Question

VB Question

Asked by: Nabsdar

Hello Everyone,

I feel quite awkward asking this question but I need to start somewhere!

I have now been in the Networking field for approx 2 years and enjoy it! From my experiences I can tell that I need to have some programming background to get ahead in my career. I have always had an interest in VB and Java.

My question to you is - What recommendation would you seasoned experts give me. Jump in to VB.NET or learn VB?
Do I need to know VB to get into VB.NET?

I know this is not the right forum for this so you don’t have to answer the following question if you don’t want to!
What is the difference between Java and JavaScript and how closely is it related to VB. Basically if you know VB can one understand JAVA code?

I have no experience what so ever in programming so if my question doesn’t make senses, please ask for more details.

Thanks in advance.

Nabs

PS – I will grant 500 points at the end of this question. So please brainstorm.

This Question has been solved and asker verified All Experts Exchange premium technology solutions are available to subscription members.

Subscribe now for full access to Experts Exchange and get

Instant Access to this Solution

Plus...

30 Day FREE access, no risk, no obligation
Collaborate with the world's top tech experts
Unlimited access to our exclusive solution database
Never be left without tech help again

Subscribe Now

Asked On: 2003-11-21 at 13:50:15ID20805510
Topic: Visual Basic Programming
Participating Experts: 7
Points: 500
Comments: 13

Trusted by hundreds of thousands everyday for fast, accurate and reliable tech support.

"The time we save is the biggest benefit of Experts Exchange to Warner Bros. What could take multiple guys 2 hours or more each to find is accessed in around 15 minutes on Experts Exchange." Mike Kapnisakis, Warner Bros.
"Our team likes having a resource that is more secure than just using Google and most experts using this service really know their stuff. It's nice to look here first versus using Google." Dayna Sellner, Lockheed Martin
"Anytime that I've been stumped with a problem, 9 out of 10 times Experts Exchange has either the accepted solution or an open discussion of the potential solution to the problem." Kenny Red, eBay Inc.

See what Experts Exchange can do for you.

Got a question?

We've got the answer.

Experts Exchange has been collecting answers to technology questions since 1996…3 million and counting! If you have a question, chances are we already have your answer.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Need individual assistance?

Our experts are ready to help.

If you can't find the exact answer you're looking for, ask our exclusive community of 50,000 experts. You’ll get a personalized answer from a trusted professional.

Want to learn from the best?

Read articles from industry experts.

Thousands of free tech tips, tricks, how-to’s and tutorials are available in our peer reviewed articles section. See for yourself how smart our experts are, no login required.

Working on a long term project?

Store your work and research.

Save solutions to your questions, answers you’ve discovered through searching plus helpful articles in your personal knowledgebase for easy future access.

Access the answers to your technology questions today.

Subscribe Now

30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.

What Makes Experts Exchange Unique?

Members of the expert community talk about why the experience at Experts Exchange is different than what you will find anywhere else.

Trusted by the world's most respected brands.

image of each brand's logo

Faithfully serving IT professionals since 1996.

Experts Exchange Logo

Try it out and discover for yourself.

Subscribe Now

30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.

Free Tech Articles

WARNING: 5 Reasons why you should NEVER fix a computer for free.
It is in our nature to love the puzzle. We are obsessed. The lot of us. We love puzzles. We love the challenge. We thrive on finding the answer. We hate disarray. It bothers us deep in our soul. W...
SCCM OSD Basic troubleshooting
SCCM 2007 OSD is a fantastic way to deploy operating systems, however, like most things SCCM issues can sometimes be difficult to resolve due to the sheer volume of logs to sift through and the dispe...
Migrate Small Business Server 2003 to Exchange 2010 and Windows 2008 R2
This guide is intended to provide step by step instructions on how to migrate from Small Business Server 2003 to Windows 2008 R2 with Exchange 2010. For this migration to work you will need the fo...
Create a Win7 Gadget
This article shows you how to create a simple "Gadget" -- a sort of mini-application supported by Windows 7 and Vista. Gadgets can be dropped anywhere on the desktop to provide instant information, ...
Outlook continually prompting for username and password
There have been a lot of questions recently regarding Outlook prompting for a username and password whilst using Exchange 2007. There are a few reasons why this would happen and I will try to cover t...
Backup Exchange 2010 Information Store using Windows Backup
There seems to be quite a lot of confusion around the ability to backup Exchange 2010 using the built in Windows Backup feature. This stems from the omission of this feature prior to Exchange 2007 s...

Cloud Class Webinars

Avoiding Bugs in Microsoft Access
Alison Balter takes and in-depth look at avoiding bugs in Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the immediate window to debug your applications, invoking the debugger, using breakpoints to troubleshoot, stepping through code, setting the next statement to execute, ...
Top 10 Best New Features in Visio 2010
Scott Helmers gives live demonstrations of the top 10 new features in Visio 2010. This webinar will teach you how to create compelling diagrams by adding shapes to the page with a single click, linking the shapes in a diagram to data in Excel (or SQL Server, or SharePoint), ...
IT Consultant Business Secrets Revealed
Michael Munger, Experts Exchange tech pro and IT consultant, pulls back the curtain on his very successful businesses and answers question on every IT consultant and business owner should know about. He shares secrets on what he did to solve the 5 most common problems in IT, ...
Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity
Quest CTO, Mike Billon, gives an overview of the steps involved in building a dunamic disaster recovery plan. Through case studies and an examination of software/hardware tooles for monitoring and testing, you'll gain a better understandin of where you are, where you want ...
Organize Your Visio Diagrams with Containers and Lists
Scott Helmers uses cross functional flowcharts, wireframe diagrams, data graphic legends and seating charts to teach you: how to ustilize all three new structured diagram components in Visio 2010, the best practices for organizeing shapes in previous version of Visio, how to organize ...
How to Us Objects, Properties, Events and Methods in Microsoft Access
Alison Dalter gives an in-depbth look at objects, properties, events and methods in Microsoft Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the object browser, referring to objects, working with properties and methods, working with object variables, understanding the ...

Watch More

Join the Community

Give a Little. Get a Lot.

Join the community of experts here and help other tech pros by answering question in your area of expertise. You can earn FREE access to all Experts Exchange's premium features and resources.

Join the Community

Answers

by: Drifter88zxtWPosted on 2003-11-21 at 14:07:21ID: 9800334

What recommendation would you seasoned experts give me. Jump in to VB.NET or learn VB?

Depends, for example where I work many machines still use NT 4, therefore vb6 is my only option. If you are working with more up to date Windows operating systems, then I would probably just start learning vb.net.

Do I need to know VB to get into VB.NET?

No.

What is the difference between Java and JavaScript and how closely is it related to VB?

Java is the full langauge, Javascript is a smaller library of Java used on the web. Meaning w/ Java you can create full applications with all the bells and whistles, and Javascript you use on the web primarliy and you dont get all the features of the full Langauage. As for how closely they are related, they really arnt other than they are both programming languages. Java has Javascript for web scripting, and vb has vbscript. Although client side vbscript can only be used on IE. So most web programmers, choose to use javascript for client-side scripting.

Basically if you know VB can one understand JAVA code?

For the most part, once you know one language you can start to desipher another. Although you wont have a full understanding till you acutally sit down and take the time to learn the other language.

by: TooKoolKrisPosted on 2003-11-21 at 14:11:26ID: 9800360

I would definitely go the .Net route and to be more specific the web application development and security route. MS plans before the bubble busted was to have all of their office products run from over the Internet. You would log into a web site to use Word and Excel literally. Now when the bubble busted and the IT budgets vaporized in a flash boil nobody was ready financially to keep up with MS development. There are still thousands of networks that still haven't upgraded from NT4 yet. The future is in the Internet and Wireless Communications develop for one of these fields in any language you want IMO.

I would say that if you haven't studied VB at all to just learn .Net from the beginning. They have simplified a lot of small and tasky things in .Net that will force you to learn the basics of both languages if you started in VB6. Besides class object orientated programming is where the future for windows development is headed. If you want a decent primer into .Net play around with some scripting from the .Net WMI library for a little while.

Java is a rip from C and it's slow as hell IMO. It has its purposes but it wont last in a market where speedy application and services via the Internet become high in demand. I guess it depends on how long it is until we all have fiber connections into the Internet from the house. JavaScript is a Java flavored scripting language just like VBScript is a Visual Basic flavored scripting language. In a windows environment I would go with the VBScript, in a web environment I would use a mix of both.

Just my $.02

by: RocketMan801Posted on 2003-11-21 at 14:11:44ID: 9800363

I've been using vb since version 5, and i started with vb .net 1 month ago,and my experience with vb6 gave me more questions that anwers :) becouse many things are diferent and i was about 1/2 time thinking "how can i do that in .net?", my experience with "true" Object oriented languajes as C++ helped me more. the facts agais vb6 are that is ans old languaje, you have to call the windows apis many times for "advanced things", every vb6 exe depends on MSVBVM60.DLL, and many more things. The only fact agains vb .net is that to run an .net app you must have to install the framework, the good thins are: future windows systems will all have the framework installed, there are versions for the framework even for linux!! (yes that means that your apps will be able to run in linux, windows.. etc , the same .exe!!!), and that once you get comfortable using vb .net it is simply better that vb6.
You dont have to know vb6 to learn vb.net, yes it helps, but it is not necesary. In my opinion learning VB .NET is the best option now if you are going to do "profesional" apps, and learn vb6 if you want to do "home" apps for your friends.. etc, but later you will have to learn vb.net..
thats my opinion...

and about the other question, i dont know JAVA, but i've been java code aome times and i can 80% understand it :), not just becouse i know vb, it is just becouse all high-level programming leanguajes are very very similar

by: Idle_MindPosted on 2003-11-21 at 14:59:09ID: 9800632

I would just go straight to .NET.

Although VB6 is technically an Object Oriented Language, it falls short in many areas such as Polymorphism, Inheritance, Interfaces and the like. It also has a Single Apartment Model which means it does not have true Multi Threading Capabilities.

I do believe that it would be easier overall to learn VB6 but as the others have mentioned, it is a dying dinosaur. You would just be learning bad habits that would raise more question than answers when you move on to other languages.

One major plus to learning VB.NET is that theoretically, you would be able to jump over to the other .NET languages without as much learning curve. Supposedly, and I haven't heard much feedback on this yet, any .NET language can do anything any other .NET language can do because they are all based upon the same framework.

If you learn VB6, it probably wouldn't help you understand any Java code that well. VB.NET, however, uses many of the same style of adding message handlers and the like.

There are plenty of resources to help you along on either path you choose. Good luck in your programming endeavors.

Regards,

Idle_Mind

by: NabsdarPosted on 2003-11-21 at 16:10:20ID: 9800944

Thank you for all your Reponses. Although everyone had different ideas, I believe the direction you all suggested was .NET.

TooKoolKris:
Could you please elaborate on the Web application and especially security route with .NET. Secondly, I thought Java was the master according to everyone on web applications, I guess you have a different viewpoint?

Please explain.

Nabs

by: acperkinsPosted on 2003-11-21 at 18:43:13ID: 9801386

Please let me know if you need help maintaining your old open questions:

1 09/03/2003 500 browsedui.dll error on win 98 strartup! Open Windows 98
2 10/17/2003 500 GROUP POILCY Open Microsoft Network
3 08/25/2003 250 DHCP will not assign automatic IP addres... Open Microsoft Network
4 09/30/2003 500 Terminal Services Open Windows 2000
5 10/08/2003 500 TERMINAL SERVICES AND PRINTER Open Windows 2000

Thanks,
Anthony

by: NabsdarPosted on 2003-11-21 at 20:37:14ID: 9801635

I guess you could maintain them for me. Better yet let me know how to close them and I will do it myself!

Thanks for your concern

Nabs

by: Drifter88zxtWPosted on 2003-11-21 at 23:26:47ID: 9801975

TooKool probably meant that .net makes it extremely easy to make dynamic asp.net webpages. You can actually design your pages just as you would a normal program (im talking in a general sense) inside the IDE (Intergrated Development Enviroment).

by: MasterWoodsmanPosted on 2003-11-22 at 01:49:15ID: 9802213

I have a different opinion. I believe that VB6 is much easier to learn than .Net. Nabsdar already said he was just getting into programming. I learnt everything about Vb from VBA, because I was designing databases, which is what someone in networking is usually involved with.

.Net is definitly more powerfull and lower level than VB, but unless you're completely comfortable with classes, it remains a larger amount of information to absorb!

by: JohnnyPrezPosted on 2003-11-22 at 05:56:51ID: 9802602

Just adding my comments...

* I'd go straight to .NET. I loved VB6, but it will die eventually. VB6 to VB.NET isn't a syntactically large leap, but conceptually they differ immensly. You have to re-learn the controls, the GUI, and forget all the things in VB6 you had to do to magically get them to work (anybody else remember having to enter "-4" as an additional attribute on a function through the object browser GUI to get "for each" loops to work?). Besides, they redesigned VB entirely when they made VB.NET... more or less because it was on it's last legs with VB6, held together with duck tape.
* Javascript is a language used by webpages on the client side (for those annoying page transitions or mouse trailers). Jscript is for server-side scripting for web servers. And Java is a language used to make actual applications and EXEs much like C++ (or VB) does.

by: acperkinsPosted on 2003-11-22 at 05:59:06ID: 9802612

>>I guess you could maintain them for me.<<
I am not a EE Moderator, so I can do that.

>>Better yet let me know how to close them and I will do it myself!<<
In order to find your open questions:
1. Go to your profile
2. Click on Question History View
3. Click on Type to sort your questions abd bring your Open questions to the top.

From the EE Guidelines:

<quote>
What are my choices?
You have five choices when it comes to closing your open questions:

Accept an Expert's Comment as the Answer http://www.experts-exchange.com/help/closing.jsp#2
Accept Comments from more than one Expert (a Split) http://www.experts-exchange.com/help/closing.jsp#3
Request a refund because you answered your own question (Refund/PAQ) http://www.experts-exchange.com/help/closing.jsp#4
Request a refund because no one answered your question (Delete) http://www.experts-exchange.com/help/closing.jsp#5
Abandon your question and leave the mess for someone else to clean up http://www.experts-exchange.com/help/closing.jsp#12
</quote>

Thanks,
Anthony

by: NabsdarPosted on 2003-11-22 at 13:27:39ID: 9804046

Thank you again for all your responses. Although it is difficult to judge who the points should be rewarded to since everyone answered my question. I believe it would be only fair to spilt the points to between:

Drifter88zxtW
TooKoolKris
RocketMan801
Idle_Mind

Since the all responded on the day I requested information. First come first server!!

Thanks everyone,

Nabs

by: TooKoolKrisPosted on 2003-11-23 at 12:46:37ID: 9806929

What I meant about Web App Development & Security is that they were hot topics and top priorities for Microsoft right now. .Net makes building Web Apps with true controls much easier the normal ASP page.

The learning curve is obviously there, however if you haven't learned VB yet then you’re going to have a learning curve anyways. If you start with VB6 you’re going to have 2 learning curves. Once you understand how to build classes and subclasses you'll wonder why it was ever being done another way. Once you become fluent with it you'll be surprised how quickly you can code as well because every time you hit the "." button the IDE wants to type for you. VB6 does the same but it's not truly full blown object oriented so you don't type the "." all the time. In .Net everything is an object with properties so you are always hitting the "." key.

My advice is to buy you a decent beginning VB.Net book and dive in. Or give yourself a project to do and use the book as a reference. What I would do first is an address book that saves its info in an access database. Learn how to populate as many different controls as possible from the database. Learn how to make any change and search based on any field in the database. Once you have actually completed a decent address book look for way of adding things to it to make it better or make it easier for the user to save and retrieve their information. Then build it so it can be a server/client app. So that you can access it from the network from any pc and update and retrieve data from the clients.

Then when your done with that Web enable it so you can access it from anywhere with a Internet connection.

By the time you have successfully completed these projects you'll be in here helping others to do the same.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

3 Ways to Join

30-Day Free Trial

For individual users
Instant access to solutions
Ask your tech questions
Start your 30-day Free Trial

Business Accounts

Perfect for organizations
Multiple users
Save over 36%
Create a Business Account

Answer for Membership

Earn free access
Showcase your knowledge
No credit card required
Sign Up to Answer

The Experts

98% positive feedback on 31,087 answers since March 2000. angeliii is a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional for his work with MS SQL Server & Develoment.

He has also proven his knowledge of Visual Basic Programming, PHP Scripting and Oracle Databases.

The Experts

97% positive feedback on 10,752 answers since July 2000. lrmoore has more than 18 years experience in the networking industry.

The six-time Mircosoft MVPs specialties include firewalls, virtual private networking, and network management.

Testimonials

"...and excellent source for support... Kind of like having your very own IT dept." Electriciansnet

Testimonials

"I was apprehensive at signing up at first. However... it has already made my life as an IT administrator much easier." JaCrews

Testimonials

"WOW! You guys have great, active, and knowledgeable people on here." moore50

Business Clients

In the Press

"If you’ve got a question... Experts Exchange can supply an answer.”

In the Press

"...an invaluable aid for both IT professionals and those who require tech support."

In the Press

"where IT professionals provide quick answers on just about any topic"

Business Account Plans

Loading Advertisement...

Question

VB Question

Subscribe now for full access to Experts Exchange and get

Instant Access to this Solution

Visual Basic Programming

Trusted by hundreds of thousands everyday for fast, accurate and reliable tech support.

See what Experts Exchange can do for you.

Got a question?

We've got the answer.

Need individual assistance?

Our experts are ready to help.

Want to learn from the best?

Read articles from industry experts.

Working on a long term project?

Store your work and research.

What Makes Experts Exchange Unique?

Trusted by the world's most respected brands.

Faithfully serving IT professionals since 1996.

Related Solutions

Free Tech Articles

Cloud Class Webinars

Join the Community

Give a Little. Get a Lot.

Answers

3 Ways to Join

The Experts

The Experts

Testimonials

Testimonials

Testimonials

Business Clients

Business Clients

In the Press

In the Press

In the Press