Question for the Programmers Reading This:

[willow_red]

I'm going to need to learn Visual Basic for work. Part of my job will be figuring out some old code and (hopefully) fixing it, as well as developing new code. This will be both VBA within Excel and freestanding applications. I want to pick up a book this week to start teaching myself VB. Which book do you recommend? I looked up the O'Reilly books online, and it looks like there are several for VB, so I'm not sure which one to get.

Any advice would be appreciated!

Comments

[mackys.livejournal.com]

Most programmers hate and loathe VB. Asking us for a "good book" on VB is like asking us for a "good book" on stabbing yourself in the crotch.

That said, I think Nick has done some VB in the past, so I'm curious if he has any recommendations.

[j-b.livejournal.com]

(disclaimer: I have never programmed in VB)

One thing to be aware of is that with the last two revisions, Microsoft moved Visual Basic to the ".NET platform" - a common "unification" of all the programming languages (C++, C#, Java [j#], VB) so that all languages would have access to the same utility packages (libraries).

See Wiki page for the general amount of bitching and moaning this has caused - "Mainstream Support for Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 ended on March 31, 2005. Extended support will end in March 2008.[5]" (Old VB vs New VB) ... your legacy code will really likely be "old VB", or the subset known as VBA (chunks of "Old VB" that were stapled into Office, that are used to script Excel). See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_Basic_for_Applications#Future (note it's "VSTA" not "Vista")

(Of course, people *also* bitched and moaned about VB -before- MS moved them to .NET)

So anyway. If integration with Excel is an issue, you're currently standing right on the border of a (potentially incompatible) transition in tech. (Office 2007 is still using the "old" engine)

From what I gather, it's *NOT* all that radically different for the usual day-to-day stuff. But still, "good times" guaranteed.

[j-b.livejournal.com]

Notice that I didn't actually tell you what book to get :-) No idea, specifically but you'll probably want to get both one on the old, and one on the new. :-)

The Help / Tutorials that come with MS apps are actually decent sources of basic information too

VB

[illyanarasputin.livejournal.com]

Step 1: Shoot self
Step 2: Die
Step 3: Go to Hell
Step 4: Ask devil about possible repentance thru learning VB.

On a serious note I think our Senior projects boss wrote in VB, let me ask him....or have Ryan ask him.

[abelits.livejournal.com]

Just bang your head at the wall enough, and at some point VB will start making sense.

(This is my standard response to questions about learning VB).

Seriously, VB is a horrible language, accept my condolences for having to deal with it.