Moving to another language..

[ICESTORM]

I already know VB6 (eh.. sorta, writing controls, theming things, encrypting, cracking, security, etc, fly right past my brain thingy)

I'm still barely a beginner, I don't know how people learn how to do that "advanced" stuff.


Any ways, moving to another language?
Visual Basic 6 is annoying me with XP theming problems, not supporting the alpha thing, and other stuff I can't remember.
Not being updated. Eventually going to "have to" learn another language.

Which language to choose? (Or even should I learn another right now)
Other languages have a much smaller user base to ask for help from (sort of?).

.Net is annoying because of the whole decompiling thing.

Is that something to be worried about?

I'm not a fan of people taking source code, putting their name on it, and shipping it out as their own.
How does this not happen with open source projects?

(I know it does but not really, I don't see 10,000 different variations of Firefox popping up everywhere.)


And some people can't figure out that they should download/don't have on their system/don't want to download a large file/keep on having to update the .NET framework.


Still many systems don't have it installed..


C# produces the same app that VB .Net does..
Is it a comfort thing or something?


C++? I like how it can be fast.. but I don't know..

Delphi..?

[RobDog888]

C++ is not a RAD development language/IDE.

C#, VB.NET and the other .NET languages all share the .NET Framework. Each language has its pros and cons. You just choose the right language for each project.

If you produce commercial applications then investing in a good obfuscator is a must. It will help prevent reverse engineering of your .NET apps. Not too many hackers are going to pirate your aoftware if it is inexpensive as they wont want to waste their time etc.With .NET languages you can take your programming skills and apps to the next level as compared to VB 6. There are many sources for help with .NET now. We even have a high traffic VB.NET forum here too.

[penagate]

I'm not a fan of people taking source code, putting their name on it, and shipping it out as their own.
How does this not happen with open source projects?

Because it's illegal.

[RobDog888]

And mostly because they make it very easy and anominous to report violations but it still happens. Just not as visible as most open source software is not to the scale of any of Microsofts products.

[Al42]

I already know VB6 (eh.. sorta, writing controls, theming things, encrypting, cracking, security, etc, fly right past my brain thingy)

I'm still barely a beginner, I don't know how people learn how to do that "advanced" stuff.


Any ways, moving to another language?

I'll give you the same advice I've been giving for over 30 years - forget about learning languages and learn programming. You can learn programming in English - it's just concepts, like the differences between single-linked lists and doubly-linked lists. Do you really need the additional overhead of a doubly-linked list in your particular application? Will it work at all with just a single-linked list? You can analyze your application's requirements and answer those questions even if you don't know a single computer language.

It's like learning writing. If you're a terrible writer in English, learning Spanish won't make you a good writer, it'll make you a terrible writer in Spanish. Learn good programming first. Then learn advanced programming techniques. Then learn the language you think the project you're starting on should be written in.

I always recommend Niklaus Wirth's "Algorithms + Data Structures = Programs". It's an old book, but most algorithms and most data structures haven't changed. And you don't need to know any computer language to learn from it.

[szlamany]

forget about learning languages and learn programming...

This is one of the most true statements I've read in a long time about programming!

The language is irrelevant...

From your second sentence - not knowing how people learn the advanced stuff - that's exactly what you have to do.

You could learn the advanced stuff in VB6 - since you have it already.

Or you could abandon it and learn the advanced stuff with VB.Net...

But learn it all - structures, concepts, syntax - like Al42 said - it's all old concepts - nothing is really new here. They just keep adding layers on top to hide the engine - and in the long run programmers never learn the inner workings - and that's probably a really bad thing.

[Al42]

They just keep adding layers on top to hide the engine - and in the long run programmers never learn the inner workings - and that's probably a really bad thing.

Like ADODC. Yep, definitely bad.