to the command line). Does anyone know how I can get started? I don't even know how to compile my stuff. I have Microsoft Visual C++ IDE and Visual Basic IDE installed.

Is there a good site on how to set up a visual application in the Microsoft Visual C++ IDE and/or Visual Basic IDE?

Better yet, does anyone know have any source code for building a digital timer?
Thanks in advance,
Psyber

 

[igowerf]

It's really easy to do in Visual Basic, but the VB timer control is really innaccurate.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Check www.codeproject.com

To get started on a visual app, try the MFC Appwizard and a "Dialog based" as the type of application. Answer "How would you like to use the MFC library" by choosing "As a statically linked library."

This kind of app is a lot like a single-form VB application. The dialog editor will let you drag & drop buttons and the ClassWizard will let you define empty message handlers to respond to button presses.

Searching MSDN on timer events and MFC should help as wel..

But you have your work cut out for you -- you might want to pick up a book (Jeff Prosise is excellent) or pass this job on to someone else.

 

[Psyber]

Originally posted by: igowerf
It's really easy to do in Visual Basic, but the VB timer control is really innaccurate.

Is there a web page I can look at that describes the timer control?

 

[Psyber]

Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
Check www.codeproject.com

To get started on a visual app, try the MFC Appwizard and a "Dialog based" as the type of application. Answer "How would you like to use the MFC library" by choosing "As a statically linked library."

This kind of app is a lot like a single-form VB application. The dialog editor will let you drag & drop buttons and the ClassWizard will let you define empty message handlers to respond to button presses.

Searching MSDN on timer events and MFC should help as wel..

But you have your work cut out for you -- you might want to pick up a book (Jeff Prosise is excellent) or pass this job on to someone else.

How hard is it to learn VB? How long does it take to learn? I am familiar with C++ (a bit rusty, haven't used it in 3 years) and am about an average programmer with Java. I wanted to see if I could pick it up in a week and finish the project in a month. I can probably get it done faster if I do it as an Java applet since I'm much more familiar with Java, however, I believe a Win32 application is much better suited for what I'm doing.

 

[ugh]

Perhaps Delphi is another option to use? Down side is that you'll have to pick up the language from scratch...

 

[DaveSimmons]

How hard is it to learn VB? How long does it take to learn? I am familiar with C++ (a bit rusty, haven't used it in 3 years) and am about an average programmer with Java. I wanted to see if I could pick it up in a week and finish the project in a month. I can probably get it done faster if I do it as an Java applet since I'm much more familiar with Java, however, I believe a Win32 application is much better suited for what I'm doing.

not really sure, I'd had several years of other Basic programming (Atari, C64, DOS Basic) as well as years of C++ and MFC before using it so it was really easy. Do you already know VBScript / ASP?

C++/MFC is pretty easy to learn if you use it as I've described (Dialog-based app). Any "teach yourself" or "dummies" type book would walk you through setting up the message handlers for button events.

 

[igowerf]

Originally posted by: Psyber

Originally posted by: igowerf
It's really easy to do in Visual Basic, but the VB timer control is really innaccurate.

Is there a web page I can look at that describes the timer control?

Just click on the timer control on the tool bar and place it somewhere on the form.
You can set the interval using Timer1.Interval = 1000 (1 second).
Double click on the timer control to write some code for the timer event.
Once you enable the timer (Timer1.Enabled = true, I think), the code that you wrote for the timer event will be called every second (or whatever you set for the interval).

 

[Psyber]

I started playing with VB and it might be the way to go. Any online quick start guides that anyone can suggest? I went to MSDN, but it's a bit big to go through; maybe if someone know where the getting "started section" is and give me the link. I have a VB 5 book somewhere (I believe it's the Night School one). I don't really want to spend any money on books.