VB or C++!?

Okay, I have been frigginf around with VB and I get pretty bored with it. It setes to much focus on the aspect of GUI. The functions are so simple, and useless. I realize you can create some pretty powerful progs with it, but when learning, it seems like I'm not going anywhere. It seems like, I am going to have to become fully certified before I can do anything. The BASIC idea, is good, but the power is way up there. There is no merger, its like this:

Beginner

Low Level Programmer

Certified

There is no medium. Its all Microsoft, I swear. It may just be me though. Im not dumb or anything, I can follow along with what I read, and take it in. It just seems like I'm not going to get anywhere. I am still going to learn VB, just for the sake of being able to create an OK prog, with a nice GUI pretty fast. BUT I want to go onto UNIX and C. My question is, should I start learning C at the same time as VB? Maybe evenm dump VB for a few months and concentrate on C!? Because when I do learn enough VB, I wanted to move on to C anyway. And seeing as how they are completely different, and I think C is better, I was thinking of dumping VB for a while, and trying out some C. I can get Borland C++ for $5 (Thats if its 1 CD. $5 per CD) because my friend has every program you can imagine, becuase his dad works at some computer place and they supply them for free. Obtaining the software is no problem, I just want to know if dumping VB for a while is a good idea. Or just doing them at the same time. Also, what is the progression? Like where do you go from where. This is what I think it is, but I'm new to programming and could be wrong:

Q Basic
VB
C
ASM
UNIX
PEARL
DCE
?
?
?

Please fill in the banks, and fix the mistakes. I have a long time to learn, I'm only 15, so I'm not some old guy who has barley no time to learn. I have an ambition to become a programmer, for my own software corperation. Despite my hate for the educational system, I must make it to university. Anyway, please enlighten me on my queeries. :p

Well, VB is good for quickly designing a program. Downsides are it is slow and needs massive runtimes. C and C++ are much harder to learn, especially for Windows, but they are much smaller and faster. That's prettu much all I know, you might want to wait for someone else to comment before making the switch.

Also, why learn QBasic first? I mean, sure, it's a good starter language, but why learn a language if you are never going to use it? Plus you may find you have to "unlearn" some stuff when you start a new language. (This going for all languages, not just QBasic.)

Do you want to learn PEARL or PERL? Both are basically for the same thing(Practical Extraction And Report Language, and Practical Extraction and Report Language), but I can imagine the syntax and such have their differences.

There is no "PEARL". It's just Perl.

Quote:

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Only perl can parse Perl

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:)

Yeah there is, but I was wrong as to what the acronym meant...

Quote:

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Process and Experiment Automation Real-Time Language.

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PEARL

1. <language, mathematics> A language for constructive mathematics developed by Constable at Cornell University in the 1980s.

2. <language, real-time> Process and Experiment Automation Real-Time Language.

3. <language, education> One of five pedagogical languages based on Markov algorithms, used in "Nonpareil, a Machine Level Machine Independent Language for the Study of Semantics", B. Higman, ULICS Intl Report No ICSI 170, U London (1968). Compare Brilliant, Diamond, Nonpareil, Ruby.

4. <language> A multilevel language developed by Brian Randell ca 1970 and mentioned in "Machine Oriented Higher Level Languages", W. van der Poel, N-H 1974.

5. <language, tool, history> An obsolete term for Larry Wall's PERL programming language, which never fell into common usage other than in typographical errors. The missing 'a' remains as an atrophied remnant in the expansion "Practical Extraction and Report Language".

["Programming Perl", Larry Wall and Randal L. Schwartz, O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. Sebastopol, CA. ISBN 0-93715-64-1].

(2000-08-16)

OK I see your point that there IS a Pearl, but nobody uses it (I only count languages when they're used outside of teaching purposes - a language developed and used USEFULLY within an academic establishment does count...this stops my list of things to think about getting too long ;)). Well...maybe someone uses it, but back to the real point, it's Perl not Pearl, which you've pointed out already, so I'm going to stop rambling and try and recover from all this drinking :rolleyes: