Visual basic 2005 for begineers ?

Question

i am thinking to start learning VB 2005 as i want to start programming. i have seen VB 2005 and its always my dream to learn VB 2005 properly. now the thing is i dont know anything about programming at all. some people told me you cant learn vb 2005 directly you have to learn some languages like vb 6 or c or c ++ before start learning VB 2005. i need proper guidance what is the reality weather i can learn directly VB 2005 or i have to learn few languages before ?
looking for good suggetions.

Alan · Answer

Whilst it certainly helps if you know other programming languages when trying to learn a new one there is no reason at all IMO why you can't learn Visual Basic. Net as a first language. In fact I would go as far to say that it's actually better not to have any previous knowledge of Visual Basic 6 which despite the name is really a completely different animal to the .Net version. As you may know you can download Visual Basic 2005 Express edition completely free from Microsoft's site so it's a good time to get into programming ;) http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/ There's also a link from here to Microsoft's new Beginner Developer Learning Center. It's important of course to get the right book and here's one which is worth considering for a complete beginner: http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Express-Programming-Absolute-Beginner/dp/1592008143 There are plenty of other books which you can read for a more complete mastery of VB 2005 after you've read this one.