Hi Guys,

I'm new to programming, visual basic and this forum so please, please forgive me if a commit some newbie errors!!

I'm looking from some advice from members of the expert community and also from those of you who have self taught.

I've been studying at home (informally) since August last year as part of my dissertation. It s not a computing course but I'd like to develop a computer tool outside of the usual Excel environment most business tools exist within.

Things have been going great and I'm well and truely hooked.

I've been using An Introduction to Programming Using Visual Basic 200 by David I. Schneider to learn programming. This is an excellent resource that i'd recommend to any newbie.

However, I'm coming to the end of this resource and my programming skills are coming along great but I'm beginning to wonder whee to go from here.

Can anyone give me any advice on where i should consider going from this point. What resources whould you recommend etc.

Thanks very much.

Daannii

Are you looking to learn another language, or how to continue in VB?

To be honest I found the best way to learn new things in a language were to devise a problem you want solved, or find a program you like/is missing a feature you would like to have, and try and build it/incorporate the new features. This is how I first moved through learning languages, as the problem is not straight forward, so you can approach it however you feel comfortable.
The other option is try and think of ways to use things you know in a new way, it sounds like the harder option, but sometimes re-writing the same application using new tools or efficiencies can help you discover new options that are available.

Thanks for your thoughts.

I'm just looking to continue learning. I think I'd like to try one of the OO languages like C++ but VB has been great to learn programming concepts.

The resource i've been studying provides for a detailed introduction to programming using VB as the language but focuses on the concepts. I guess the aim is to learn programming as opposed to simply the constructs.

Thanks again

Daannii

First off, I fell in love with VB too. It was my first language that I studied (well, I studied BASIC, but thats older than dirt) and it was so easy to use and so robust. I advise just making programs. Try tic-tac-toe. It's a great way to practice using logic. You're right though, the next step is OOP. C++ is okay, but I favor JAVA because it is so much more accessible. The good thing about JAVA is that there are tons of free resources on the interweb. Try using Eclipse. It is free software that helps you program in JAVA. It even has tutorials.