Start .NET learning now? (VB.NET)

Topic

New Reply

This is a general question to the board, for discussion purposes.

1) If you were just starting out, or had “some” programming experience (perhaps in older languages like, egad, COBOL), would you start with the .NET languages now?

2) Assuming the above, for those interested in working with Office-specific apps, should you spend time now working with VBA or do you start now with .NET? I’m assuming you have Office2K and have plans to go to XP in the near future.

Just curious what your thoughts are. I know most of you have lots of experience with the VB/VBA world but for someone just getting in (or back in) …

Many thanks!

Andrew

Reply | Quote

Replies

The concepts are identical in all programming languages. The key is to learn concepts and worry about the detailed differences later.

Some languages go deeper into object oriented stuff than others, but they really are all conceptually the same.

If you have prior programming experience, where to start depends on your goal.

If an Office app, then choose a VBA book for your favorite app. Since you’ve programmed before, you could start with Steve Roman’s Writing Word Macros from O’Reilly (see the list of Word VBA books at my URL below).

It is still not known whether th next version of Office will include VSA, I’d guess that it will, but VBA will still be supported, and conceptually. If you learn the VBA concepts now, they will serve you well in the future.

If your main goal is not Office, then start with VS .Net.
No point in starting with VB, unless you have an immediate need.

Reply | Quote

One thing to consider is whether you (or your company/clients) want to be on the bleeding edge. At a recent seminar, one of the points made hit home: We’re finally getting the information we need to build good, robust, secure applications with technologies like VB, ASP, JSP, Java, etc. Good information on the right and wrong way to build applications with these technologies was not available five years ago when people were starting out, and that kind of information is not available now for those venturing into .NET. It’s begining to trickle in through articles and whitepapers, but the .NET books are not mature.

So if you’re comfortable finding your own way, and work for someone that can tolerate trial and error learning, go for .NET. Otherwise, stick with what’s already working for people. VB/VBA is not going away any time soon.

Reply | Quote

A few weeks ago, I decided to byte thee bullet and read a bunch of VS .NET, VB .NET and C# books.
The knowledge is even finally starting to sink into my thick head.

I figure that learning more about VB .NET and C# will serve me well, no matter what .NET critters MSFT adds to the next version of Office.

Reply | Quote