Best Programming Language

jplatt39 says:

It’s not what it was. BASIC began at Dartmouth College as a way to bring computer access to students in the 1960s when there were only mainframes. It was an extremely simple but powerful — we would call it scripting language today. Microsoft BASIC, AKA GW BASIC, was first implemented on the Altair computer and it was not only the best implementation of it when Microcomputers came out (it was three or four years old when IBM released its PC) but it was the only one which went across platforms from CP/M to MS-DOS to the early Mac OS. And it was simple enough to provide many of us with our first taste of programming.

When Microsoft Basic became Visual BASIC several things happened. It stopped being cross-platform for one. It runs on Windows unless you have an emulator, and even then the programs you create can only run on Windows. It became considerably more complex and in fact tied into the operating system. It is in short no longer good for beginners, no longer a scripting language and no longer cross-pllatform. If you are an intermediate level programmer with a strong interest in the Windows Operating System, then you might find it very helpful, but with computing moving more and more into the cloud some of us are losing whatever interest we ever had in Windows.

Mark G says:

Since its basis is as a language for beginers it is easy to learn, but more importantly it is easier to use. String manipulation and handling is very easy to use with simple string variables compared to the array handling and manipulation using pointers required in the C language.
Most beginners and casual programmers can handle VB string manipulation vs the complexities of character arrays for string handling which C and Visual C (VC) require.

Once a beginner VB programmer learns the fundamentals of array handling the transistion to C is easier. C treats strings as arrays of characters, this makes the learning curve a little steeper for an absolute beginner.

VB is used in many programs as the scripting language. (Microsoft Office is the most familiar but other programs use VB scripting as well)

Most times a program user doesn’t care or realize what language the application is written in. Many times it is up to the programmer to make an application reliable and easy to use. However VB in my opinion does have a slight advantage in allowing the programmer to easily make a quality full featured windows form. It is very easy to add tool tips to controls placed on a form in VB campared to VC. I base this simple observation based on comparing VB program I have written at work to those written in VC by others in which the VC apps are not enabled with any user help . I assume that the reason VC programmers aren’t providing tool tips is either it is unavailable or difficult to add the functionality. In VB you just type tool tip text into a property a detail that takes 5 seconds to provide. Other than that a simple VB form and VC form are identical