The step between learning and the programer

[hxjones]

Hi,

I'm taking a good course on an adult education programm about VB 6.0. I'm studying hard. But I feel that I need to break down the wall that divide the world of learn and the real world. I think I need a simple real project to begin and afterwards others projects less easy in order to get experience.

I want to ask the gurus what can I do to become a first level programmer? I will do anything for FREE just to learn. I'm from Costa Rica and I got married with an american and right now I need to work and I want to do in my work the best that I can. Please advice me !

Best wishes,
Xenia Jones

[MartinLiss]

I suggest you try to think of a project that you could do for yourself and/or your spouse. I'm a professional programmer, and some of the programs that I've written for my own use (track my running miles, times, distances, Calculate the liquidity ratio in bread recipes (if you bake bread you'll know what I'm talking about) and store the recipes, automate the writing of a complex Word report, etc.) have been a learning experience. While some of these are available commercially, it's fun and instructive to stumble along and do it yourself.

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Marty

[Ghost]

Xenia,

I agree with Marty. Take anything from your everyday life and try to automate it using Visual Basic. It may be simple, but it will give you a view of what happens when you actually work on a project.

Something interesting can be to automate your check register. Design a simple application which reconciles your checkbook.

HTH

[blofeld3]

I made a program which would search a directory for files containing some sort of keyword, and then display the file. This project was simple enough to accomplish, yet difficult enough where I still learned quite a bit. Read all the questions at this web site and you're sure to learn something useful.

[Yonatan]

Try making a simple calculator, just like the Simple version of Windows Calculator. When you get more advanced, try building the Scientific version.

Knowledge needed to complete this project:

Addition: A = B + C
Subtraction: A = B - C
Multiplication: A = B * C (Algebra like A = BC doesn't work here, because BC might be the name of a variable.)
Division: A = B / C (If C = 0, you get a Divide By Zero error. Think about it.)
1 / x: A = 1 / x
Square root: A = Sqr(B)
Percentage (B + C%): A = B + (C / 100) * B
Percentage (C% of B): A = B * (C / 100)

Good luck!

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Yonatan
Teenage Programmer
E-Mail: RZvika@netvision.net.il
ICQ: 19552879 (http://www.icq.com/19552879)

[Yonatan]

Just thought of another idea:

Try making something like Notepad.
At first make it very very simple. Then add features like file opening and file saving, an About screen.
While you are making this project, you will probably need to ask people for help, and you learn VB through it. Who knows, maybe a simple Notepad-like program will develop to something as huge as Microsoft Word...

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Yonatan
Teenage Programmer
E-Mail: RZvika@netvision.net.il
ICQ: 19552879 (http://www.icq.com/19552879)

[hxjones]

Hi,

Thanks alots for your advices. I'm working on
my first project. I'm trying to do my own account check balance program.

Best wishes,
Xenia Jones

[jritchie]

Gudday Xenia,

Another idea. I am taking a group of secondary school students through a vb course and decided that a real project would be the best way for them to get knowledge.

Decided upon a Yahtzee game, needs logic, user input, testing of results, and with hi scores database access.

Most of them have got the basic code and user interfaces working, so with the time left (about a month) are working on adding sounds, graphics, and animated gifs.