VB vs Java vs C++ ?

[timbo]

Hi,

As a relative newcomer to programming I was curious as to the relative advantages/disadvantages of VB (which I am currently learning), Java and C++. I would really appreciate any suggestions.

Thanks.

One of the biggest advantages is it's ease of use.

It's biggest disadvantage is the need for runtime files.

[OneSource]

Hi timbo.

In order to get quick info. on your request, do a little searching around in this forum for similar posts. A lot of people have asked similar questions.

All the best.

[noone]

It's biggest disadvantage is the need for runtime files.

I'd say thats a minor annoyance at the worse. VB's biggest disatvantage IMHO is its lack of true OO. VB 7 may address this but we will have to wait and see.
Java was built from the ground up as an Object Oriented language and that is probably one of its biggest advantages, it main disatvange of course being speed.
C++ has good OO support, its not as good as Java in that department though because it was written to be easy for C programmers to adapt to and thus there are some areas that it can be a bit mucky. C++ is the winner when it comes to sheer speed or power though.

[Joacim Andersson]

Originally posted by noone
VB's biggest disatvantage IMHO is its lack of true OO.[/B]

Every where I go I hear this complains about VB's lack of true OO.
The main advantage of using object oriented programming is the reuse of allredy written and tested code.
No other computer language has promoted the reuse of code in the same extent as VB.
Sure I would love to have inheritance as much as the next guy, but in my over 20 years experiance with computer software manufacturing I have never ever reused so much code that I have with VB and it's native component based programming way.

[noone]

For me I find it much more then just code reuse. The way I approach a problem in VB compared to say Java is different. When I'm done writing a program in Java I always feel its a much more elegant solution then VB. You've probably noticed that some/most begginer VB books don't cover OO Design and if they do it will be a chapter somewhere near the end. I can't think of a Java book (C++ book to a lesser degree) that wouldnt cover OO in the first few chapters.
This is not to knock VB, its a good language for doing whats its intended to do.

[noone]

Here is some information on programming in general and various languages/platforms:
http://www.us-epanorama.net/pc/programming.html

[timbo]

Hi,

Thanks for all the responses.

A couple of you have mentioned that Java is slow. My VB program calculates about 60,000 equations and then plots about 3000 points on an MSChart - it takes forever (20 seconds plus depending on procerror speed). Would Java plot an equivalent graph even more slowly?

Cheers.

[Paul282]

Poor Code!

you're probably updating the MS graph more than necessary, you ought to be able to get better performance than that.

[timbo]

Hi,

How do I go about updating the graph to a lesser extent?

Thanks.

[Paul282]

Post the code of what you have

[timbo]

I would post the code however, it isn't on this PC! Sorry.

Basically, I have a 2d array..
It is of size (x, 2)...
Where x is of the order of approx 3000...
The array takes no time to fill up but...
The MSChart takes forever and a day to calculate prior to plot time.

If this lets you know where my problem is I'd love to know the solution!

Thanks.

[Paul282]

Populating charts is often slower than populating Listviews but with some experimentation you can dramatically speed up the process.

Simple methods are to use the WITH ... END WITH for the loop so that you're not continually referencing the control. Also be sure not to have DoEvents in every loop iteration,

Try

If LoopVar Mod 100 = 0 then
DoEvents
End if

Also, and this can have either a hugh efect or a not work at all depending on the rest of your code, changing visibilty of the graph to false, loop to populate your data then set visibility to true again.

(Normally I don't go hijacking threads like this but this tiresome VB vs XX topic has been covered in so many threads that people are better off reading through those ones.) If you want to use a different compiler, great, else don't, if you want to know their strengths and weaknesses look at more forums than just this one and even better try the other languages out, different people prefer different things... There, end of topic!