Basic Communications

[Mark Linehan]

Greetings and salutations. I began programming God knows
how many years ago in basic on the Commodore 64. I dabbled
in a little assembly as well. I moved on to the PC
eventually and stuck with basic under DOS and some C,C++
as well. Had a lot of fun. Concentrated mostly in the area
of communications via modem, BBS's and that sort of thing.
When windows came about, I lost interest in programming,
being such a DOS-BOY. It seemed like I would have to learn
everything all over again, so I hung up my programming hat
and became a web troll, spending my life surfing the web,
and learning to play the guitar. So...

I just ordered Visual Basic .NET standard edition. I am
both excited at the thought of programming again, and
fearful that I will remember almost nothing, and what I do
remember will be obsolete and useless. Now, I knew plain
old dos basic inside-out upside-down and backwards. How
different is this VB .net going to be?

....AND most importantly, can anyone recommend a really
good book, and tell me where I can find examples and tools
for communication programming via TCP/IP. I want to write
a few comm programs like MUD SERVER's, FTP client's, New
form of Internet BBS dedicated client tool thingy.. You
get the picture.

Hey, any information you can give is greatly appreciated
thank you in advance and please respond via e-mail I don't
make it to the MS site often.

Mark Linehan
Http://www.angelfire.com/musicals/linehan
Http://www.song-writer.org

 

[Cor]

Hi Mark,

All that you are asking is in this I thought

http://msdn.microsoft.com/vbasic/vbrkit/default.aspx

It is a lot to download, but I think it will help you a lot.

Cor

 

[One Handed Man [ OHM# ]]

Interesting to see one of the old DOS brigade trying to make a come back. I
suppose you must have all of a sudden found yourself with a lot of time on
your hands right !

One thing I warn you about is that the world has changed massively since
those days and although you may find some syntax familiar, the principal
differences are that 'everything' in .NET is OOP. You will need to get to
grips with this properly. You say that you used C++, but did you actually
write OOP code or did you cop out and write console applications in C syntax
?

Everyone has to start somewhere don't they. I recommend one of the step by
step books. But if I were you, I would not try anything too complex like
writing MUD games and socket listeners just yet.

Get familiar with VB.NET and ADO.NET first as these are very important. When
you have read your first couple of books and gone through the excercises,
write a small paper describing VB.NET and in doing so you will uncover your
weaknesses. Then fill in these gaps through further study.

DO, regularly access the microsoft dotnet.vb groups and participate in them.
Try to help others and in doing so help yourself. This will help you look at
areas you don't normally go into.

Finally, don't give up. This is going to be a long hard road to follow,
expect to spend countless hours at your keyboard.

Regards - OHM#

Greetings and salutations. I began programming God knows
how many years ago in basic on the Commodore 64. I dabbled
in a little assembly as well. I moved on to the PC
eventually and stuck with basic under DOS and some C,C++
as well. Had a lot of fun. Concentrated mostly in the area
of communications via modem, BBS's and that sort of thing.
When windows came about, I lost interest in programming,
being such a DOS-BOY. It seemed like I would have to learn
everything all over again, so I hung up my programming hat
and became a web troll, spending my life surfing the web,
and learning to play the guitar. So...

I just ordered Visual Basic .NET standard edition. I am
both excited at the thought of programming again, and
fearful that I will remember almost nothing, and what I do
remember will be obsolete and useless. Now, I knew plain
old dos basic inside-out upside-down and backwards. How
different is this VB .net going to be?

...AND most importantly, can anyone recommend a really
good book, and tell me where I can find examples and tools
for communication programming via TCP/IP. I want to write
a few comm programs like MUD SERVER's, FTP client's, New
form of Internet BBS dedicated client tool thingy.. You
get the picture.

Hey, any information you can give is greatly appreciated
thank you in advance and please respond via e-mail I don't
make it to the MS site often.

Mark Linehan
Http://www.angelfire.com/musicals/linehan
Http://www.song-writer.org

Regards - OHM# (e-mail address removed)

 

[Dick Grier]

Hi,

Take a look at
http://msdn.microsoft.com/vbasic/downloads/samples/default.asp

There are several example that will be of interest.

Dick

--
Richard Grier (Microsoft Visual Basic MVP)

See www.hardandsoftware.net for contact information.

Author of Visual Basic Programmer's Guide to Serial Communications, 3rd
Edition ISBN 1-890422-27-4 (391 pages) published February 2002.

 

[mark linehan]

Thanks for all the quick responses with links and tips! Mucho
Appreciado! Knowing there are fellow programmers out there willing to
take part in newsgroups still gives me a bit of inspiration and needed
confidence.

-Mark