To C# or not to C++? Maybe just go VB?

Heya Everyone! I'm having a problem and for issues related to school, I have a closing time horizon to get this accomplished. I've been taking and completing Office/Advanced Office classes while teaching myself Access as a personal goal for a couple years.

That is where I've learned a very simple, functional level of Visual Basic (Office doesn't go far enough to call it more, IMO). I've also been working with a very powerful HTML5/GUI web design program and Visual Studio 2013 Pro for GUI based Windows program/app development. (it's amazing how the two overlap in so many ways that way, in at least the basic project levels)

What I need to accomplish is two-fold..one reason is personal and I'm not getting into. The other is a side income I am aware of a very real market for. It's not even a living, but enough to call 'comfy' on little things (like gas) through an otherwise brutal semester to come on money. Its one of those things. (My personal reason carries far more motivation, fwiw.)

I've been making little apps. Small and downright simplistic. Photo albums in an .exe package with a few more bells and whistles, level. What I need to be doing this semester is writing small, highly personalized apps for a specific market of people (fellow college students and faculty IRL) where the precise needs will be more diverse than I can guess.

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Here is where I need help folks? I am and will be developing through Visual Studio 2013 Pro, but am moving fast to using it as a design tool and debugging support vs. a development tool. (In perfect hindsight, I did this backward to how I should have. I should have learned blank page coding first...but hindsight IS 20/20 after all..)

I have a major decision to make, as creating things like this without solid 'stand alone' coding proficiency only goes so far. Absolutely not far enough.

Since I'm moving to spending my time in the coding pages and leaving design closed? Which is better to focus on and stick with? C (C Sharp) or Visual Basic ? I'm at that point where the differences between them are not that large, but I will start really focusing on one to get advanced with. FTR, I'm started with C# which is coming very quick due to a teenage period spent on WWIV BBSs and Borland C. Just enough stuck as a base, I suppose.

Which would current coders/developers here use in my position and why? (I'll have to be slow to check back on this, BTW)

Thanks! Hopefully the answers can help others coming to similar issues too!

I still do everything with vb6

Ok not really helpful but I honestly can do anything I need with it.

Be interesting to here what some pro's have to say

Learn either. Like learning a musical instrument, once you know it the others are very easy to pick up.

Personally I say learn C# and .Net first, as it transcribes well to everything else, including Java.

I'm learning Java at the moment (I'm a reasonably good beginner, methinks) but have past experience with C and .Net. Whichever you ultimately choose, you'll be setting yourself up for success with the next programming language you move in to.

And as a fellow student (just finishing my 19 hour summer semester, 2/6 finals down!) I wish you the best of luck!

a reply to: Wrabbit2000

I've been writing software professionally for 20 years now and I'd stick to C# if VB is your only other option. It has a better coding model and you'll find most sample code out there (for .Net anyway) to be in C#. It's also a much more succinct language which means you'll code faster.

$0.02

a reply to: Wrabbit2000
C#. Skills you learn with it are tranferable to Java, which means you arent trapped in the MS box, but could apply your skills to things like writing Android apps with way less time adapting to a new language.

a reply to: Wrabbit2000

This issue has a lot of others built in, Wrabbit. A flag and star for
your inquisitiveness and diligence! And wow what a sideline
divergence from watching the tach. Welcome to the Flagellants!

I'm not a bare metal expert anymore (or for at least 15 years)
but the closer you get-- like assembly language (get the holy water
the old bird's lost it), the easier it is to debug your app.
This from somebody who was mumbling mnemonic idiocy at
lunchtime for long enough to permanently act like this.
If only just boxing the code from the cutsheet was the whole job....

C anything or VB are still technically high level languages, and the
built in debuggers / event parsers are all as effective and dependent
on how far down-- or how bad the potential hangup(s) are.
If you go further up on the food chain the less evident the hangups
will be; and the more dependent on the debugger(s) to fix the sick
sliver(s) of source.

If you've access to both candidate languages for a little while, I
suggest opening up the text window for the event parser in each one
to actually see what the code does, when it hits something you know
is going to hang; and what you're more comfortable monitoring
"downstairs" should be the H.L. language you want. If that sounds
overly simplistic, remember your registers aren't going to be treated
the same by the two languages you're mentioning. C of all flavors is
closer to Assembler, and is therefore more subtle/harder to trace
real time. VB on the other hand is up far enough to use whole globs
of data and registers "at a time", at least in my early experience---
made it faster for some jobs than even vanilla C. Remember when
it's all out of the sieve it's all going to be 80X Assembler somewhere
down there... just how you don't want to have to deal with it.

Moreover: the more involved the app is you're writing, the less likely
you will see the hang with a debugger, even going single-step water torture.

My twitch is from just the MS Debugger 2.0, of itself an anthill from Hell.
It came bundled with MASM 5.0 and proves Gates is a sadist.

But after therapy my personal favorite upper crust WAS Borland -- and the
WATCOM after "everything" stomped out. Expensive but airtight.

Once upon a time there was a Black Box... but it disappeared. Probably
because on simpler stuff it worked, and I liked it. Good luck young one.

I don't do anything with .NET, but C# would be preferable to VB across the board. Nice to see somebody else who was a BBSer. I co-sysopped some H/P and warez boards back in the day including a couple running WWIV (and yes, I faked my ratios and I took extra turns on LORD)

If it were me, I would start with good old C, without using an IDE. A simple text editor is all you need; and, of course C installed on your machine. Once you have gotten past conditionals, control statements, iterative procedures , looping and basic functions, move on to objects in either C# or C++. the syntax of C will accustom you to most modern languages.

Once you have a handle on that, first class functions are the rage. A language like Scala or Apple's new Swift language are object and "functional" languages. Of course, most jobs in web programming require proficiency in _javascript, which is a C based language and also includes first class functions.

Look up Zed Shaw and " learn C the hard Way" or there are a ton of MOOC's available now from some presiigous institutions. edx.org has a C/C++ class ongoing now for free.

a reply to: Wrabbit2000

VB is the better language in many areas as it has less hangups from old languages than C#.

Performance and code length are generally the same across the two languages. It is also easy to convert between the two languages using an online converter. In essence they only differ slightly in syntax.

There are more code examples in C# than VB but nearly always you are looking at how to use the .Net library rather anything language specific so this doesn't matter.

Although I prefer VB I code in C# because it is more utilised in business. I suggest you do the same. Plus C# programmers like to think they are smarter as they are using C syntax rather than a language with Basic in the name

I use mostly VB, but that's because I was already used to VB 6 when .Net appeared. As pointed by some members before me, there are more examples in C# than in VB, but once you are familiar with .Net you can translate one into the other while writing.

As you have some kind of deadline I suggest you stick with the one you are already more comfortable with, as you will code faster on that one.

PS: some things are harder to do in VB than in C#, but they are not that common.

originally posted by: ArMaP
PS: some things are harder to do in VB than in C#, but they are not that common.

This goes both ways. Look at the rigmarole for raising an event in C# compared to VB...

originally posted by: EasyPleaseMe
This goes both ways. Look at the rigmarole for raising an event in C# compared to VB...

True, and raising events is not that rare.

Heya all! Just a quick update and thanks for the feedback. It is very helpful for making a decision.

Overall C# is what I am picking up naturally over VB on raw coding. It's all psychological, but then so is everything in the end.

I'm trying to code a little custom browser for myself now and having luck. I'm here after all, and coding as different browsers by what my own web server reports back in raw logs. Trying to make a simple reply on here went like a disaster though so back to the drawing boards on one detail anyway. So close yet so far. Lol... Ahh well. I'll have it fixed soon.

No biggy.... I'm finding this more fun than anything and THIS kind of creativity I DO have..

a reply to: ArMaP

I had pretty much been hooked on VB from all the work with Office already. It wasn't until recently that I went outside of the IDE by simple lack of choice for what I was trying to get done that I found how much more is out there for C#. I think I am ultimately sold by how similar it is for moving to other important languages. I am fast finding integration of approaches being important so I suppose I will focus where it is most universal.

I still have the functional base to get controls to do what I want in VB.

Oh... My deadline is a soft one and strictly personal. I'll just leave it by saying I am finding the structure of code to be downright therapeutic for things like future math. So similar... Eh? This one I call really fun too...

originally posted by: Wrabbit2000

Which would current coders/developers here use in my position and why? (I'll have to be slow to check back on this, BTW)

Thanks! Hopefully the answers can help others coming to similar issues too!

I have written a lot of stuff using SSIS and Infopath forms and occasionally have to add code. I started with VB (since I already knew that from my spreadsheet days) BUT....when it comes to having a problem you want resolved then doing an internet search shows that the vast majority of folks out there are using C# and not VB. So from a support, help point of view take the plunge and use C#. It's also far less cumbersome/wordy than VB.

Needless to say this is windows world (my workplace).

If the slate is clean then jump to Linux and use Python

a reply to: Wrabbit2000

I think many people on here are mixing up VBA, which is used in scripting for MS Office, with VB.Net, which are like chalk and cheese.

My post presumed you are talking about C# and VB.Net...

a reply to: EasyPleaseMe

I can only speak for myself but the reference to office was in steps taken to get here. I can very easily go back now and create very near anything I want in excel or access but I am in VS 2013 pro for development of real programs. The office environment in 2013 has come so far to blurring lines that I have created simple but very useful apps out of both excel and access. Some of the leaps between 2010 and 2013 made me feel bad for the Office 101 class I was a tutor in last year.

Having said all that for my good feelings about what office has become, it has a scripting language to support office apps. Certainly nothing more, but it had been a decent place to have started for me.

Okay, how about some help with a specific problem? (Oh the joys of self educating complex topics..lol)

I am trying to get my Webcam to come up and pull images from. Nothing fancy. Just one control and something besides a blank screen in it. I can do everything else while learning, beyond this stage. What I am having the most trouble with may sound silly but after a couple days of off and on trying? It's lost any humor.

I'm within C# (Visual Studio '13 Pro), Windows 8.1 environment and 100% desktop. Never ever tile/metro. It's the question I'm either not asking right in searching or just hung up in taking the wrong attempts with.

How do I find my webcam this way from the code side? Thanks for any help and sorry if my question is still all wrong for how I'm asking this but I am sure the smart people here know what I mean vs. the search engines giving me everything but what I am looking for.

(My secret to self educating things like this by the way, is reading. Endless hours of reading examples, existing code and reverse engineering result back to what lines did what to make it all happen. I cannot find a C# open source webcam app to do that same thing with, this time.)

Thanks in advance!

a reply to: Wrabbit2000

Give this a shot...
www.youtube.com...

a reply to: Wrabbit2000
I highly recommend you join codeproject.com.

Almost anything you want to do is already on there.