brand new to visual studio

[philfer]

Hi,

I am new to visual studio having used vba with excel and access and trying to improve my programming. I have a few questions that may seem easy and silly to most people but I would appreciate any help.

1) In a book I read it said the systems requirements for visual studio are :-

1.8Ghz processor
2GB RAM
5GB Hard disk space

is this true? It seems like a lot

2) When you install visual studio can you simply start programming using VB.Net and C#.Net or do you have to get these separately

3) How much is visual studio

4) This may seem the most silly question - if I have software which requires 2GB of RAM and another piece of software that needs 3GB of RAm does my system need 3GB or just 2GB and I can only run one at a time?? Do I also need to make allowances for the RAM used by the op system and thus if a piece of software i.e. visual studio needs 2GB of RAM (as I read) do I need to have at least 3/4 to make allowances for the power the sys and other background procs will need?

Thanks a million in advance for all your help
Phil

 

[jmcilhinney]

1. Those are the specs you should have if you want acceptable performance. It doesn't mean it won't work with less but things like building large projects might be slow.

2. Visual Studio contains all you need as a beginner.

3. The Express Editions are free, which is probably what you should start with.

 

[philfer]

Hi,

Thanks for your answer.

Did you have any ideas on question 4). It is probably an easy answer for most computer savvy people but I get confused.

Also, with the express edition of VS can I simply start using VB.Net and C#.Net straight after installing it?

Cheers
Phil

 

[jmcilhinney]

When software says that it needs a certain amount of RAM, that's not going to be the amount of RAM that it uses. That will be the amount of RAM that you need for the software to run comfortably under normal conditions. The software will most likely use less, but may even use more. If you need more RAM than you have then all is not lost. The OS pages data out of physical RAM into virtual memory. The problem is, moving data into and out RAM to virtual memory is sloooooooowwwwwwwww.

As I said, VS contains all you need. Of course, if you don't know how to program then you might want to find a book or tutorial to read through.

 

[philfer]

Thanks again dude,

What time is it there?!?!!? Thanks for taking the time to help.

I have programmed in VBA and have read some basic books on VB.Net and C#.Net (as well as Java and C++) and so just wanted some practical experience.

That is why I thought about getting VS express (as you mentioned it was free) and then trying some things out using VB.Net and C#.Net. I was going to look on the net for some problems/ small projects I can try to solve/ work on as I find this is the best way to learn.

Thanks for your response about the amount of RAM. I think if VS needs 2GB a 3GB should be more than enough. Thats as long as I dont try to use anything else at the same time i.e. if I was using VS and had Excel open at the same time it might just slow them both down, right?

Thanks for your help. Have you been programming for a long time? How hard did you find it picking all the languages up?

All the best mate
Phil

 

[jmcilhinney]

Having Excel open at the same time as VB will not be an issue. Having Excel churning through complex calculations while VB is compiling a large project might be.

I'd suggest that this is a good place to start learning:

Microsoft Visual Basic .NET tutorials for Beginners

Getting a form grasp of the basics before you go free-style is a very good idea.

I started programming in 1998 at university in C and then worked in C++. Picking up VB.NET and C# was a breeze after that.

 

[philfer]

Last question I promise!!!!!!

When I looked at the VS Express Editions there were separate ones for visual basic, c# and c++. Would I need all three.

I probably misunderstood but I thought the CLR meant you could use all three languages together in a single platform to write applications.

Do you need each one separately and are you only able to use one language per app

Thanks a million for all your help dude, its been priceless

 

[JohnH]

Visual Basic is the language, .Net is the library and runtime platform. With Express you can only write using the designated language (except VWD), with full VS you can choose language.
If you see the Express home there are different development platforms (win, web, and now phone). For Windows development there are three language editions that satify differents needs, mostly with what language you are comfortable with, but there are also some small differences in what each language is capable of.
What you need to write Visual Basic applications for Windows platform is the VB Express or higher.

 

[jmcilhinney]

As JohnH has said, each Express edition is targeted at one language or technology. There are Express editions for VB on Windows, C# on Windows, C++ on Windows, ASP.NET using VB or C# and now VS 2010 has C# on Windows Phone too. If you pay for VS Standard or higher then you get them all rolled into one, plus some other features too.

Each project you create is limited to a single language. Each project compiles to an assembly, i.e. a .NET EXE or DLL, and they are all equal, regardless of language. That means that, for instance, an application project written in VB can reference a DLL written in C#. In fact, that's what you do every time you create a VB application because the .NET Framework itself was written almost entirely in C#.

A solution is a container for one or more projects. If you create an application that consists of multiple components you would usually create a single solution containing multiple projects. Each of those projects can be written in a different language if you want, so you could have a VB application and a C# library in the same solution. You'd need an edition of VS that supported multiple languages to do that though.