Visual Basic Coding

[CrazyLemurs]

Hi there,
Firstly let me apologise if this thread is in the wrong place, not sure where else it'd go haha.

I'm doing GCSE Computing, and I believe it's a relatively new course, and because coding is proper advanced like, we start with a really basic, foundation language: Visual Basic.
We use Microsoft Visual Basic (and we call it VB most of the time, which is also short for vBulletin, I think?) to write the code and run it, but I can't for the life of me fathom why.

I understand it's supposed to be an introduction to programming and computing in general, but what can Visual Basic be used for? It feels really limited to me, but maybe that's because we have just finished formatting dates and creating functions/sub-routines. If you know a practical application of the Visual Basic language, please help me !

[j0rd]

vBulletin is forum software, Visual Basic (VB.NET) is a programming language.
It was a core unit of my National Diploma in Computing, and hated it every single bit, but I guess I know basic in it.

But ye, if you need any help, drop me a PM or something.

[Chippiewill]

what can Visual Basic be used for?

Teaching. It's use as an actual programming language in the real world is non-existent.

[Recursion]

Visual Basic is great for getting started with in terms of writing Windows based applications (I still like Python better for newbies, it has far better structure and real world applications IMO), you need to understand the basics behind classes, objects, functions, loops etc before you'll be able to do anything that's half useful. The beginning might seem very repetitive, boring and like it doesn't lead anywhere, but once you get all the basics down, writing complex programs become much easier.

[CrazyLemurs]

Ah, alright. I asked my teacher what it was useful for, and he stumbled a bit haha! I'll just put up with it till A-Level maybe and we can do some more skilled work. Really just now it's working on practice controlled assessments, as we've learnt all the programming language (all the loops, selection, etc) needed for the GCSE, apparently.

[Chippiewill]

If you're getting bored of it or want something different then there's certainly nothing stopping you transferring those skills to another language now.

[CrazyLemurs]

Yeah, understanding the theory behind everything seems to be the key to what we learn, such as representing data and sound inside computer systems.
And binary.
So. Much. Binary.

[Futz]

I'm afraid you'll be using VB at A level too so you mayaswell get good at it.

[jackass]

Teaching. It's use as an actual programming language in the real world is non-existent.

Well that's a load of rubbish. I work for BT and the amount of macros and tools that are made in VB (VBA technically...) via Excel and Access is unbelievable. I've made many myself during my time there and they come in very useful when compiling MML for site migrations and whatnot.

[Chippiewill]

Well that's a load of rubbish. I work for BT and the amount of macros and tools that are made in VB (VBA technically...) via Excel and Access is unbelievable. I've made many myself during my time there and they come in very useful when compiling MML for site migrations and whatnot.

I'll correct myself, use of VB as a programming language is non-existant at any reasonable organisation.