starting VB

[elspork]

I am a hobbyist programmer, using Qbasic, and I am thinking of taking up visual basic. I am frustrated by Qbasic's memory limits and the problems it has with newer systems, like Windows XP. I thought that I would be able to make a smooth transition into VB, only having a small amount of new information to learn, but have more modern capabilities. I've made small efforts using C instead, but have had little success.

My question: Is there a version of VB that would be best to use to start out, for making just simple games, nothing web based. Should I get the latest version (VB.NET?) or would an older version be as good or better. is there a free version that I could try out? Any other advice?

Thanks,
michael H

 

[RiverGuy]

The only free version of VB AFAIK is VB.Net. You can download the SDK and code in notepad. All the other versions, you must purchase. The other versions come with an IDE (for example, Visual Basic .Net when media is purchased, or VB6).

I would just move to VB.Net if I was you. You can purchase the IDE for around $90 - $100 I believe.

If you want something totally free, then you might have an OK time looking into Java. You can get free IDE's for that. It's complexity is closer to VB.Net than C++ IMO.