moving from VBA to VB6

[RemyS]

I've been "programming" for about 1 year, entirely self taught. I have mostly used VBA in Excel, and some Access too. As such I've learned a fair few things; loop/For/While through recordsets, import and export between applications, design GUI's, and to some extent automation.
However I have no real conceptual understanding of what I'm doing. objects, events, methods, properties, controls, ADO, Dim something As Whatever? etc... are all muddled terms to me, real but hazy in my mind.
I now have the opportunity to start using VB6, but think I need to get these basics straightened out.

I'm considering either buying 'Learn to Program with Visual Basic 6' by John Smiley or 'Beginning Visual Basic 6 Database Programming' by John Connell
or
attending evening classes that might result in a certification

could anyone recomend the pros/cons of these - is the cost of a course worth it? Can I really learn from a book?

Any advice most welcomed.

Rémy

 

[sdh]

RemyS:

Your story sounds oh too familiar. I was exactly the same as you and an introduction course in VB was the best thing I did. With that and my VBA knowledge by the last day of the three day course I was pushing the tutor to talk about intermediate and advanced topics.

In my opinion course are much better than Books, however for reference during programming a good book is essential.

 

[snorky]

Remy,
I used to be in your position and learnt quite a lot from John Smiley's books. In fact I bought all of them. His style of classroom discussion helped me, as a self-taught programmer ,to grasp the concepts quickly. He also has a web site with some good articles on it

http://www.johnsmiley.com

Regards,
Snorky

 

[Molson]

I was in the same possition as you. I attended a City and Guilds course at my local college.

The courses range from the basic level VB programing I and progresses in VB programing III. The courses are about 12 weeks in length (only one night a week from 6pm to 9pm) and cost about £50.00. You are required to do three assignments on site which cover the parts of VB that you have learnt.

I have gone VB 1 and 2 and feel quite confident in the use of arrays strings etc.

Give it a go if you have the time it will be worth it as reading out of a book can be useful however it's easier to learn if you have someone at hand who can help with any problems.

 

[Kostarsus]

Hello,

I hink that a course for beginners is best.
I'd learned that there are two kinds of books.
The first kind is too simple so you can't work with you'd made.
The second kind of books are for professionals only.
The second kind of books you should by if you'd made the basics.

if you have proplems in the beginnig you can ask the tutor often. So you have very quick your answers

CU Kostarsus

 

[Beard]

I came into this game(?) through a very similar route. With a lot of help from my family I ended up with a training passport from LearningTree in London, UK. And this was excellent, I cannot recommend them strongly enough. Otherwise SAMS TeachYourself in 21 days are good to get you off the ground. For others use Amazon's viewers ratings to guide you, it's not let me down so far.