Basic?

For Beginners

Started by dih November 11, 2009 03:40 PM

26 comments, last by SAL1 14 years, 5 months ago

1,366

November 17, 2009 06:16 AM

Quote:Original post by daviangel
#1 Microsoft treats VB.NET as a second class language compared to C# i.e. no XNA support, documentation/code lacking in many other areas not even related to XNA, etc.

There's plenty of resources available for VB.Net. Most examples in the MSDN documentation are written in both C# and VB, and there are a lot of books available that target VB exclusively. C# might be a slightly more popular, and doesn't make VB an irrelevant language.

Quote:#2 It makes you lazy. Seriously I know get all the advice the C language based programmers used to give to avoid it if possible or as Charles Petzold would say VB rots the brain or something like that. You can type all your code with total disregard to case since VB is case insensitive first of all. So you get in the bad habit of not capitalizing anything since the IDE will do it for you. That brings me to the second point which is intellisense and code snippets is ages ahead in VB.NET compared to C# so that's the other part that makes you lazy so when you do switch to C++ or C# it'll make you made because it's those little things that will aggravate you.

So the superior support for VB.Net is a bad thing? Well, I guess you can always write your VB code in notepad and compile using the command line if that makes you less 'lazy'.

jackolantern1

158

November 17, 2009 06:18 AM

When I was first starting out programming, I looked in to Perl. I couldn't make heads or tails of it even though I already had some programming experience. At the time, I was worried if experience with Perl would help me with other languages. I now believe that it would have, but not in the sense that learning C# would help with Java, or Visual Basic would help with learning Pure Basic. There are just not many languages out there that look or act like Perl, if there are any at all. I also think that the "there is a thousand ways to do every task" thing could be difficult for beginners to grasp; a lot of time struggling with syntax, and little time learning to program well.

dih

100

Author

November 17, 2009 06:25 AM

I've already tried C++ just couldn't get motivated enough there's alot to learn to do just one thing

OneThreeThreeSeven

-52

November 17, 2009 07:02 AM

Quote:Original post by dih
I've already tried C++ just couldn't get motivated enough there's alot to learn to do just one thing

Should try VB.

C takes lots of dedication. With VB you can just jump right in and start making apps like nothing. I started it like a week about and have made about 5 apps w/ GUI and everything. I'm currently working on a chatroom program but with C, I can barely make a window. ;o

VB is simple but it helps your brain think in terms of cause and effect without all the rules...that'll probably carry over when I go back to the more complex languages. This is my opinion. :p

daviangel

604

November 17, 2009 11:54 AM

Quote:Original post by Wan
So the superior support for VB.Net is a bad thing? Well, I guess you can always write your VB code in notepad and compile using the command line if that makes you less 'lazy'.

It's funny you should mention that because that's exactly how Petzold wrote his Programming for Windows book port for VB LOL!
And he wondered why it wasn't more popular?
Probably because he just didn't get the mindset of VB programmers of why wouldn't I use the VS IDE to write Windows programs?

[size="2"]Don't talk about writing games, don't write design docs, don't spend your time on web boards. Sit in your house write 20 games when you complete them you will either want to do it the rest of your life or not * Andre Lamothe

OneThreeThreeSeven

-52

November 18, 2009 05:06 AM

http://www.charlespetzold.com/etc/DoesVisualStudioRotTheMind.html

Wow petzold is not too fond of VB.

O_o

It's funny though. He talks about the ease of VB and how it rots the mind yet he says 20+ years ago he was writing resource scripts for his dialog boxes/buttons/menus and THAT was considered a HUGE timesaver. It spared the programmers many details that they would have to think about. See the connection? lol

I bet those guys from the 60's laughed at his silly resource scripts. Those rotted his brain! :D

Bottom line: EMBRACE VB! IT IS THE FUTURE!

Guthur

101

November 18, 2009 05:45 AM

Maybe try Python, its an ok learning curve, make sure you have a good code editor though that takes away any tabs issues.

I'd never recommend basic, but thats because it is about the only language I really loath, just a personal thing.

Off the wall suggestion, and because its my new found preference, try Common Lisp, if you want to do some 2D stuff there is lispbuilder-sdl, but there is also bindings for opengl, cl-opengl. And there is a recent port of the chipmunk 2D physics API, squirl.
Again like python make sure you get a good editor, emacs is my suggestion. The learning curve would probably be a little steeper than python but it's worth it.

If you have aspirations of industry entry you will have to go C/C++ sometime, I'd nearly say its a similar situation to php everyone uses it because everyone uses it.

C# would be a nice stepping stone to C/C++, similar syntax but then so does java.

But as someone said just learn programming.

Innovation not reiterationIf at any point I look as if I know what I'm doing don't worry it was probably an accident.

SAL1

138

November 18, 2009 05:58 AM

I would suggest FreeBasic if it must be a basic dialect, a few reasons:

- Completely free
- Multiplatform
- it provides a high performance graphics library (gfxlib) that is compatible with graphics functionality in QBasic (it uses DX or fallbacks to GDI or XLib underneath).
- You can directly use OpenGL which is fully exposed.
- It's compiled executables are stand-alone, meaning no runtime of any sort is required to run.
- Can use C compiled libraries and DLLs
- several IDEs
And many other interesting features.

If you are serious about learning you should go with C#, it's like C but with all the annoying things removed, for graphics you would have XNA and SlimDX.

For fun, I personally like Python with PyGame, it's just rapid development in it's purist sense. And oh, there is delicious Panda3D. :D

There are no generic silver bullets in programming, just go with what your guts feel right.

Good luck!

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