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Microsoft now offers a free download of Microsoft Visual Studio Express. It's a single language of their full-blown Visual Studio application, designed for students, hobbyists, and novices. It's good for one year.
They offer a choice of one of the following languages:
I only get one year, and I want to do something that is feasible. I think VB is not useful in the Real World, and Visual C++ might be more than I can handle. Visual J# is java-like, but not -like enough. I think C# is the best choice.
What do my geek readers think?
They offer a choice of one of the following languages:
- Visual Basic
- Visual C#
- Visual C++
- Visual J#
I only get one year, and I want to do something that is feasible. I think VB is not useful in the Real World, and Visual C++ might be more than I can handle. Visual J# is java-like, but not -like enough. I think C# is the best choice.
What do my geek readers think?
4 Comments:
Go with C#. It's roughly equivalent to Java, but from a Microsoft equivalent. Don't try to do Java MS style (J#). If you want to do Java that's fine, but skip Visual Studio. VB is pretty good. Especially since it's now on a .NET footing, it does have real world uses. But, now that everything's on a .NET footing what advantage does VB have? Don't do C++ unless you really have to. It was a good idea (maybe) 15-20 years ago, but the MS implementation was always rough and the language and environment are overly complicated.
Agreed - C or VB. Depends on what you want to do... A lot of companies are still writing in VB6 - it's faster and cheaper.
I downloaded and installed SQL2005, VB2005 and Web Development 2005 express editions. I was mildly apprehensive because I already have Visual Studio 2003 and SQL Server 2000 on my home development box. Turns out my concerns were unfounded but the entire operation was a tedious affair (I did run VS2003 and launched several apps that I had been working on previously, specifically web applications). I didn’t have SP2 installed (which is required) so that took some time. Each of the packages above require registration if you don’t want them to time out after 30 days, I got that out of the way right away (you need a Microsoft Passport account). I also downloaded some sample databases and a couple of starter kits for the WebDev app. When installing VB I elected to get the MSDN package (240megs) but the server/download was fast. Thank fully everything successfully installed first time around. I connected to the DB from both VB and WebDev without a hitch. I ran a starter kit (personal home page) from WebDev and it launched a web server (not my native IS 5.2 or whatever it is) and the pages displayed nicely in IE. The documentation is extensive.
I think there is probably a pretty steep learning curve going into this Ann. I’m sure you are up for it but I honestly couldn’t say what you’d be best served starting out with. If I had my way I would ship you VB6 and some good starter text books (in fact, you might want to consider this, I also have some good video tutorials, I could recommend some good books to buy). It would be fun and you could start slow (you wouldn’t have to learn Object Oriented Programming in VB6).
What the real world is doing is irrelevant in my humble opinion. The trick at this stage is finding good tutorials and starting on projects that give the quickest feedback/satisfaction so you are motivated to stick with it. When I started learning to program it was in C developing console applications (DOS window). I think it was a good way to go - not as fun as learning VB mind you on account the relative instant gratification VB gives new developers. C++ came after C (a logical transition) and that was a fantastic introduction to Object Oriented Programming (C# was still a Microsoft wet dream).
So in the end I would recommend starting with VB2005 just because I think it is friendlier to someone starting out on their own. Best wishes and do keep us abreast.
ps I hope you have lots of memory.
Agree, go with SQL server for data storage and C#.net for front end. That seems to be the current direction out here for everything.
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