Hi,

I'm a systems guy working in networking, I want to retrain as a developer to do something more creative and actually fix the bugs rather than just implement the patches that someone else has created, but don't know where to start in terms of language. I'm primarily aiming for a job in web development using asp.net.

I'm posting this in the hope of some sane feedback as from my very basic research I understand that this is a raging argument in your field!

As I have absolutely no bias or preconceptions as I know nothing of programming, I have no concept of what is best..I simply want to learn the language will will stand me in good stead for the next few years and will help me get work.

Speaking to seasoned developers, recruitment consultants and training company's has just left me bewildered and confused.

Can anyone help???

Regards

Conrad

In my area C# has more job postings, and the pay is genearlly better, than VB.NET jobs. I learned C# about 5-6 years ago when it was in Beta. Shortly after that, the company I was working for at the time had decided to make VB.NET its language of choice so I also learned that.

Once you learn C#, it is very easy to switch back and forth between the two. Both languages do pretty much the same thing with some mostly minor differences between them. However, it is my observation that within the industry, C# is considered more highly than VB.NET. They both get most of their functionality from using the Framework Class Library, so switching from one to the other is 95% just syntax differences. There are some reasons to prefer one over the other.

I am a long time VB developer from version 3 through 6, and I have worked on a lot of great projects using VB5 and VB6, but I switched to C# and now prefer its syntax and nature over VB.NET. It is just personal preference that I like the one over the other, but from a purely financial point of view C# seems to be a better choice, at least in my neighborhood because of the reasons I mentioned in the first sentence above.

Woody Z http://www.learntoprogramnow.com

Hi Woody,

Thanks for the feed back, I appreciate the un bias advise from a seasoned developer, what you have said makes perfect sense!

I was thinking of C# as the salary's seem higher but there seemed to be a lot more of training out there for beginners in VB than C# so I was worried that C# may be to technical or something for beginners but if the differences in the languages are minor then that can't be the case.

Thanks, I'll stick with C# then I won't have the issue's with learning VB6, VB.NET and VB.NET 2005!

Regards

Conrad

Just a note: C# and VB.NET are exactly the same, "technically". If I was teaching someone how to program I would have no problem choosing C# for a beginner. There is a lot to learn with either langauge before you become familiar with it - and that goes for Java, Ruby, PHP, or whatever.

Woody Z http://www.learntoprogramnow.com