Hello

[Dudibob]

Hi folks

Apologies if this is in the wrong section.

I'm completely new to VB and want to start learning about it. I've had a quick scout around, found it's overlypriced for my pockets

So I was wondering, should I start on an out of date version? get the newest version? or maybe go for .net?

Please be gentle, I'm not sure what the difference between .net and normal is

[Hack]

Moved to General Developer

Welcome to the forums.

There have been discussions beyond count regarding VB6 vs VB.NET

If you do a search, you will find a number of them.

[Dudibob]

Thanks very much Hack

lol, sorry, I'm so green

[Shuja Ali]

If it s about money, then you can download a Trail Version of visual studio 2005 from here

[Shaggy Hiker]

Thanks very much Hack

lol, sorry, I'm so green

Don't worry about that, this is a good place for information whether you are starting out, or have been at it for years.

Shuja Ali has already made the recommendation that I would have made. 2005 Express is supposed to be free. The difference between it and the more various other levels is unclear to me, but if you search the forum on this, you'll probably find out. Microsoft websites would have info, too, of course, but you'll get much more opinion here.

If you are starting out, you might as well start out with .NET which has many flavors: 2002, 2003, and 2005. In some cases, 2002 is called VB.NET, or VB7, however, VB.NET more properly refers to any of the three flavors, since all three are the .NET language. The numbers, of course, are the release years. Stay away from the first one, though 2003 is still viable.

Prior to .NET, there was VB4, VB5, and VB6. There were earlier versions, as well, but they were quite different, and are surely hard to find now. VB6 is the most common one, and is still VERY popular. The Classic VB forum still has the most threads and the most posts. You will find people who are absolutely unwilling to move from VB6, and you will find people who hate MS for moving to .NET and abandoning VB6 (which will not be supported much longer). However, you will find plenty of others (myself included) who loved VB6, switched reluctantly to .NET, and will never go back because .NET proved to be MUCH easier to work with once you got to know it (there IS a learning curve).

I recommend .NET largely because VB6 will probably fade over the next few years now that support for it will be ending.

[Dudibob]

lol, cool, I'll think I'll go for .net since classics going to disappear

thanks for your help so far, hope I don't annoy you all with my newbie questions lol

[iPrank]

If it s about money, then you can download a Trail Version of visual studio 2005 from here

Is there any way to freely download the trial version ?

[Kasracer]

Download VB Express 2005. It's completely free

[Shuja Ali]

Is there any way to freely download the trial version ?

I am not sure if you can download it from India, but you can order a trial CD from here.

https://www.tryvs2005.com

PS: I got a trial CD of VS EXpress and SQL Server 2005 in the Ready Launch Tour.