Visualbasic

[las-]

Hey.
Im interested to know what kind of stuff people use vb for? Is it only, script, small apps and macros and such or anything major ?
Will any bigger software products us vb or is more shareware stuff ?
Is vb a good programming language, I've just started using it, so Im far from an expert.
Visualbasic has limitions beeing that it only works on microsoft os, is it worth learning or should I got for something else, like c ?

las

[Artaudd]

in my opinion c is way better man. c++ for that matter.

[fred]

Visual Basic is an excellant tool for developing an application quickly. It is a bit like a building block set. It quickly allows you to click blocks together to build something. It's problem is that the blocks don't always do exactly what you want them to do and when they don't you are in it up to your neck. VB does not allow you to do everything..! C+, C++ development environments however tend to be different. With them, you can do anything, but the down side is that you need greater knowledge and skill to do anything at all. VB is a good starter, but you might get bored within a month and look forward to the greater control that C, C++ environments give you.... I agree with Artaudd. C, C++ are better. VB is good fun and easy, but lacks the flexibility of C and C++.

[Mcubed]

I think that a lot depends on where you are in terms of the programming learning curve. If you're a new programmer, (just starting) I'd recommend VB. You get a grasp of the object oriented concept and basic is relatively straight forward to learn. And, if you're like me and have no requirements beyond basic business databases and such, you mightn not go beyond that (unless you want to get into Oracle ). But if you want to eventually write games with high end graphics, you'll want to learn the C languages along the way. As a place to start, though, you won't be doing yourself any harm with VB. I'd start with the learning edition, it's the cheapest. After you get your feet on the ground, you can upgrade or jump to one of the C compilers.

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Patience is the price you pay when you can't pay the price.

[nightsky]

Thanks for your input Fred. I am interested in learning how to program.I find VB fun to learn.
However, my question is how are chatrooms set-up? I want to build a website that includes chatroom capabilities. Ambitious proj. but what the heck!
When ur as old as I u r allowed to do anything u want!

[This message has been edited by nightsky (edited 05-26-2000).]

[This message has been edited by nightsky (edited 05-26-2000).]

[Jagdish Soans]

VB was originally developed by Microsoft to make it easy for power users to develop ordinary Windows applications, especially database applications easily. However professional programmer's soon discovered it was quite adequate to write commercial applications with and with its visual development style soon became the most widely used application development system in the world and is now considered a heavy-duty application development system capable of allowing the development of enterprise level software ( the biggest I know personally has about 2,000 modules say 200,000 lines of code ). However its still fun to use it for simple applications many of which can be written without a single line of code! However Visual BASIC is only a APL ( a language built into an application to automate it ) and is no substitute for independent programming languages such as C/C++, Java etc. As a matter of fact you can never hope to gain command over programming if you don't know C/C++.

[UncaDanno]

So you're saying that the first 12 years of my career in development was wasted because C++ wasn't around yet?

I really don't think the original poster was wanting to start another language-centric holy war.

[VeNoM600]

I bought VB6 learning edition a while ago. I used it for the first couple weeks. After knowing what it could do I dropped it as quick as possible. My Opinion is that microsoft wanted another money maker. To me VB6 is absolutly useless. Now I am starting to program in C. C is used in almost all OS VB is used in well Windows. Stay far away from Visual Basic, I've been there done that and regretted every second of my life I wasted using it.

[Felix]

I agree with fred and jagdish.

I use VB for many small custom utilities. For my company I made a calculator with 15'000 lines of code. Though it is a great tool for windows apps I would prefer something other for web stuff. VB is great for database front ends, and hands down, what is computing nowadays other than database access? (ok, beside gaming and other time-critical apps)

One word to "VB does not allow you to do everything..!" -- A major difference between DOS based programming (C++, Qbasic) and Windows based programming (Visual C++, Visual Basic) is the way of the program flow: Within DOS based programming you have full control of the program flow even with Basic. Windows is different. It's not VB that doesn't give you full control - it's Windows itself, since Windows is "event-driven". All and everything causes windows events (i.e. clicking a button, moving the mouse somewhere and such) and since all those events can happen in a random order windows must handle the program flow different than DOS.

I think you can't judge between C and VB. Both have their advantages and it depends on what you are planning.

excerpt of Programmer's Quick Guide to the Languages

TASK: Shoot yourself in the foot.

C
You shoot yourself in the foot.

C++
You accidentally create a dozen instances of yourself and shoot them all in the foot. Providing emergency medical assistance is impossible since you can't tell which are bitwise copies and which are just pointing at others and saying, "That's me, over there."

Pascal
The compiler won't let you shoot yourself in the foot.

Assembler
You try to shoot yourself in the foot, only to discover you must first invent the gun, the bullet, the trigger, and your foot.

BASIC
Shoot yourself in the foot with a water pistol. On large systems, continue until entire lower body is waterlogged.

Visual Basic
You'll really only _appear_ to have shot yourself in the foot, but you'll have had so much fun doing it that you won't care.

[UncaDanno]

Good one, Felix! I had never seen that analogy before.

And I agree with you in that every tool has its use. The important thing is to select the tool that best fits the job at hand.

If a hammer is the only tool you use, everything looks like a nail.

[las-]

Thank you for all the nice feed back.

I made a visualbasic program awhile back that controlled an access97 database. This was a rather small program and small database, I used sql codes to add,delete and search in database. The thing is that I thought the program was REALLY slow. I used adodc connection ,dont know if that makes any differences or not.

Thanks for any comments or tips.
las