Idea

  • Thread starter Thread starter john m
  • Start date Start date
J

john m

Hey here's an idea for Microsoft.

Why not make an easy to learn, easy to use interface, simple enough for even
non-programmers to use. Maybe based on the old BASIC language but with lots
of cool tools like access to the windows forms and stuff.

It could be very intuitive and like, VISUAL.

And the users wouldnt have to be bothered with all the programming nitty
gritty details like in other more intense languages.

just a suggestion...

not sure what to call it though


jm
 
* "john m said:
Why not make an easy to learn, easy to use interface, simple enough for even
non-programmers to use. Maybe based on the old BASIC language but with lots
of cool tools like access to the windows forms and stuff.

It could be very intuitive and like, VISUAL.

And the users wouldnt have to be bothered with all the programming nitty
gritty details like in other more intense languages.
Click to expand...

I think Microsoft's attempt to do that /is/ Visual Basic .NET. VB 2005
will make espacially beginners' tasks much easier, there is, for
example, a 'My' namespace that provides easy access to the most
important things, additional and better designers and more wizards.
 
There is. It's called "Visual Basic.NET"

I don't know that you will *ever* get away with not coding, but then you
wouldn't call yourself a developer, would you.

BTW, BASIC can be pretty intense. You should see some of my code <g>
 
Hey here's an idea for Microsoft.
Why not make an easy to learn, easy to use interface, simple enough for even
non-programmers to use. Maybe based on the old BASIC language but with lots
of cool tools like access to the windows forms and stuff.

It could be very intuitive and like, VISUAL.

And the users wouldnt have to be bothered with all the programming nitty
gritty details like in other more intense languages.
Click to expand...

Sure. And we can call it Visual Studio .NET ;)
 
I think Microsoft's attempt to do that /is/ Visual Basic .NET. VB 2005
will make espacially beginners' tasks much easier, there is, for
example, a 'My' namespace that provides easy access to the most
important things, additional and better designers and more wizards.
Click to expand...

Hey, I haven't been able to find any info on that other than their "team
development" thingy. Do you have an MSDN link that I can read up on?
 
Hi John,

You can use C# to make very easy programs only using the designer, however
mostly people wants more.

Have a look in this newsgroup about colored tabpages and when they have it
colored tabpages with other coloread tabs on that pages and when they have
that other colored borders on those tabs.

(I only wrote C# to show that it is not only with VBNet, with which it can
as well of course).

Just my thought,

Cor
 
Irony [n]: 'incongruity between what might be expected and what
actually occurs';

But I could be wrong about the OP's intention!

JGD
 
Hello,

I guess my sarcasm is wasted. I seem to be unique in this forum in that
i am not a programmer and don't care to be.

I work in the engineering field and we have always had to take the
output from one program and type it into another program.

I have tried to use the tool (the computer) a little better than that by
making little utility programs to speed the plow.

When we were forced into windows a few years back i switched to VB which
was just what i wanted. i needn't concern myself with platforms and what
goes on behind the scenes just to make a little helpful tool now and then
and then concentrate on my real job.

I have stayed away from the whole dot net deal til now but when i
finally looked at it it seems that they have taken away every thing i liked
about VB. I don't care to learn C sharp or any other language. I always
thought Visual Basic was for guys like me.

Thanks

jm
 
Hmm...
In many ways I agree with you on this.
Many of us programmers started out that way. But as we wanted to do more and
more, VB had to grow to keep up.
It reached the point where people were coding full applications and such in VB.
Boy, the C++ guys didn't like that.
But now as a professional developer, I can also see the other side of it as
well.
I think it is truly wonderful what VB has become over the years.
But for non-programmers, things like Variants and not having to declare and/or
understand variables was great. And the list goes on.
But as I wrote more and more complicated code that required stability and such,
learning the details became required.
Nowadays, I see the things that VB6, and even VB.Net will let you get away with
and many are downright dangerous.
I was an IT manager at a large company when MS Office first integrated VBA.
Plenty of non-programmers got in there and thought they had become programmers.
I spent about 2-4 hours a day fixing stuff that they had batch botched in VBA.
Maybe I've been a programmer for too long to see the newbie side of things now.
But to me, it seems easier than ever for a newbie to get in and write stuff.
Heck nowadays, a ten year old can write a VBA script in 10 mins that can crash
email servers all over the world.
Sure, the .Net jump was a little rough at first, but I think VB 2005 looks to be
real newbie friendly.
IMHO MS made some pretty big mistakes. I like the idea of multi-threading in VB.
But I think the developer should make it multi-threaded and have to deal with
everything that comes with that (basically, they should know what they are
getting into). In .Net, VB is multi-threaded normally. MANY new, and veteran
users, will pull their hair out trying to track down bugs that don't actually
exist in otherwise good code.

IMHO I think VB will still be the way for guys like you to go. I also think it
will be the way for guys like me (full time developers), at least I hope so. I
like writing scripts and macros in VB, I also like writing full commercial apps
in VB. I hope it will continue to be flexible enough to continue this trend.

Gerald

john m said:
Hello,

I guess my sarcasm is wasted. I seem to be unique in this forum in that
i am not a programmer and don't care to be.

I work in the engineering field and we have always had to take the
output from one program and type it into another program.

I have tried to use the tool (the computer) a little better than that by
making little utility programs to speed the plow.

When we were forced into windows a few years back i switched to VB which
was just what i wanted. i needn't concern myself with platforms and what
goes on behind the scenes just to make a little helpful tool now and then
and then concentrate on my real job.

I have stayed away from the whole dot net deal til now but when i
finally looked at it it seems that they have taken away every thing i liked
about VB. I don't care to learn C sharp or any other language. I always
thought Visual Basic was for guys like me.

Thanks

jm
Click to expand...
 
* "john m said:
I work in the engineering field and we have always had to take the
output from one program and type it into another program.

I have tried to use the tool (the computer) a little better than that by
making little utility programs to speed the plow.

When we were forced into windows a few years back i switched to VB which
was just what i wanted. i needn't concern myself with platforms and what
goes on behind the scenes just to make a little helpful tool now and then
and then concentrate on my real job.

I have stayed away from the whole dot net deal til now but when i
finally looked at it it seems that they have taken away every thing i liked
about VB. I don't care to learn C sharp or any other language. I always
thought Visual Basic was for guys like me.
Click to expand...

It's the same for me. I liked VB6 because of its simplicity, and
because it was hiding things that I didn't want to care about. VB 2003
introduced more explicit coding, but VB 2005 will bring back many
productivity features known from VB6, like Edit and Continue, better way
to specify assembly information by using a GUI instead of changing the
"AssemblyInfo.vb" file and so on.
 
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