Suggest Newbie Language

[Davo]

I have many years of experience with html coding on Windows systems. Unfortunately my only real experience with computer programming was with simple Basic work many many moons ago on Commodore 64's and Amigas!! ( Yeah...I hear ya........"Commo-what??"... and... "Amiga? ...What's an Amiga???" )

With all that in mind please forgive me for any terminology mistakes.

Anywho,

I now would like to take a crack at writing a Windows program. If it matters, the program will basically load images and allow the user to add simply clip art and text to it. Of course, it is more complicated than just that, but that is the core of the program. It will incorporate fancy interfaces, sound effects and other such niceness.

I want the final result to be a downloadable/setup.exe program that anyone could use.

I have downloaded and researched a number of programming environments but am not getting what I hoped for. For example, one, when ran, left me at a dos prompt thinking..."ok...now what?".

I think I like the idea of a programming enviroment that actually has an editor interface and has "modules" to automatically deal with such things as mouse interupts, button pushing, printing, and other such typical needs. At least I think I do but maybe wrong.

awaiting suggestions...
Davo

[whackaxe]

Microsoft Visual Basic sounds like what your looking for, visual editor, easy code (its in some form of basic). or you could try Borland Delphi too. they are both good RAD tools i'm told. the only problem is they aren't as powerfull as other more complex languages such as C++ for example. and both these tools are commercial BTW

visual basic http://msdn.microsoft.com/vbasic/

delphi http://www.borland.com/delphi_net/

[Davo]

in searching out VBasic I see several versions out there...

VB
VB.net
VBstudio
VBstudio.net

Is there one you would recommend over another? Although the program I am wanting to create on now is not really net connected at all, would the .net version provide a better programming environment? I assume the studio versions have other bundled application to form a suite of utilities.

DAVO

[Roy Sinclair]

The ".NET" versions are simply MS's latest versions of it's compiler tools and programming technology. I would recommend you learn one of them over getting and using MS's older VB6 simply because the older tools are obsolete now and technical support is also running out soon.

In fact, if you've got the .NET software installed on your PC right now you can create programs using a text editor and compile them using command line tools which are installed with the .NET package. You don't need to buy MS's visual tools or even download one of the alternative tools unless you want to.

For the .NET stuff there's a tremendous amount of information available on the web, it's hard in fact to find information about the older tools because it's drowned in a sea of information about the .NET versions.

[trib4lmaniac]

I perfer Delphi over VB. I perfer the syntax and find it more powerful.

[obiwanjabroni]

Unfortunately, VB.net does provide some complications over the older versions (and it's also more expensive). I think the older version are simpler to use since it's based on a really sequential logic like HTML. The newer version attempts to bring classes to Visual Basic (which I think is a bad idea performance-wise). Visual basic is definitely what you would be looking for in your endeavor.

C++ for your purposes would be more powerful, but there's a lot more to graphics than meets the eye, and you need to know that for C++ graphical programming.

[asdayasman13]

VB.NET 2005 Express edition. Free, easy, simple... But...

It's Micro$oft :(

[rpgfan3233]

free, open-source alternative to VB(.NET or not): FreeBasic (http://www.freebasic.net)

If you are used to the old QBasic/QuickBasic syntax, FB is great. VB and QB share similar syntax, though things are a bit different. I recommend it for ease of learning. When you are ready, go to VB, C++ or something else used outside of the world of hobbyist programming.

[asdayasman13]

VB.NET is free, the express edition. Do a google on it.

[rpgfan3233]

VB.NET is free, the express edition. Do a google on it.
That is true, but FB offers a lightweight alternative. The drag-and-drop idea just doesn't work for some people (I actually went into VC# 2005 EE code and was appalled at how much it took just to create a simple form). IMHO, if you are going to learn a language, you should learn it using the code, not a WYSIWYG-style IDE. This is actually why VB, among the other Visual Studio components that MS has created, has been criticized in the past.

[asdayasman13]

That is true, but FB offers a lightweight alternative. The drag-and-drop idea just doesn't work for some people (I actually went into VC# 2005 EE code and was appalled at how much it took just to create a simple form). IMHO, if you are going to learn a language, you should learn it using the code, not a WYSIWYG-style IDE. This is actually why VB, among the other Visual Studio components that MS has created, has been criticized in the past.

Oh well, I like it, it's my first lang (besides English) so... Hmm. I picked it up quickly... :)

[rpgfan3233]

Oh well, I like it, it's my first lang (besides English) so... Hmm. I picked it up quickly... :)
It's easy to pick up, but when some people see the IDE, they just shrug off the programming. This is actually what gave VB a bad reputation.

[liorean]

Well, don't forget the fact that VB has some quirks that makes recommended practice in VB code out of what in other languages would be bad coding style or even bad program design.

[asdayasman13]

<noob> What's IDE?</noob>

No, seriously...

[rpgfan3233]

<noob> What's IDE?</noob>

No, seriously...

<search>
<query="define%3A+IDE">
<result>Integrated Development Environment</result>
...

There are some slight variations of the definition of that acronym, but that is the most common one.

[ghell]

VB.NET Express (http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/vb/default.aspx) is most likely what the guy is looking for.. the amount of code required to produce a simple form is irelevant as it has a WYSIWYG editor.. you just make a new form, drag a button on, double click the button in the editor to get to the defualt event for that component (in this case the Click event) etc.. unless you plan on writing vb.net in notepad there isnt much to it. C# is similarly easy though under a slightly different syntax (much closer to java than basic)

IDEs have compilers, debuggers etc in with them. You will have written code in an editor (notepad, crimson editor etc) or an IDE (eclipse, visual studio etc)

the Express Editions are only free for the first year by the way (and i think that ends in a few months as they intended to do that for the first year only but im not sure) after that they are $40 or something.

VB.NET 2005 Express edition. Free, easy, simple... But...

It's Micro$oft :( so? delphi is borland, java is sun.. what do they have to do with anything?

PS wooo C64 :thumbsup:
the only outdated terminology i remember from then is remarks are now called comments but thats about it.. theres still a REM in command prompt anyway (or comment with :: in batch)