java to visual basic

Why?

It appears that with .net, Microsoft is encouraging folks to transition to C#, their Java clone. VB7 is apparently very incompatible with VB6. I would suggest that the days of VB may be numbered.

Java is coming up on version 1.5 which should introduce a few new features. Java is gonna be around for quite a while still, especially for cross-platform programming.
C++ is currently the defacto standard when developing applications. If you're gonna write software for Linux, OSX, Windows, etc. you're probably gonna be using C++.
After getting a foundation in one or both of those languages it should be pretty easy to pick up any other language...well maybe not the far-out research languages.
If you're interested in studying some other languages, I would suggest Ruby and Perl (both of which are included in OSX, probably with the Developer Tools). Also, for OSX programming, Objective-C is a great language, and it's pretty easy to pick up once you get a basis in C++ or some other object oriented language.

i know a little vb... its really easy to learn, but i wish i would have taken C++ instead.

(oh btw... how do you say "C++"? "c increment" or "c plus plus"?)

(oh btw... how do you say "C++"? "c increment" or "c plus plus"?) [/B][/QUOTE]

You say "c plus plus."

Java != VB

If you are looking to take a language close to JAVA ( a C-like language ), I would recommend ObjC, C++, C# ( incredibly close to JAVA, but requires the use of the .Net framework ), C or even Perl.

None of these languages are going away anytime soon, and the language structure is pretty much set in stone. While new frameworks may come along, the language syntax doesn't seam to be changing much.

VB on the other hand.... VB is nothing like C, and seems to change greatly in every major rev of the language. Some examples of this type of change are: with VB.net, the programmer now is able to use threads. The language is closer to becoming object oriented, and the entire error handling subsystem has been replaced. The VB user now has the luxury of using Try..Catch..Finally. What this basically means is that all VB 6 code will have to be ported to VB.Net. I seem to remember that VB 5 code didn't work under VB6 either...

On what to choose...

When I took my class on .Net, the classroom was asked what were the primary languages used. About 90% of the class were experienced VB programmers, with JAVA and C++ and 'Other’ ( COBOL and PERL ) comprising the remainder of the class ( about 400 people. This being said, I would suspect in the real world, that most companies out there will need a VB programmer for everything from systems controls (in an assembly line) to pyrotechnics at the amusement parks.

I generally hate VB, but it is the biggest kid on the block for shear number of programmers out there on the Windows Platform.

Thank GOD there is nothing quite like it on the Mac. The closest thing might be REAL BASIC, but from what I have seen, it holds closer to it's BASIC Roots, and actually tries to fulfill the promise of the Beginner's All Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code

Max

VB is like PowerBuilder, a client server 4GL development tool that was great in the 90's but is nearing the end of its lifecycle.

There will be plenty of work in VB, but I'd bet the majority will be maintenance of apps written over the past 10 years. You also have to evaluate your own skill level. Not every developer can handle the complexities of java, c, c++, etc. For those people, a 4GL is a great way to be productive. Someone who has mastered both, will never go back to VB or PB, as the power of java, c, c++ is superior. If you did well in your java class and weren't stumped by OO, then take a c++ class. If the java class was very difficult for you, and a lot of the theory went over your head, go with the VB class.

If you want to be a MS developer, you'll make better money with visual C++, or the .NET replacement, than you ever would as a VB developer.

If you want to be neutral, learn java, c, and or c++.

PERL is good for unix scripting, or some basic cgi scripts, but is not full featured like c/java. Perl is for text parsing and reporting, as the name specifies: Practical Extraction and Reporting Language.

Don't focus on a niche language like Objective C when you are starting out. If this is just a hobby, to make some simple mac apps, then fine, but otherwise, focus on the mainstream languages.

i wanna learn java this summer over the break. i think it'll be around for a while. i wanna take visual basic in my high school, but i need to get up to sequential III first🙁 in sequential I a year ahead of schedule though😀

Java, VB, C, C++, C#, F#, COBOL, Fortran, Pascal, forget about all of them, what you need to learn is Assembly language, or better yet, Machine Language, no more crappy compilers for the mac anymore, let's see those Pentium 4s and Athlons outperform us now when their still busy decoding. 😀 😛

Originally posted by Doctor Q
I forgot to mention that there are still jobs for COBOL maintenance programmers. Hey, who needs to bother learning a modern language? We could all get rich helping the IRS maintain the mainframe tax-return-processing code they wrote in the 1960s! 😉

Click to expand...

I believe that you'll find that the IRS code from the 1960s was all written in various assembly languages, not COBOL. It wasn't until the late 1980s that they started to migrate to COBOL.

jefhatfield:

The latest tools are available from Apple within the developer section and fully support Java 1.4.1 but the JVM is at a slightly different level 1.4.1_01 instead of 1.4.1_02. I think you'll find sufficient support for most anything you want to do.