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by scott_Archive
it makes me smile to see people saying fuck VB, fuck BASIC... it's almost certainly true. and still, programming in VB is exactly what I've been doing for my job, for the past 6 years or so. and the fact that MS kept it around (VB.NET) means I'll be using it for years to come.
when it comes to data-centric programming, database/SQL stuff, I can't think of what's wrong with VB. although I have to admit, I've just started messing around with SQL Server. everything up to this point is still using VB6 and dBase. and VB macros inside Excel.
most of the other organizations on this project are using C#.NET, so I'm assuming that's a great language. these are some really smart folks.
VB rocks. easy as pie, does everything I need it to do. probably nobody learns it anymore, and nobody hires people to use it anymore. but it's still my job, and will be for the forseeable future.
oh, and I took exactly one computer-related class in college (a semester of C++, at an art school). professional programmer for years now. go figure. things don't always make too much sense. in my case, they recognized that the way I solve problems, and the way I ask questions as appropriate, these make for a good programmer guy. they can say "here's the question we need an answer for... how can we address this question?" and I come up with the best, most defensible way to answer it, and then make it happen. that's not something that they teach you in a chapter of a book. but if you can do that, it'll help you out a lot if you're looking to do programming as part of a research/analysis type environment.
I just remembered a fun thing we did back about 2003/2004... figured out how to write a .dll in FORTRAN that we could call from a VB application. that was funny. it was like, hey look, we're dinosaurs! but FORTRAN is still the best language for mathy numbery kinda stuff, as I understand it. it worked great for what we were using it for.
salut, old languages!
"The bastards have landed"
www.myspace.com/thechromerobes - now has a couple songs from the new album