Question for the geeks

[timwilky]

How easy/quick is it to learn VB.net.

I have about 5 years experience of C#.net, 10 years Java, 25 years pure C, plus about 15 years developing in Basic+ on VAX/VMS. But last touched basic as a language 10 years ago.

As one of the few coders still employed by my company I have been asked to look at an application written in VB.net for the data acquisition from a fuel cell test rig and modify it for our own use. But am concerned that they will expect me to be productive at day one.

I guess my first stop is off to buy a couple of VB books

[ophic]

you'll pick up VB in about ten minutes. It's even simpler than shell scripting.

[timwilky]

I have to admit, that I am pretty excited that I should get to play with fuel cells whilst working on this. Also possibility of a development visit out to the original developers in Boston. But part of this scares me.

I would never think of developing a data acquisition system in VB. Nor link it to a MySQL database. Perhaps I have become too industrialised. I tend to think of the basic language as somewhat privative and procedural. My experience of MySQL has always been positive in terms of performance. but that whan it goes tits up it can be damm awkward to recover. We have loads of Oracle clusters and I would prefer an industrial app to utilise the nice expensive database systems we already have in place, plus the 4 full time DBAs who look after them round the clock.

[Holdup]

How difficult is it to learn most programming?

I have used C++ various times at college and created a rather naff game in VB.net, but never really picked up alot of it, im currently looking for IT jobs and theres quite a few junior programmer jobs popping up, im willing to learn but only really have limited experience :(

[ophic]

VB and mysql? it is an odd combination, i must agree. Open source db back end with commercial programming language? a bit unorthodox so say the least :?

[timwilky]

I agree most programming is not difficult to learn. The real issue is when you come to play tricks with it.

I suppose my first experiences of "tricks" was the use of implied do loops in fortran 30 years ago. or with Java having learned the language, the implementation whether it be as an application, applet, JSF, and the frameworks such as struts etc.
or in C# you learn the language, comfortable with defining classes, overriding existing classes etc. and suddenly other functionality such as generics comes along etc. Keeping up to date with the language and its implimentation then beomes difficult if you do not use it day in. I have forgot more Perl and PHP than I care to remember. However, a few day immersed and it starts to come back

[timwilky]

VB and mysql? it is an odd combination, i must agree. Open source db back end with commercial programming language? a bit unorthodox so say the least :?

Like I say I can understand the use of MySQL from a performance perspective. But then if performance was an issue why write it in VB? Hopefully when I get my hands on the original code, they will have used factory methods to make porting to other databases as simple as changing a database definition tag somewhere. But part of me thinks of VB programmers as "Enthusiastic amateurs" and therefore unlikely to have code that can be exploited in a re usable manner and platform independent etc.

[ophic]

"Enthusiastic amateurs"
that would explain a lot.

[Kinvig]

As you know c# you won't have any problems.

I seem to recall that there is a tool that converts vb.net over to c# - after all they both compile down to the same machine code.....