So I need to learn programming with zero past experience. VB and Python are the two languages that I need to move ahead in my work, basically break from low-mid level specialist to middle-high specialist.

There are tons of books available online and other resources. But not having had any experience in programming I don't know what is worth buying and what is not.

If any of you have recommendations from books you have used yourself or know are useful for teaching yourself programming in VB and Python I would really really appreciate it.

Thanks for the help.

 

Try an O'Rilley book (Python for Beginners and stuff like that). They have a very gentle leaning curve and that would probably suit you for now. If you find it too easy, try the official documentation + loads of cross referencing. Find out which version of Python your office requires you to learn. Version 3.0 takes a large break from the 2.x.x versions, and while most of the codebases in python are 2.x, 3.0 is the future.

For VB, again pick up just about any book by Apress or O'Rilley that has the term beginner or any of its synonyms in the title. Again, extensive documentation exists for the language and if you find the books too dull, go straight to tackling them.

Get VB Express from microsoft. And get the Pydev Eclipse plugin for python development in the IDE.

Although I've never done VB, python is a pretty interesting language.

 

While there may be good books, you could always try a more practical approach of those languages. There are tons of sites where users upload source codes and just playing with them is (or at least was, to me) a really good way to understand the programming languages.

I used a lot Planet Source Code (pscode.com). (I don't believe that they host python source code, though, but a quick search of Google may solve that).

It worked for me for the Visual Basic (6.0), but that was ten year ago and it was harder for me back then to understand some of the more abstracts concepts as I didn't have the mathematical knowledge.

 

I've done both... have you done any programming before.

What I'm asking is if you have the basic programming theory down. If statements loops the works. Once you get that down you can do almost any programming language once you learn the format and words.

Our class never had a text we did practical lessons and referenced the official site for notes on python.

As for VB, just download visual basics and play around with it. your best bet is to build examples

I suggest you try a leveled approach:

Level 1

Work on figuring out the buttons, storing information in variables and external txt documents. and basically figuring out what each of the items in the toolbox represent and how to edit them.

level 2
Then work on creating functions and referencing them when you activate it.
This will be a good time to practice your basic statements, loops, and algebra.

examples would be to make a general calculator,
A bill calculator that gives you an itemized list,
a basic password verifier based off of a preset password in the coding.

level 3
Start trying to reference material with databases like access or open office's version.

And if you know SQL learn how to incorporate it with VB.

An Obvious example that you could try and do is generate a password and user list that references a database and has security level access. that operates off a single form and opens up a separate form.

If you want I can send you some of my old final projects if I still have them.

you can try and figure out how they work from the comments and what it does.

Heres one of my old assignments I don't think this is my final version. View attachment Assignment2.zip
See if you can figure out how to make it work and how it was coded