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I appreciate all the responses I have read on this thread,
and can personally relate in that I have recently (3-4
Months or so) begun learning Visual Basic. In this time I
have already created several very useful programs which I
use to help my trading. I have had some previous programming
experience with Apple's basic back when we got our first
Apple IIe. In a search for the basic language without
needing to buy or relearn everything I already knew, about
two years ago I found a copy of Quick Basic on one of my old
486 computers and was able to program a couple of very
useful items. After I got my programming skills up to the
point at which I felt I was being held back by the
programming language, I made the upgrade to Visual Basic
Learning, and then Professional edition. If I had to do it
over again, I would've picked up VB Pro right off, since I
could have had a much easier time learning it because of the
proliferation of books on the VB subject (in addition to
MSDN, which is indispensable).
This all brings me to my main point, which is that you need
to evaluate your purpose. Some very technically able
programmers on this list have suggested learning the art of
programming as the best course for a new programmer, instead
of initially learning a specific language. This may well be
the best course of action if your purpose is to become a
competent programmer. If your main intent is to produce a
few workable programs in a minimum of time and effort, I
would highly suggest learning VB right away (you can even
pick up books from the library before you buy the program to
test the waters). In the last 3-4 months I have been far
more productive in terms of actual programming output, than
in the prior 2 years with Quick Basic. VB has most any
capability you might need either built into it, or available
through an API call or some creative programming. There are
newsgroups where you can get fast and (usually) reliable
answers to most any programming question. If the cost of the
professional edition is prohibitive, I would suggest trying
to get a student to get a copy for you at a local
university, which is at much reduced prices, or just buy the
learning edition.
While all this might sound a bit naive to the experts out
there, I have found that VB works just fine for what I need,
and allows me to focus my main efforts on my trading. I too
was weighing C++ and Delphi, and am very happy I settled
upon VB for the ease in learning the language and the
productivity of it. I should note that I have read no less
than 10-15 books on VB over the last few months and spend
most every "free" hour either learning or programming, so
don't think it is just going to happen automatically.
Patrick White
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