Mary Hobson
Technology Schools Columnist
In previous articles I've taken a quick look at C++ and at Java, and to complete the trio of generally used languages for websites and networking applications, I am taking a little time to write about Visual Basic and VB programming.
The Development of VB Programming
Visual Basic was developed by Microsoft in the late 1980s and released in 1991. It is based on Basic, and was designed to be a language that is easy to use whether you are a beginner or an experienced programmer.
The language is used to design a user interface of a series of forms to be created, which use drag and drop methods. Alternatively it has no appreciable user interface, but is available to applications to provide objects for their use.
There are today a number of derivative languages, including vbScript, the default language for use with ASP (active server pages), Visual Basic.Net, part of Microsoft's .Net platform, and VBA (Visual Basic for Applications), which comes built into the Microsoft Office products, giving the ability to create macros. Many people will be familiar with it through ASP training and VB.Net training.
ASP and VB.Net Training
Learning Visual Basic and its derivative languages is relatively simple, and many VB programmers have learned it through a VB programming short course, or a VB script tutorial. VBScript features as a part of ASP training, and of course there are many VB.Net training courses offered. However, many VB programmers teach themselves the principles of VB programming, which may be one of the drawbacks of this language.
As a part of the simplicity of design, there are many features of other similar languages - such as C++ and Java - missing. This allows the language to be easy to use, but as more sophisticated applications are developed, and as the VB programmer grows in skill, the lack of these functions can cause real frustration.
In particular, it is possible to turn off many of the compiler time warnings of errors that are so helpful to finding bugs, thus giving the programmer a much harder job to produce clean coding.
However, weighed against these criticisms it is necessary to put the short length of time to develop new applications using VB programming, and the short length of the learning curve for programmers who migrate from other languages. Both ASP training and VB.Net training programs spend time on VB, but not a lot.
Whatever the yes's and no's of the language, it is going to continue to be used because of its links to ASP and to .Net applications. ASP training and VB.Net training assures the continued usage of the language in some form or other, and there is no doubt that for some programmers it has real value. Its ease of integration with database applications and its use for Microsoft Office applications will ensure this, and there will be a continued demand for VB programming.
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