how to learn....

[_Will_]

ok... i have 2 VB books....read them inside and out a few times....done all the examples....but what now?

i could go out and buy another book....but i really want to create something of my own....since i always learn better this way...sort of the "learn as u go" sort of thing....

i can never think of anything tho!!! a few rather simple time-saving programs....and i've had ideas in the past for big programs...but i think i was dreaming too vividly and these were way out of my reach

anyway...do u guys all learn from book examples or do u just find something u want to do and figure out the path as you go? and if so...what sort of things have u programmed

then again...maybe i just don't have a good enough imagination
:D

[_Will_]

or when i do have a good idea i do a search on google or download.com and poof...theres already 20 different freeware programs that do the same thing

maybe i should just give into redundancy and do it myself....even if its just for the practice...

[nil_esh]

There is so much you can do, all I can do is throw one possibility at you:

Learn a little bit about SQL and databases. A good free database is MySQL. Oracle is something you want to pay attention to.

Write apps that use database queries. This is real simple in VB, try it in Java and C++ as well. Write some stored procedures. The database stuff may be boring at first, but you can probably come up with some simple but interesting ideas to implement.

This stuff will really help you if you want a job in IT.

[_Will_]

i just saw a post about a free oracle training (plus 10 shipping)

http://forums.overclockers.ws/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=46267&highlight=oracle

its worth a try :)

thanks...any further inputs would be greatly appreciated :)

[JigPu]

Well.... Writing in such an archaic language tends to bring down the ideas I get.... I really need to finish learning C...

What I do when I create a program is to make something simple. Probably my first program I make on my own is always a program that simply calculates how long it will take to travel a specific distance at a specific speed. Of course, you should be a LITTLE past that by now....

One of the best things I can say to try (though I don't know if you can do this in VB.... never used it before....) is to create a tic-tac-toe program. It'll make a cute game for yourself, AND if you find making it too easy, give it AI. I had to do that in Pascal once... Man was it hard getting it to actually LEARN what a good move and what a bad move was!

JigPu

[Gonzo]

I created a lot of sample programs when i was learning VB (what am I saying? I still am learning VB) and after i was done I went and customized some of them to be more useful to me. One of my sample programs was a picture viewer that drive and folder designation boxes on the side. I changed it to view more types of pictures, then there was a problem with the program in that it never unloaded a picture from the picture box so after opening 10 or so pictures it would crash with an overflow error. Now I use that little program as my main picture viewer when i am searching for pictures on my HD.
I also made a small program to make my job at work easier. Every time we buy a new software program at work I have to register the program and put all the useful information about it (serial #, registration date, # of seats, etc.) into the database. I made a form to easily add this information into the database and used check boxes and dropdown list boxes for commonly used fields. I am now modifying it to run a query and print out a new current software list when i am done adding new software.
There are a couple of other places to look for projects. Check out Visual basic explorers web site, they have a programmer of the month contest every month.
One of the programs I am working on now is an MP3 player for my car mp3 player project. I downloaded Microsoft Speech SDK and am trying (with little luck, and lots of research) to build an MP3 player that can be fully controled by voice. I also want to incorperate voice output of the current song being played.
The best advice I can give is to look around at some of the many tasks you do every day and see if any of them can be done through a program. Or even try to build a program that already exists, it is a great way to learn, and if there is anything about the program that you dont like you can change it, plus you know what your end result should do.