Book | Visual Studio - OOP

[DuncanAnderson]

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I'm trying to learn programming in Inv's API.

Initially I'm looking at VBA and I've got a project in mind.

However, it looks like I might need to get my head around add-ins and therefore Visual Studio.

I've done the tutorials for iLogic as it is based upon a sub-set of VB.Net - so I understand - and presumably this will help a little with understanding Object Orientated Programming within Inv's API.

Is it logical to go from iLogic to VBA to VB.Net ?

Do VC++ &/or VC# offer any advantages over VB.Net ?

I've currently got Visual Studio 2010, is there any big difference between the different versions of Visual Studio ?

Now the big question

Are there any good books that will help me get a good basic understanding of OOP &/or VB.Net / VC++ / VC# ?

I don't want to waste lots of money on loads of books.

Nor do I need an in-depth knowledge of OOP &/or VB.Net / VC++ / VC# but I do need a basic grasp and reference guide particularly I need to include reference to external components.

[ekinsb]

There isn’t a simple answer to which language to use and you’ll get different answers depending on who you talk about because much of it is about personal preference.  My opinion is that for a newer programmer, Visual Basic is going to be the easiest to use.

Visual Basic was introduced in the early days of Windows and would allow you to write standalone windows programs.  It progressed up to Visual Basic 6.  Around the time that Visual Basic 4 came out Microsoft also released Visual Basic for Applications (VBA).  They are both the same language and internally use the same engine but VBA only runs from within another application and doesn’t produce standalone programs or dlls.  Visual Basic 6 was replaced with Visual Basic .Net.  The language is very similar but there are also differences that can sometimes make it a bit confusing to go from one to the other.

Visual C++ is very powerful but is definitely more difficult to use.  Especially when programming an application like Inventor.  You end up writing a lot more code to do the same things.  C# is a new language that has a similar syntax to C++ but also has the ease-of-use of Visual Basic so it tends to be a good solution for those that are already familiar with C++ or for someone that’s just getting started and possibly wants to move to C++ in the future. 

For most of the people I work with, I recommend Visual Basic .Net.  I still also use VBA, but mostly for writing a quick prototype or testing a small bit of code.  VBA is limited in the kinds of dialogs you can build and the development environment feels quite old after using Visual Studio.  The .Net Framework is also very powerful and makes doing some things in windows (working with directories and files, working with the registry, etc.) much easier than in VBA.  Learning VB.Net will also allow you to create sophisticated programs that don’t have anything to do with Inventor since it’s a generic language and isn’t application specific like VBA.

A book that I’ve been recommending is “Sams Teach Yourself Visual Basic 2012 in 24 Hours” by James Foxall.  It also covers object oriented programming concepts.  If you get it I would be interested in hearing your opinion about the book.