VB.NET is SLOW CRAP.
I know this, as I have the full versions of both Visual Studio 6 and Visual Studio .NET 2003.
...and actually the European representative of Microsoft said that .NET is NOT SPEEDY and so GAME DEVELOPERS should stick with older languages...
If you want SPEED, learn C. Not C++. C.
Visual Basic 6 is decent, although admittedly older.
.NET has VB.NET actually taken SERIOUSLY (THANK GOD FOR THAT!).
But.. Visual Basic 6 is faster, and if you have DirectX installed, try playing with Projects > References > DirectX 8 for Visual Basic Type Library, and download M$'s DirectX8 VB-only SDK = FUN
I recommend VB. Actually, I learnt VB6 as my first EVER language, then I learnt Dark Basic.
They're both based on the BASIC syntax so you should be well at home, but purchase a decent book on Visual Basic as there's no built-in How-To-Program guide, and you've got to be able to use object-oriented (the . symbol e.g., setting the caption of Button1: Button1.Caption = "Whatever"), etc. And Functions.
I recommend Deitel&Deitel's book (www.Deitel.com) Visual Basic 6 - How To Program. I learnt my first programming language at 10 using that book
NOTES ON VB SPEED
=========
In VB.NET i did something which VB6 can't do. I created a Console application.
Then I added a Form (basically a window which can be designed beforehand and shown whenever).
I used the following commands pretty much:
Sub Main()
Console.WriteLine("Loading...")
Form1.Show
Console.WriteLine("Done")
End Sub
For 'Loading...' to appear in a console window, it took about 0.1 seconds.
For Form1, an EMPTY form to Show, it took 5 seconds. On a P4 3.2GHz 1GB Ram, no other programs running.
In Visual Basic 6:
I created a Form which had a Label called Label1 (aren't I Imaginative
) on it. I called the Form frmConsole for no particular reason. I made it so frmConsole would start up as the first Form, and I also added a Form called Form1.
'frmConsole's Code
Private Sub Form_Load()
'so the code looks kinda similar
Main()
End Sub
Sub Main()
Label1.Caption="Loading..."
Form1.Show
Label1.Caption="Done!"
End Sub
When run, it was SO fast the screen didn't even flicker. Form1 was there and on my fake console it said 'Done!'. I didn't even see the 'Loading...' bit!
(I retried this experiment on a 450MHz Celeron, (just the VB6 one) and I saw the screen flicker slightly. Slightly.)
I think this makes it clear that .NET is slow, anyway
[img src=http://blanky.pt-web.net/ddd.gif] >::p
