Hi,
I think there is no big difference between these languages. So it does not really matter if you use Visual C# or Visual Basic.Net.
There is a nice language called Small Basic that could be a nice start. But this aims more towards teaching pupils in school.
Small Basic stuff:
http://smallbasic.com/ Small Basic Homepage
http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/smallbasic/threads Small Basic Forum
And when you are completly open minded and not fixed at any language, then maybe Squeak could laso be interesting. It is a Smalltalk environment that could be used and developed for easily. But in my eyesm Squeak and Small Basic are great if you want to
teach something in school or so. Self paced training on any of them? I would not really recommend that. (Small Basic could be nice, if you want to take Visual Basic.Net later, but I don't think that this step makes that much sense so that it is worth the extra
work!)
If you want to teach yourself C#, I would recommend to simply start with some easy stuff so you can get your hands on it. There are 2 possible ways to start (in my eyes):
- You can do simple console applications. That will give you complete control and you do not hide some complex stuff that you want to "understand later". But on the other side, it is much harder to deal with user input and such stuff.
- You can start with Windows Forms applications. That way you just write simple code snippets (e.g. a Button Click event) but you do not have the big picture or understand, how everything works together. But the nice thing is, that you might build some nice
windows applications.
I always prefered the first way, but it is always a matter of personal "taste". Visual Basic.Net had a vew advantages in the past, but with the latest release the difference got much smaller. And for a starter it was never important. (I am thinking of stuff
like embedding COM components and optional parameters.)
I hope that I didn't confuse you so far. What I would do is:
Ask people you know what they use. If your friends use VB, then you should stick to VB. If they are using C#, then C# is the right way to choose. (So maybe you go to school? What is the school using? Or the teacher?) And the reason is obvious: Nothing is
better than having a person who you could ask if you run into a problem! This forum is great. A lot of people will try to help you here, but you have to ask the question in a way that we understand it and then you have to understand the answer ... It is much
easier to have a friend sit next to you and talk about the problem and possible solutions.
With kind regards,
Konrad
