Visual Basic

most poeple fear programmation

but with internet, it's much easier to learn than 20 years ago

just make sure he comment his code a lot, and he validate data before processing it in his code, to prevent bugs, or to catch them before they happen

I started with Visual Basic 1.0 in 1991, and I am currently using Visual Studio 2008 on a regular basis. It is relatively easy to learn - especially if you wrote some macro's for M$ Office programs earlier.

I really like that you can use VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) in many of the graphics packages - although it is a bit dated now (I would prefer a .NET kind of environment).

You can do extraordinary things with it, but I have to agree that you have to be very cautious. You can easily write very bad code (inefficient code, code that causes memory leaks, etc.), and there are thousands of ways to do the same thing.

If you develop using VBA, you should start by designing and creating guidelines, and follow these to the letter. If you encounter new issues or opportunities, again first think about the design, then write or update your guidelines, and only then implement.

Being upset that you have to learn a new skill (? - the contract engineer is aware that most people are using computers, right?) like VB really closes the door for you for many jobs.

Martin

I've been programming in Visual Basic since version 2.0 in 1992. I second Walt's comments but would add a very strong caution. That ease can also lead to extraordinarily bad code. Just because VB is easier to learn than most languages, that doesn't mean that it is easy to write good code. I would be reluctant to allow a contract engineer to "learn" to program on my system.

Jon DiPietro

President, ISA Boston Section

It is one of the simplest programming languages to learn...and has been converted to the .Net framework besides. Sometimes we just have to recognize that this profession of ours is a continuous learning process. How valuable is an automation engineer who stopped learning back in the days of panel walls? I'm afraid we all have to put on our big boy pants and keep gaining new skills...until we either retire or, if the economic situation doesn't turn around, die at our posts because they can't afford to replace us.