visual basic

[puff_1]

I'm starting my bachelors in CIS this May. Should i start playin with visual basic. Or just wait till i start in May with whatever they suggest i begin with.

here's my curriculum

I'm finishing my gen. ed. requirement at community college right now, so all will be my core classes.

Any suggestions for comp. electives?

Thanks for any info you can provide.

[Sparky_D]

Originally posted by puff_1
I'm starting my bachelors in CIS this May. Should i start playin with visual basic. Or just wait till i start in May with whatever they suggest i begin with.

here's my curriculum

I'm finishing my gen. ed. requirement at community college right now, so all will be my core classes.

Any suggestions for comp. electives?

Thanks for any info you can provide.

I would definitely recommend starting with a low level, structual based language first, like Pascal or C. The reason I suggest those is because they are standardized languages that will teach you good programming techniques. Learn all of the universal techniques, like looping, decision structures, C structures, variables. You shouldn't need to delve into memory managment yet.

Once you have a comfortable grasp on that, I would recommend delving into Java and/or C++ to learn good OOP knowledge. Learn the concepts of polymorphism, objects, memory management, etc. from these languages.

Once you have those down, I would recommend the other languages like Perl, Visual Basic, etc. The reason I don't suggest that you learn with Visual Basic is not because it's not useful. Visual Basic has it's place in the programming world, but I honestly feel that, while it may be easy to learn, you might develop some "bad" habits in the programming world. Learn Visual Basic, but not as your first language.

Start with something like Pascal or C, much better start for programming.

[bryce777]

A more structured language is better, and there will not be any VB projects at your school.

I learned assembly code first, but that is a bit to jump right into.

C or C++ would be good, and Java will force you to use OOP a bit the more you get into it and that is a concept most programmers have lots of trouble with (even though everyone thinks they understand it).

[krack_it_up]

as stated above, I learned pascal first. I have been using the concepts every since.

[Boldy]

Just relax and enjoy yourself. I really don't see any need, or benefit, to studying any language before starting school. All beginning programming classes I've ever heard of start with the basics. You're in good shape if you have basic computer skills...

[Sparky_D]

Originally posted by Boldy
Just relax and enjoy yourself. I really don't see any need, or benefit, to studying any language before starting school. All beginning programming classes I've ever heard of start with the basics. You're in good shape if you have basic computer skills...

Depends on where you go. When I started CS at Waterloo, we were required to have structural programming down, because we immediately started learning Object-Oriented programming within a week.

[puff_1]

thanks for the input guys. I'm just gonna wait till i start classes and follow whatever the advisor suggests. I'm going to school so they can teach me right. SO i'm not gonna concern myself with it just yet.

[Don Flamenco]

Visual Basics is by far the best gateway into programming. Don't let anyone else tell you otherwise. I've yet to find an environment in which you can stop code mid-execution, look at your code, and spy variable values (besides assembly... can't do this in vc++, can you?).

VB is so damn easy and with the apitextviewer tool, you can find yourself some pretty powerful DLL calls and learn things in 6 months that would baffle a guy who already has a CSE degree, like adding menu's in other programs that will execute code written by you or transfering windows into a MDI Client within your program.

Other languages might have a few real-world advantages over VB, but there's nothing that lets a beginner learn and make useful programs along the way. C++ isn't as friendly and I wasn't impressed with the "Press C for cookie or M for milk." program in qbasic.

If you do decide to learn it yourself, then be sure to relearn the way they teach you, because even if you can produce the same results the stuff they teach in the future will be based off the earlier classes. If they teach OOP you should do yourself a favor and conform.