Learning VB

88hondapreludes · 06-06-2004, 07:46 PM

Im interested in making carpc software for my car but I would like to open it up for everyone to use as well but which software is the easiest to use C++ or VB also if theres anyone proficient in either of these I would like to make some kind of trade for them to help me out in either one. I have a dedicated web server that I can host websites on I am profficient in HTML, PHP, car mechanics, electronics maybe theres some kind of a trade we can make because I would like to learn VB or C++ whichever is easier I would eventually like to use it to make a 3D game to go with my web-based game that I already run

CRCinAU · 06-06-2004, 07:50 PM

Check out the Cajun-4-Win software - it's open source and hosted at sourceforge. It's fairly basic code to follow... should be easy to learn from.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/cajun-4-win

xBrady · 06-06-2004, 08:19 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by 88hondapreludes

Im interested in making carpc software for my car but I would like to open it up for everyone to use as well but which software is the easiest to use C++ or VB also if theres anyone proficient in either of these I would like to make some kind of trade for them to help me out in either one. I have a dedicated web server that I can host websites on I am profficient in HTML, PHP, car mechanics, electronics maybe theres some kind of a trade we can make because I would like to learn VB or C++ whichever is easier I would eventually like to use it to make a 3D game to go with my web-based game that I already run

VB is much easier.... At least that is how it seemed when I read a part of one book like 5 years ago. I believe that with VB you are a bit more limited as to what you can do (none of which apply to a basic car application). I get the impression that object oriented languages are just a tad harder.. but if you have some experiance in Java or something C++ shouldn't be too bad.

mobileh1 · 06-06-2004, 08:53 PM

ITs not the language (c++) that would be difficult, its the win32 API that takes the time learning. What you can do in 1 line in VB might take 30 in win32.

If you are going to take the time to learn a new language, c# might be a better choice, its OO, makes COM simple (which c++ doesn't), and like java has a very rich class library behind it.

Thats my 2c

veetid · 06-06-2004, 09:35 PM

C# is the way to go... I unfortunately had to program in VB for a few years at a company and it is a very very limited, unstructed, microsoft assumption based language that if you are actually able to choose a language to learn I would not choose it.. C# will give you good OO programming experience and a awesome class library.. You rarely have to go back to WIN32 to do stuff, except ever once in a while, like for serial support in a GPS software you might build in... But .NET 2.0 should be coming out soon and it includes a lot of the stuff they didn't have time to release for 1.1... Go with C#... I have programed professional in all of them... Assembly (Game Engines), C, C++, Fortran, Perl, Java, VB, C#... For the longest time Java was my favorite.. Its a lot like C++, which is prolly the best language in my opinion but some things are really a pain to accomplish in windows, but once C# came out I actually got my whole department at work to re-write all our VB applications into C# and some of our applications tripled in speed and halfed in size...

my 2c

88hondapreludes · 06-06-2004, 09:56 PM

since you seem to be very profficient in C# would you mind helpin me out a lil maybe give me a few pointers and stuff on a instant messenger do you have AIM or MSN? Just need some help findin resources etc to learn from I taught myself PHP but had some help of some friends that already knew it to ask some questions now they ask me questions lol

veetid · 06-06-2004, 10:06 PM

Sure np... I have a big project going live middle of this week, but I will get in touch later this week and help you out with any questions...

88hondapreludes · 06-06-2004, 10:16 PM

I have microft visual C++ 6.0 and visual basic 6 im going to guess that C++ isnt C# ?

mobileh1 · 06-06-2004, 11:15 PM

assert( C++ != C# )

Nope, C++ is compiled to native op codes for the CPU. C# is, like java, interpreted at runtime by the .Net system.

C# is (much) more like java, in that is is fully OO, has a rich class library and is interpreted. It also, like java still doesnt have deterministic destructors, but it does have delegates (like typesafe c++ function pointers.

If you learn C++ (or C) you will need to get aquainted to a couple of concepts that are not present in C# or java, pointers and memory management. The former is usually the part of the language that is the hardest for people to learn.

All the slagging vB has got here, in my opinion if you want to get something up and running really quickly, VB is still a decent language to do it in. Its really easy to get going and provides a lot of instant gratification. You can also learn two languages, they all boil down to the same thing, the concepts of programming are universal, the only difference is how much of the concept is handled by the language/class lib and how much do you have to code yourself. In c/c++ you have do nearly everything yourself, but in C# and VB you get to do the fun stuff and the plumbing is taken care of for you.

The decision may come down to other factors though. Getting the IDE might be one, if you have access to MSDN DVD's then you can get the IDE for c#. There is a free command line compiler, but that isnt the easiest way to start out.

xBrady · 06-07-2004, 02:02 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by mobileh1

assert( C++ != C# )

Nope, C++ is compiled to native op codes for the CPU. C# is, like java, interpreted at runtime by the .Net system.

C# is (much) more like java, in that is is fully OO, has a rich class library and is interpreted. It also, like java still doesnt have deterministic destructors, but it does have delegates (like typesafe c++ function pointers.

If you learn C++ (or C) you will need to get aquainted to a couple of concepts that are not present in C# or java, pointers and memory management. The former is usually the part of the language that is the hardest for people to learn.

All the slagging vB has got here, in my opinion if you want to get something up and running really quickly, VB is still a decent language to do it in. Its really easy to get going and provides a lot of instant gratification. You can also learn two languages, they all boil down to the same thing, the concepts of programming are universal, the only difference is how much of the concept is handled by the language/class lib and how much do you have to code yourself. In c/c++ you have do nearly everything yourself, but in C# and VB you get to do the fun stuff and the plumbing is taken care of for you.

The decision may come down to other factors though. Getting the IDE might be one, if you have access to MSDN DVD's then you can get the IDE for c#. There is a free command line compiler, but that isnt the easiest way to start out.

If you are going to learn C# I would definitely suggest that you purchase .NET Visual Studio. It will make your life a lot esier. It isn't all that expensive if you buy the academic version (you have to be in school of course). I paid $82 after shipping for .NET Studio.

xBrady · 06-07-2004, 02:04 AM

Oops didn't mean to quote you mobileh1. That wasn't directed at you.