Hi
My tuition in vb was a module as part of a mechanical engineering degree,
it was limited to creating programes to help in automated calculations (nothing you couldnt achieve in MsExcel)
i was really impressed with the flexibility and possibilites it offered
and went about "teaching" myself more of it. thru a beginners book and
plenty of help here of course!! (thanks)

i've recently had a thought which may turn into a project.
hook up a machine to my computer and control it using a vb program which accepts instruction over the internet.
my early investigations point twards "winsock" as the tool to achieve communications over the net.

and this got me wondering:
how does one go about learning how to exploit winsock, or any other
aspect of vb or any other language!
obviously there are excellent resources on the www, such as this one.
and many code examples.
is this how most people learn?
or for eg, is there a "manual" on how to use winsock with vb.
is msdn where its at when you want to learn?

i'm not asking for any specific help with winsock btw!
just wondering where/how you guys learned the art!
thanks
jim