Vista - Visual Basic?!

Okay Im not new to programming and all, but

how do I start aka set up programming environment and maybe some good easy tutorials.?

and is vb like any other programming language?

"adeang" wrote:

"adeang" wrote:
You are in the wrong place to ask about VB.

This forum is for VBScript, which is not at all the same language as VB.

And do you mean old-style VB (also known as VB version 6) or do you mean
VB.NET?

And do you want to use the language to create websites or to create stand
alone programs?

In any case, if you are interested in VB.NET (and not old-style VB), then
the best place to start is
http://msdn.microsoft.com/Express
where you can download, for free, either VB.NET for standalone or Web
Developer for the web. And there is plenty of free tutorial material there,
as well.

[TOP POST WARNING]
Sorry! Have no idea how my null response got posted here.


"Old Pedant" wrote:
--- absolutely nothing in response to "adeang" ---

i guess I mean what you are all discussing here is this forum?

so I think VBScript? right? and I want to create both but i rather take a break from web and create stand alone apps!

Hi, adeang. I'm a newbie at VBS (only been doing it a couple years) so I'm
not as knowledgeable as an old pendant, but I'll venture to disagree with him
on one point: It isn't true that VBScript "is not at all the same language
as VB". They're different, but they're related. It would be pretty close to
say that VBScript is a subset of VB, and that it's interpreted instead of
compiled, but that in most other ways they're the same. Old Pedant will
probably say that's an oversimplification and he'll be right, but it's close
enough for your purposes.

Tutorials: I'm sure they're around -- MS puts some on-line for us to use --
but I'm mostly a Reference kind of guy, so I download the language references
and don't ask for much more than that. I can point, if you want, to some
useful .chm files that you probably already have on your machine if you run
Windows.

As for programming environment, I have good news and I have bad news, and
they're both the same: You write your VBS code in Notepad, debug it by
running it, and save it as plain-text files (with a .vbs extension) to run
them. That means you don't need to set up a programming environment, but it
also means you don't get the advantages of a fancy environment to help you
spot bugs in your code.

(Well, one correction: I understand there are coding environments you can
buy for VBS. I'm too cheap and use VBS too seldom to consider buying one of
those yet, though. Maybe after I start using VBS a lot.)

VB, VBA and VBS might be like other programming languages, depending on what
other programming languages you have in mind. Visual C++, Visual REXX, that
sort of thing? Yeah, like them. PL/1, FORTRAN, BASIC, REXX, COBOL,
assembler? Well, there's a difference. But in my opinion it's a good
difference...once you get used to it. What languages are you used to already?

--- "adeang" wrote:--- "adeang" wrote:
how do I start aka set up programming environment and maybe some good
easy tutorials.?

and is vb like any other programming language?

> I'll venture to disagree with himlanguagetoThat could be misleading. VBScript used as DHTML
in a webpage and VBScript used with WSH are almost
different languages. Of course they're both VBScript,
but you wouldn't know it to look at them. all of the
objects used are different.

VB has an option to use a sort of "beginner mode"
where one doesn't need to declare data types and
can depend on ActiveX controls. At that level it can
look a lot like VBS. But "normal" VB is strongly typed
and typically uses Win32 API calls. In the latter case
there's very little resemblance to script.

There are also a handful of important differences in
methods. One that comes to mind, and which seems
especially unfortunate to me, is that Mid cannot be
used as a statement in VBS. In VB it can be used to
change text within a string.

It surprises me how often these discussions get going
without discussing the context. That seems like the
most important thing to me. Script and compiled software
are entirely different things, with different strengths
and weaknesses. Likewise, VB is for compiled software
while VB.Net is a Java-like system optimized for server-side
software running on corporate intranets.

So it's sort of like:

VBS - javascript
VB - C++
VB.Net - Java

The three things on the left all look very similar.
And the three things on the right all look very
similar. But the similarity ends there.

"Bob Bridges" <rhbridg.RemoveThisNode@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:8B2351EF-E981-4356-93B2-87757E712223@xxxxxxMost of VBScript approximates VB5, minus the Obvious GUI stuff and a number
of language constructs.
Use any Office VBA environment for debugging.

Just be certain to declare your vars typeless so they default to Variant.
You will find this most useful for prototyping your VBScripts.

All the while I was reading this I kept wanting to protest "yeah, what goes
on behind the scenes is different but the SYNTAX is related". It seemed to
me that's what adeang must have been asking, since that's what I would ask
were I coming to a language for the first time.

Furthermore I'm new enough to the area that the behind-the-scenes
differences aren't clear to me either. I've been coding for decades and
wrote my first lengthy VBA/Excel program in '99, but I wrote my first class
this past January and it's only then, I think, that I came to really
understand what an "object" is. Is "dot-NET" just another term for writing
with the Visual languages? Are "COM" and "COM object" synonymous? Are
"COM+" and "DCOM" essentially the same thing as "COM"? I'm guessing the
answers to those questions and a good many more are all "no", but so far I'm
still a VBx coder mostly on the surface.

So to me the answer is obvious: Yes, VBS and VBA and VB are related. But
even before you all chipped in I had the uneasy suspicion that I know even
less than I think about What Lies Beneath.

--- "mayayana" wrote:

"adeang" wrote:
Then go visit http://msdn.microsoft.com/Express and download VB.NET Express
edition.

Yes, it is for developing stand alone .exe applications.

Yes, it has a wonderful editor and debugger and TONS of tutorial material.
More than ever existed for VBScript.

VBScript is a fine little toy, and it's great for building utilities to do
things like manipulate the registry, play with LDAP, etc.

But if you want to build *real* applications--especially applications that
use a GUI for human interaction--then go the VB.NET route.