newbie: getting started

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  18 years ago

  by liveaday

  liveaday

  , United States

  Joined 18 years ago

  i m a php programmer thinking about learning VB. I need to install VB right? is there a free version i could practise on? some kind of a free developer kit?

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  18 years ago

  by _aLfa_

  João Dias (_aLfa_)

  Aveiro - Portugal, Portugal

  Joined 19 years ago

  no

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  18 years ago

  by John Hylton

  John A. Hylton

  Ozark, Alabama, United States

  Joined 20 years ago

  If you look around, there are quite a few VB books that come with what's called the VB Working Model.  It does not include all the bells and whistles that come with the regular software, but it gives you enough to learn the language.
  

  
  A book that comes readily to mind is Programming With Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 by Diane Zak.  It is available at www.course.com
  

  
  John

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  18 years ago

  by Rollershade

  Colin Harman MACITP

  West Sussex, England, Australia

  Joined 19 years ago

  well to start with u have word yeah, try the vb add on for a quick preview into the language, tools, macro, vb, u wont be able to compile any programs but at least youll have something to play around with

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  18 years ago

  by baillie

  baillie

  Hamilton, Scotland, United Kingdom

  Joined 19 years ago

  Hi
  

  
  i started using this you can't compile your programs but it's good to get started with.
  

  
  Visual Basic 5 Control Creation Edition

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  18 years ago

  by Tony Ho

  Tony Ho

  Lexington, KY, United States

  Joined 18 years ago

  Get the Sam's teach yourself Visual Basic 6 in 24 hours... It comes with the Visual Basic 6 Learning Edition, Like the other free and distributable editions I don't believe you can compile.  The book itself is only 20 bucks.   This is a good way to get into developing desktop application.   VB6 is a good start, but if you want to venture further, .NET should be a nice investment.  
  

  
  If you are a student you can check out
  http://www.edu.com
  

  
  You can get stuff like Visual Studio .NET Professional for $100.   Not a bad deal if your a student.  Beware though, don't be lazy in VB6 like don't do this
  

  
  textbox1 = "hi"
  instead do this
  textbox1.text = "hi"
  

  
  when you go to .NET, VB is not as friendly as 6.

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  18 years ago

  by Thushan Fernando

  Thushan Fernando

  Australia :: Melbourne, Australia

  Joined 19 years ago

  acctually there isnt any other 'Visual Basic' compilers which are free out there(although i've seen a few posts about the Learning Edition, im not sure if you have to pay for that.
  

  
  However you can still use the BASIC part of VB and learn it using a third party compiler like:
  

  
  xBasic [http://sourceforge.net/projects/xbasic]
  PowerBasic [http://www.powerbasic.com/]
  

  
  or just look at:
  

  
  http://dmoz.org/Computers/Programming/Languages/BASIC/
  http://www.thefreecountry.com/developercity/basic.shtml
  

  
  Otherwise you can try out something like Delphi!
  

  
  Hope that helps!
  

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