I know this forum is mainly for questions, but I wanted to have a little discussion. If you know both VB and C++ or have had experience with both then post, but otherwise you will probably not know what we are talking about and you will probably look stupid so I advise against it.
I learned VB about 3 or 4 years ago. I was just getting into computers because I had met some geeks at school. I had never hung out with geeks before because I was always the Abercrombie wearing jock wannabe before then, but because highschool was so large I decided I would broaden my horizons. Well, I didn't exactly decide for myself. What happened was that I was hanging out with these rocker kids and I stole one of their mom's pint of vodka or some alcoholic beverage and ........ed in it. I was playing around, but I used to get carried away when I was a younger. So I had to find new friends because the rocker group was obviously ........ed at me. I met up with the geeks and they started I am sillyI am sillyI am sillyI am silly talking me because I didn't know what 1337 was or 'EL-Three-Three-Tee'. So I set out to find out wat 1337 was, and it just went on from there until I picked up HTML then VB when I realized I could actually create programs on a computer. It was the biggest rush ever. I mean HTML is a respectable language, and I speak it well, but my ideas got too big for notepad and a webpage. So I went to Barnes & Noble and got 2 books: 1. Guide to VB6.0 2. Game Programming With VB6.0 + DirectX 9.0. I read all of the Guide to VB6.0, and half of the Game Programming book, but then I met C++. I have fell in love ever since.
C++ is so much more dynamic and fluid in it's functionality than VB. People call it lack of standards, but I say too many standards and you get restricted code that makes you feel like you aren't programming any more but following a compiler's directions. I mean, isn't that why we all started programming anyways? I started it for fun (WHICH EVERYONE SHOULD BECUASE CODING IS A FREAKIN DRUG RUSH!) because I was playing all these games and it was getting old, and I was like this is lame, all I do is follow a path and complete objectives in this game that someone else laid out for me. Why can't I make my own path, and complete my own objectives? Then it hit me. PROGRAMMING! So if C++ gets a crap load of standards it's going to be tightly knit code that would make me feel like I felt before when I was playing those games, that I was following a path made by someone else, not making my own, which is what programming is all about for me.
VB when it was created, I don't know because I have never used the earlier versions, I am sure was quite fluid and modifiable to fit different styles of programming, but as time progresses and microsoft targest stupider and stupider people they get more tight on their code standards, and now when i open VB6.0 and stard coding I feel like I am not only coloring with a crayon (GUI IDE RAD environment[if you are a newb that's the Graphical User Interface Integraded Developers' Environment Rapid Application Development]) but I feel like I have an aimbot on when I write code (aimbot: it was a slur towards the gaming generation, an aimbot is a program or set of settings in a game that cause your aim to stay on an opponent or possibly just when you fire your weapon in the game so that you have an insanely good chance to hit your target). Visual Basic is nice becuase of the little popup lists that let you scroll through an Active X control's functions if it is a third party Active X control with little documentation, but other than that, I feel like I'm in a straight jacket when I code in VB.
Though, C++ on the other hand is everything VB can never be. C in itself is very low level, and you can modify any sort of piece of information you want without Windows API (C++ now on que sticks up it's middle finger a VB). Also in C++ whenever you start an app you don't get a form (term for the window and it's contained space in VB) and some already prewritten code by some lame guy in microsoft's development center, but you get a clean blank source file (cant get enuff of my 0kb .cpp files[0 kb means empty if ur retarded]) it's completely and utterly impossible to have a source file in VB that is 0 kb because the project whenever it is initialized saves default settings such as the form name (I.E. Form1) that takes up space. So even if you saved a project that you hadn't even touched it wouldn't matter because it would still take up space. Now, if i create a new .cpp file in a new workspace and don't link it to any resources or any other source so that it won't have to write configuration and link data then I could have a 0kb file, and oh yea, C++ is cool cuz it isn't made by microsoft!
Though, I got side tracked, that isn't mainly why I like it. I like it just because I have this artsy side to me and when you can create your own style of programming and be so free with code like you can with C then I just can't help but drop VB in a heart beat. And with the OOP additions with C++ it's just perfect. (Not that I specifically know them because I am still pretty new at it.) So drop VB if you use it, unless you are doing small windows apps that just need high level access (cuz vb pwnz at that), and learn C!
Please reply!
