The thought of stepping into the world of programming by learning your first programming language can be very daunting. Seeing an expert tapping thousands of lines of mysterious code into their keyboards with ease seems to be an impossibility for those stepping out on their journey of discovery. Learning to create computer programs is never going to be an easy, overnight job; some languages will take even an expert programmer considerable amounts of time to become competent in it. Fortunately, not all programming languages are so complex. Visual Basic is a particularly user-friendly language to get started with but at the same time is complex enough to create some useful programs, with the versatility and time saving abilities that employers will love.
Visual Basic is not a language which will enable you to create 3D games or high-tech graphics programs - but it is still useful to spend time studying it as a first language, even if these are your end goals, because it is very easy to learn. Once you have mastered one programming language you will find it easier to progress to others, and Visual Basic is an excellent place to start.
Something particularly useful with regard to learning Visual Basic is the sheer volume of help available on the internet. Microsoft claims that several million people in the world use Visual Basic and a good proportion of these people seem to have stopped to create tutorials or helpful hints and tips for anyone to access for free. When you're just setting out it's really reassuring to know that there are a lot of people who've been in your shoes who are now willing to help out however they can.
Visual Basic is what's known as an event-driven language. This means that the processes that you wish to occur have to be linked to events. Something like clicking a button to open a form would be considered an event; it is something that happens. The role of the programmer is to create the code that tells the computer what to do when the user interacts with the system, be it in clicking somewhere, entering some text or any number of other potential events. This makes creating programs in the language far less daunting than that of other languages where the computer will simply run through the code that you've created in the order that you created it.
Creating a form in Visual Basic is as simple as dragging and dropping. If you want to put a button on the form simply drag it from the menu and position it where you wish. The same goes for text, text entry boxes, images and many other possibilities. It really is easy to set it up, without having to worry about creating the code behind the scenes that specifies how everything fits together. With the form designed you can simply edit the code for the individual events that you wish to happen.
Getting your hands dirty with Visual Basic is perhaps the best way to familiarise yourself with how it works; don't be afraid to investigate and see what happens. You'll be creating simple programs and building your own knowledge of programming in no time!
