A few weeks ago I started learning C++ while on the job. Since then I've gotten about an hour worth of free time to learn so I've gotten nowhere so I'm taking a new approach, just learn while going.
I have a simple little program I'm wanting to make in VB, or something, that will help with my administrative roles at my current job. Instead of manually entering commands in powershell I want to have a GUI where I can select a specific command, say xcopy, enter the location of the file I want to copy, the name of the computer that I want the command ran to, and have it done like that.
My questions, is VB the best option for this? Where can I find the necessary resources to start coding something along these lines?
I have some slight experience with VB from school so I wouldn't be dropping into completely new waters.
VB only runs on windows so if thats what works best for you then go for it.
If you have to work in powershell, isn't it going to be much easier/faster/more efficient to just script the things you have to do regularly as powershell scripts instead of trying to build a GUI over it? I mean, the reason that microsoft developed powershell in the first place is because the command line is so powerful.
So in stead of trying to learn some programming language to build a GUI on top of powershell, maybe you should just get good at powershell.
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The idea is to have a goal based objective to have a functional program I can utilize to use it as a guide on learning programming to a small extent. Yeah, you're correct, but I feel like this would be the easier method for me to learn how to program.
Ok, fair enough :). It's really good by the way that you really have an idea of what you could use programming for. There's a lot of people that want to learn programming just because why not. You know, make games or something. I always imagine them dropping the idea after 2 weeks.
So in defence of learning powershell, I have a few arguments:
- They'll be making your work easier
- They'll be easier to write than a full-fledged GUI
- Even though they are 'only' powershell scripts, they will teach you about some programming concepts and they'll train your mindset to be a bit more programming-oriented. In essence you could say that powershell scipting is programming too.
So in that view, it might be easier to just start off with powershell.
But if you really want to start off with a "real" programming language, my tips would be:
- get busy making stuff, don't worry about the details too much
- if you don't know what language to pick, pick one that doesn't get in your way that much. For me that would be python or ruby for example.
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+1 for python. But also +1 for just writing scripts. The script icons in your file manager can be your gui right? just click the script you want and away it will go.
It's not about ease of use, its about ease of learning programming. If I have an objective in mind on something I want a program to do, it'll be more engaging to learn that than read out a book.
The idea was to use vb to create a gui over powershell scripts. That must not be possible cause yall seem confused about that process.
I'm not familiar with powershell nor VB, but most languages have some function with which you can execute system commands. So it'll be possible (I guess) but you'll have to look it up :)
I think we do understand what you're trying to say, and learning with an objective is absolutely great, but as a general rule, that objective shouldn't be "make a gui" neither should it be "make a program that executes powershell scripts" because, although GUI's are important, that is usually near one of the last things you learn when you're trying to learn a programming language.
Don't be this person: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkDD03yeLnU
there are a myriad of useful things that can be done with programs that have no gui.
I wrote a program that takes input, and then saves a picture with that name. Then the whole thing is piped through Apache so that when you go to my IP and enter a name in the box, it shows you a picture of my basement.
http://174.35.240.25/
But if you view the source of the page all you get is :
object type="text/html" width="100%" height="100%" data="/cgi-bin/hello3.py"
Because the entire webpage is written in Python