Tools to learn Visual Basic

BASIC is the first programming language I can ever remember. When I had my Acorn Electron, I remember one of my friends being able to write a huge program in it which did nothing more than make a “beep” noise. Needless to say, I wasn’t overly impressed but despite its limitations, it eventually evolved into Visual Basic which today is still one of the most widely used programming languages there is. In a survey by Computer World, 64% of programmers said that they still used Visual Basic on a regular basis along with it’s competitors, C++, JavaScript and C#.

The great thing about this language is that it’s easy to learn and use. It’s a great start for people new to programming or for getting your kids into it. In fact, it’s probably one of the better examples of a Microsoft product that’s hugely popular among developers. It can be used for a variety of things from creating simple GUIs to complex applications. A good start for kids is the appropriately titled Visual Basic For Kids. This program consists of 10 simple classes that absolutely anyone can follow and by the end of it, you’ll have produced your very own simple GUI. If you haven’t, then it’s safe to say programming is probably not for you. To take a step-up form here, you can move onto Visual Basic & Databases which basically teaches you how to access and build databases which is one of the most common uses of VB.

If both of these programs are too easy or you’ve already got a start in VB, then Visual Build is a more sophisticated tool. This is a package aimed mainly at serious developers and programmers that aims to help them provide an automated and repeatable way of building VB code. Finally, for those that use VB for geometric designs and shapes, you might find that VB Shaped Form Creator, while limited in certain aspects, is designed specifically for this purpose and even features dragging and dropping of objects rather than coding.