I think I'm about to have a nervous breakdown

[Warlock72]

I have been trying to learn visual basic for the past 6 months. I've spent hour after hour searching the net, reading and watching tutorials. I thought Id start off just making bots. Seemed simple enough, and it has had its moments but I'm getting there. Still haven't worked out how to drag text of a web page and into a textbox yet but I will. Then it turned to crap.
Everything I've started Ive hit problems. Ive got a folder full of half finished projects. I've deleted some turned everything off and sulked all night, vowing never to touch visual basic again.
But for some strange sadistic reason I come back to it and start again. But tonight I'm about to throw my PC through the window. Ive been working on a little project since 5pm yesterday. Its now 7:02am. I've not stopped at all. 4 God dam hours i've been attempting to save a list box to a text file.
I've copied you tube, I've copied articles. I've tried every tutorial I've come across and I still can't do it.

Why am I struggling on this? Well Ive had enough. Ive had enough of visual basic, I've had enough of errors and I've had enough of the dog dropping his arse at the side of me all night.

Im going To Bed

[dilettante]

Advice from Caddyshack

[Nightwalker83]

Ive got a folder full of half finished projects.

I have too! I keep starting one project getting sick of it and not finishing then starting another and not finishing and repeat.

[FunkyDexter]

I thought Id start off just making bots. Seemed simple enough

Well that's your mistake right there. Bots almost invariable break the terms and conditions of whatever site they're targetted at. That means you target is almost certainly deploying tactics to make your life as difficult as possible. You also won't get much support or help on any reputable programming sites because we don't approve of what you're doing. The only sites your likely to get much help from are hacker sites which are populated by people whose morals and ability are both pretty dubious. (It's amazing how many beginner hackers there are out there and how few experienced ones - mainly because most professional programmers grow out of it). Finally it also means that you won't get much sympathy when you complain things are hard because reputable programmers will despise you and other hackers don't give a toss about you.

I think you should probably step back and ask yourself what your goal is. Is it to create bots or is it to learn to program? If it's the former then you can expect your life to be difficult... and you can expect the rest of us to not have much sympathy for you. If it's the latter then pick a different, more positive project. Write Hello World. Write a small database app to record the membership of some club you belong to. Write a simple Tic Tac Toe or Snake game. Write an app that controls some simple electronic device. There is an abundance of positive projects you can pick to learn and you'll find that, if you post a question about them, support will come in abundance from reputable programmers.

[wossname]

Have you tried making a snake game? I hear those are popular with the trendy crowd.

[SJWhiteley]

Have you tried making a snake game? I hear those are popular with the trendy crowd.

Hmm, Sounds interesting, tell us more...

[wossname]

I just patented snakes. You can't make a game with snakes in until 2085. Sowwy.

[techgnome]

Wossy, it may be denied... wasn't there a previous snake incarnation that used SandPaper(tm)?

@Warlock - Piffle... we've all been there. I've been doing development for the last 30+ years, first 10 as a novice/learner, then professionally for the last 20 some odd years. I've been burned, torched, and beat up more times than I care to count. I'm sure most of us have a similar story. And as for a folder half-full of half-finished projects... it's half-empty... you'll create more and more over the years. I'm sure that if I could get to all of the projects I've abandoned over the years, I'd run out of space. I've got projects on old 3.25" disks, 5" floppies, there's a couple of zip drives I know that has some archaic stuff on it, and a stack of unlabeled CDs with tons of code on them.

A couple things: 1 - not everyone is cut out for programming. 2 - even those that are, for some it takes some work, so hang in there, 3 - I can't count, as soon as I added a third item, it went from a couple to a few, and possibly on to several, 4 - You'll need a sense of humor, 5 - the programming world is HUGE, the trick is finding the niche you're good at naturally. I couldn't use GDI to program my way out of a light cycle grid, but when it comes to business problems (and especially financials) I'm pretty good at it. So that's why I work for a company that builds an enterprise level CRM application and not working on the latest Call of Duty. What I got out of your post is that you suck at bots. That's fine, so do I. find somethign else. Experiment. 5- never stop learning.

-tg

[NeedSomeAnswers]

I have been trying to learn visual basic for the past 6 months. I've spent hour after hour searching the net, reading and watching tutorials.

And yet you hadn't even though to post any coding question on this Forum, sombody may even have helped you

I thought Id start off just making bots.

Well as long as you change your subject matter to something else. Bots are a waste of time and probably are half of your problem.

If all you want to do is create bots then give up now, where as if you really want to learn programming then find an idea for an app you want to make and try and make it. When you come to a problem, post a question on a forum like this one (and your code), its what they are for after all !!!!

[TysonLPrice]

I thought Id start off just making bots.

I'm interested in aerodynamics so I thought I'd start out by launching a rocket

[Warlock72]

Well that's your mistake right there. Bots almost invariable break the terms and conditions of whatever site they're targetted at. That means you target is almost certainly deploying tactics to make your life as difficult as possible. You also won't get much support or help on any reputable programming sites because we don't approve of what you're doing. The only sites your likely to get much help from are hacker sites which are populated by people whose morals and ability are both pretty dubious. (It's amazing how many beginner hackers there are out there and how few experienced ones - mainly because most professional programmers grow out of it). Finally it also means that you won't get much sympathy when you complain things are hard because reputable programmers will despise you and other hackers don't give a toss about you.

I think you should probably step back and ask yourself what your goal is. Is it to create bots or is it to learn to program? If it's the former then you can expect your life to be difficult... and you can expect the rest of us to not have much sympathy for you. If it's the latter then pick a different, more positive project. Write Hello World. Write a small database app to record the membership of some club you belong to. Write a simple Tic Tac Toe or Snake game. Write an app that controls some simple electronic device. There is an abundance of positive projects you can pick to learn and you'll find that, if you post a question about them, support will come in abundance from reputable programmers.

No I dont want to be always making bots It was just a starting point that I took to start learning. Ive got a 101 different things I would like to make but most are still out of my league. I spend hours reading and trying to understand the code that others have done. I feel like I've hit a brickwall. I have so many questions its untrue. I will never make it as a programmer. I'm a PC engineer, but I do like to make things in vb, and want to reach a standard that I'm not relying on snippets of other peoples code from all over the net. I seem to be restricted by tutorials repeated over and over again by people. If I wanted to make a webbrowser I would have an unlimited resource of video and documented information to go on.

I dont know, maybe I'm going about this all wrong I love to learn different things. I work as a PC Engineer and that was self taught. Hours and hours reading and learning but it doesn't seem to be working for me with visual basic.

[Warlock72]

I haven't really asked for help on forums because Ive seen so many posts on other forums (Not this one up to now) where people have asked a question and and the replies have been condescend to say the least. Ive been looking for a good forum to learn from and thats how I ended up here.

I've been reading through posts and have found no evidence of this on here. Looks to be the best forum I've come across since I started 6 months ago.

[Warlock72]

Wossy, it may be denied... wasn't there a previous snake incarnation that used SandPaper(tm)?

@Warlock - Piffle... we've all been there. I've been doing development for the last 30+ years, first 10 as a novice/learner, then professionally for the last 20 some odd years. I've been burned, torched, and beat up more times than I care to count. I'm sure most of us have a similar story. And as for a folder half-full of half-finished projects... it's half-empty... you'll create more and more over the years. I'm sure that if I could get to all of the projects I've abandoned over the years, I'd run out of space. I've got projects on old 3.25" disks, 5" floppies, there's a couple of zip drives I know that has some archaic stuff on it, and a stack of unlabeled CDs with tons of code on them.

A couple things: 1 - not everyone is cut out for programming. 2 - even those that are, for some it takes some work, so hang in there, 3 - I can't count, as soon as I added a third item, it went from a couple to a few, and possibly on to several, 4 - You'll need a sense of humor, 5 - the programming world is HUGE, the trick is finding the niche you're good at naturally. I couldn't use GDI to program my way out of a light cycle grid, but when it comes to business problems (and especially financials) I'm pretty good at it. So that's why I work for a company that builds an enterprise level CRM application and not working on the latest Call of Duty. What I got out of your post is that you suck at bots. That's fine, so do I. find somethign else. Experiment. 5- never stop learning.

-tg

lol Thanks techgnome. I am going to keep at it. I dont like things beating me. I think its the stubborn streak I have. My original post was the rants of a sleep deprived man. I don't like leaving things when I hit a problem because I know I will be in bed thinking about it. The bots are getting ditched, had enough of them anyway. Time for something different. Im going to find something else to make and focus on that. Thanks again your post makes sense and brought a smile to my face.

[dclamp]

Wossy, it may be denied... wasn't there a previous snake incarnation that used SandPaper(tm)?

@Warlock - Piffle... we've all been there. I've been doing development for the last 30+ years, first 10 as a novice/learner, then professionally for the last 20 some odd years. I've been burned, torched, and beat up more times than I care to count. I'm sure most of us have a similar story. And as for a folder half-full of half-finished projects... it's half-empty... you'll create more and more over the years. I'm sure that if I could get to all of the projects I've abandoned over the years, I'd run out of space. I've got projects on old 3.25" disks, 5" floppies, there's a couple of zip drives I know that has some archaic stuff on it, and a stack of unlabeled CDs with tons of code on them.

A couple things: 1 - not everyone is cut out for programming. 2 - even those that are, for some it takes some work, so hang in there, 3 - I can't count, as soon as I added a third item, it went from a couple to a few, and possibly on to several, 4 - You'll need a sense of humor, 5 - the programming world is HUGE, the trick is finding the niche you're good at naturally. I couldn't use GDI to program my way out of a light cycle grid, but when it comes to business problems (and especially financials) I'm pretty good at it. So that's why I work for a company that builds an enterprise level CRM application and not working on the latest Call of Duty. What I got out of your post is that you suck at bots. That's fine, so do I. find somethign else. Experiment. 5- never stop learning.

-tg

There are two number 5's

[FunkyDexter]

I haven't really asked for help on forums because Ive seen so many posts on other forums (Not this one up to now) where people have asked a question and and the replies have been condescend to say the least.

Now that I can sympathise with and it's a pet hate of mine. We all started somewhere and, for most of us, learning to program is hard so we're going to need some help. Not only that but posting a question on a forum can be scary because it basically involves revealing your own ignorance. I always felt a kind word costs nothing and if it encourages beginners to keep going then it ultimately enriches our industry. We do get some snarky comments round here but we try hard to discourage it and have actually banned quite well resepected members for it in the past if they did it too much.

Anyway, there are a few tips to avoid it:-
1. Put in some effort to find the answer before you post a question. That doesn't mean you should spend days banging your head against a wall but doing a google search and reading what the internet has to say should be a bare minimum. It sounds to me like you already do that so no worries there.
2. Take time to phrase your question well, give it a descriptive title and make sure it's in the right forum. You'd be amazed how many people don't bother and it is, bluntly, irritating.
3. When you get responses read them and take them seriously. If someone asks you for more information, give it. If they suggest a solution, try it out. It's startling how many times you see someone post a question, get a fist load of responses and simply repeat the question without appearing to have read the responses at all.
4. Read the "How to remove the eels from your hovercraft" article linked to in Techgnome's signature. It's excellent.
5. The golden rule: do as you would have done to you. Don't be snarky to others.
If you do all that and someone's still being unpleasant then they're probably just an ass. Hit the report button and the mods will back you up.

If you want to learn you are almost certainly going to need help from time to time. I really hate the idea that anyone would feel intimadated out of asking for help on a forum so I say post questions. Post ALOT of questions.

The bots are getting ditched

Glad to hear it

[Shaggy Hiker]

I really hate the idea that anyone would feel intimadated out of asking for help on a forum so I say post questions. Post ALOT of questions.

Glad to hear it

Can we make fun of your speeling?

[FunkyDexter]

tere's nothing wronbg with my speeling. My typing on the other hand...

[DirtyHowi]

i'm on #18

[thegreatone]

There are two number 5's

Hey, he said he's good with financials, not numbers...

[Shaggy Hiker]

i'm on #18

Here comes your 19th nervous breakdown?

[PatnLongBeach]

I don't want to sound like I know anything as I'm about as ghetto as they come when it comes to code. It can be real frustrating like you are saying, on the other hand it can be real rewarding too. have fun with it. One of the first apps I ever did was the patvirus - just a little joke that I play on my friends. I dunno why but some of em got real mad at me. All the program does is show my goofy face and it just follows the mouse.

So start off with some fun stuff and go from there.



Pat

[FunkyDexter]

I dunno why but some of em got real mad at me.

Well, perhaps because you put something on their computer without asking them (I assume). Even if you think it's funny that's simply not aceptable. Particularly as, for many of us, our computer is our livelihood and is tied up intrinsically with how we run our lives. If you turn out to be either untrustworthy or incompetent it could turn into a serious issue.

Now had you asked them before installing it, then I might find it funny.

[PatnLongBeach]

It's not that big of a deal, I paint houses for a living, not computers. It's just a fun hobby for me. When ever any of my friends or family members have issues with their computer, I'm the first guy they go to. I never charge them anything, I just have fun now and then. My opinion, is you need to have a sense of humor in life.

My whole point to the OP was just to have some fun with it at first, to break away from that frustration. vb.net or any language can be really fun and rewarding in my opinion.

Pat

[Shaggy Hiker]

Painting computers for a living would be pretty interesting.

[dclamp]