Help me choose a computer course!

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

I've decided I want to do an evening course in a programming language. I'm just not sure which one I should do!

At present I'm working with SQL Server doing stored procedures, DTS packages, OLAP cubes etc. I also have about 3 years UNIX shell scripting but don't have any cause to us it in my current job. That's about the extent of my coding skills.

So I'm thinking about doing Visual Basic because I could use that in ActiveX controls, plus the proper developers at my work use it for applications and that's probably the direction I want to go in. But VB is pretty old hat these days so maybe I'd be better off learning something like .NET instead?

Any advice, ILX computer nerds?

― Colonel Poo (Colonel Poo), Monday, 18 July 2005 21:16 (twenty years ago)

Who uses ActiveX.... I mean really.

― OLD SPICE® CHEMTRAILS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (ex machina), Monday, 18 July 2005 21:18 (twenty years ago)

I thought .NET was an API rather than a language. Or rather, it's a technology that works with several different languages.

If you think VB (or VB.NET) is going to be most useful for your work, and it's the direction you want to go in, do that. If you want to learn programming for fun, don't, cos it's a horrible language.

xpost: the only ActiveX component I use regularly is written in Perl - it's the OLE component browser that comes with ActiveState Perl.

― Forest Pines (ForestPines), Monday, 18 July 2005 21:21 (twenty years ago)

.NET is a framework, I wouldn't bother with VB or .NET. Rather learn all you can about Java, J2EE or J2ME. And get your request in for a trip to JavaOne.

― Rufus 3000 (Mr Noodles), Monday, 18 July 2005 22:54 (twenty years ago)

tho if you wanna do VB stuff, word on the street is to learn as much about .NET as you can.

― kingfish (Kingfish), Monday, 18 July 2005 23:35 (twenty years ago)

Yes - .NET-less VB is soon to disappear. Lots of VB developers are rather unhappy about this, but Microsoft has decreed it shall be so.

(file under Why Open-Source Software Is A Good Thing, Lesson #45732894723)

― Forest Pines (ForestPines), Tuesday, 19 July 2005 07:32 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, that's what I was thinking. I don't know much about .NET, but I thought it was a language, or at least VB.NET, C#.NET, ASP.NET are languages aren't they?

So I should do VB.NET? How difficult is this .NET stuff anyway? I'm clueless.

I don't think I would get much out of Java, at least not unless I change jobs. Also, a recruitment consultant told me not to bother with Java because there are no jobs in it.

― Colonel Poo (Colonel Poo), Tuesday, 19 July 2005 09:31 (twenty years ago)

i wish my uni didn't teach us java. :\

although lots of mobile phone games are based in java. if you ever thought about doing that.

― ken c (ken c), Tuesday, 19 July 2005 09:36 (twenty years ago)

Heh, yes, the main source of jobs in Java at the moment is probably porting 20-year-old computer games from Z80 machine code to Java.

― Forest Pines (ForestPines), Tuesday, 19 July 2005 09:41 (twenty years ago)

> Also, a recruitment consultant told me not to bother with Java because there are no jobs in it.

i'd suggest maybe becoming a recruitment consultant as it would appear they need some clued up people. (jobserve currently listing 182 PAGES of java jobs, 20 vacancies to a page)

java games market is odd, people here used to do it and did rather well. they gave up because stuff like THPS4 was beyond them. i still see there being a market for small games, puzzles and the like (see sudoku popularity) rather than arcade games, just things that take a couple of weeks to program and can be played in 5 minute stretches. if people want arcade stuff they'll buy a nintendo ds or psp... (the bastard, though, is the sheer number of different phones that you need to support). now, where did i put that ant attack code...

― koogs (koogs), Tuesday, 19 July 2005 09:49 (twenty years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.