Visual Basic .NET - Umm

I am starting classes at my University, taking Computer Science 109 (VB.NET Programming) and I am trying to start before classes begin. First of all...

1. What should i use to write code...
2. What can I download to RUN the code and COMPILE it?
3. How can I make it run on OTHER people's computer WITHOUT having the compiler or VB.NET...
4. What all should i HAVE on my computer while taking this class? (What will come in great handy?

 

Log in or Sign up to hide all adverts.

First, I'm not too familiar with .net and all that, but I have Visual Studio (some old version) on my computer and that pretty much takes care of VB, C++, and whatnot on the Windows platform, includes a compiler and is a pretty good work environment. I would think that you could download it from your school's server for the class. That's how I got my version. And if you do that, hook me up

Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

, i need an update.. haha

 

Log in or Sign up to hide all adverts.

Seemingly VB.NET should be very similar to the Original VB programming environments but with a few fixes here and there in the way the environment worked, and a few updates in regards to newer proceedures etc.

If you already literate with VB then you should have a problem. The ".NET" bit of the overall program is just for being able to write serverside applications in conjunction with a program you might be working on (Thus the .NET) In most cases installing VS.NET you can decide if you want the actual .NET addons, which you don't necessarily have to load on your system (unless you have plans to use it).

It is possible to learn VBScript, with nothing more than a Text editor and a IE browser. You can even use VBScript with "windows scripthosting" on older version of windows for generating batch programs. VBScript isn't pure VB, however it will give you something to start with that you can relate too, since most programming languages when being learnt are easier to understand if you relate them to others you know.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide all adverts.

Hi,

I earn my living from .NET. Lucky me

Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

Please do not think that it is simple to move from VB6 to VB.NET.

VB6 is a clumsy language that is not a true compiler language at all. The object library in VB.NET is based purely on the .NET framework although you can Interop with COM components.

If you wish to practice what you learn in school at home I recommend the following

Visual Studio .NET Professional
MS SQL Server 2000
MS Visio

It will also help to run an operating system such as Microsoft XP Professional or Windows 2000 ( my prefered choice)

Depending on how advanced you wish to make your applications you may also consider MS BIZTalk Server.

If you want help with anything please do not hesitate to pm me. I am more than happy to be of assistance. I provide a good deal of technical assistance in this area in other discussion threads on the internet.

Slightly aside, I would forget VB.NET and learn C#.NET instead.
C# is much more like a Java based language and will give you greater flexibility to expand to other languages in the future should you wish to do so.

A book I would like to recommend is Professional VB.NET 2nd Edition. It is published by Wrox Press. I am sure you will have enough books to buy however that are recommended by your school.

Peace

c20 :m:


btw you have a pm

Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

 

Thanks much! About the moving from VB6 to VBNET, thank god i know nothing of either lol!

I know some python, and have skimmed over some VB.NET, doesnt look to hard. Read about 30 pages and understand it all just by looking at it.

the Dim command seems a little strange tho. (not too strange, but strange

Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

)

 

The Dim command is a feature of VB.Net because VB.Net is a 'strongly typed' language.
With a 'strongly typed language', you basically have to define the type of data that each variable will hold in memory.

Dim stands for 'Dimension'

So if we want to hold purely textual data in memory we must create a place for it that can strictly only take a string value. In other words this space that we are going to fill must already possess the dimensions of a string...

Dim myString as String
we now have allocated a piece of memory to hold string type data. The name of that block of memory is 'myString'.

We can now safely store 'My name is C20' in that piece of memory and know that the space we have created in memory named 'myString' has the perfect dimension for such a piece of data.

We can say ..

myString = "My name is C20"

and be confident that the data will always be returned to us as a string because that piece of memory has no other form.

We may wish to hold another data type that will behave differently to a string for example

Dim myOnOffSwitch as Boolean

When we want to store a True or False value in the memory space called 'myOnOffSwitch' we know it will be returned to us as either a True or False value because its Dimension is 'boolean'. This of course means that you can only put a true or false value into it.

myOnOffSwitch = true ' this is correct
myOnOffSwitch = "My Name is C20" ' this is invalid and will retun an error because myOnOffSwitch was never declared as a string type.

Python is NOT a strongly typed language and as such becomes quiet inefficient as it must be able to store any type of data and provide a dimension for each. This of course makes it more memory hungry.

In python when you say

>>> x=10

Really 10 is a small integer that requires very little space in memory however the space allocated to 'x' has to be huge because 'x' could have held any value including complex objects.

Strongly typed languages are very efficient by comparison.

Hope that makes some sense

peace

c20 :m:

 

Continuing on from above - I too think it is confusing which is why I prefer java type languages which would define the variables as below

String myString = "My Name is C20" ;
Bool myOnOffSwitch = True ;

The data type is declared right up front - then the memory space defined as that data type is assigned a name and then it is given the actual data to store all in the same line in a logical order.

I am a VB hater

Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

although the inadequacies of VB6 have been dramatically improved in VB.Net. For example in VB6 if you wanted to write a MS Word type application with a spell check - well you were lost. Couldnt be done without using complex API calls that essentially were impossible to debug. Why couldnt it be done without API? Because in order to keep the application from locking up whilst it spell checked every new key stroke, the application would have to run the spell check element in a completly different thread from the main application. VB6 had no way of running stuff in a seperate thread nativly.
VB.Net gives us the much needed Threading Model which allows us to run functions in threads outside of the main application thread. To say VB.Net is not very different to VB6 is to make a mistake. It is VASTLY different!

OOP rules

Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

peace

c20 :m:

 

hi m8

i can sort you with the software you need. if you are interested let me know.

peace

c20 :m:

 

Wow... i understand it now... I understand much more! OMG!...

Looking through this book, this is amazing! lol