Never programmed anything in my life...where do I start?

I'm probably the noobiest of the noobs when it comes to programming. It sounds like most people here were already programmers when they learned VB.NET...but I have literally none, zilch, nada, experience when it comes to programming.

Are there any books or video courses that I could take to learn VB.NET? I've already gone through and watched every single one of these videos - http://www.youtube.com/user/TeachMeComputer and he certainly helped, but I still don't have a clue how to create a bot. I'd like to learn things like HttpWebRequest, filling in forms, posting forms, etc.

I'd like to be able to create my own SENuke one day, so where do I start?

Been in software development for a fair few years, I would say its not the tool but the problem you have, no point in learning assembler to to simple VB job.

So I would say figure out what you want to achieve, then pick your tool and learn the bit you need.

Much like learning any language - you learn how to say hi - goodbye, then learn things you need, I found that I need to go back and reread notes from years ago....

well am not a pro but start with some basics not with bot i think i also faces some prob. when i am making bots

& TeachMeComputer has best tut i have even seen in vb.net

Good Luck

freeufcdotinfo said:

Been in software development for a fair few years, I would say its not the tool but the problem you have, no point in learning assembler to to simple VB job.

So I would say figure out what you want to achieve, then pick your tool and learn the bit you need.

Much like learning any language - you learn how to say hi - goodbye, then learn things you need, I found that I need to go back and reread notes from years ago....

Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply, and I know what you mean...but where do I go to learn things like "hello" and "goodbye"? Is there like a big book of commands (or whatever they're called) that I can use, and is laid out in a simple way as to how use them?

I think most programmers I've talked to are so good and adept at programming, they forget what it's like to not know a damn thing. (ex. "Yeah, I've been programming for 10 years and if you understand how classes and strings work, you'll be fine")...WTF?! I'm like a baby who is trying to learn words for the first time. The words don't make any sense if I don't know what they mean. You can't just tell a kid to learn what a dog is without showing him a picture of a dog. I'm in the same boat..I'm seeing things like HTTPWebRequest, but don't have any idea how that command works...same thing with stuff like GetElementById, etc.

For example, I know that I want to be able to create a bot to post an article to a web 2.0 property, but haven't got a clue what 'command' I would use to do that in Visual Basic 2010 Express. I'm slowly learning how to use WebBrowsers and whatnot...but then I run into 5 other problems..like captcha's, checkboxes, etc. No idea where I would go to find out how to work that stuff. And WebBrowsers aren't even the way that is recommended!

Sorry for the rant, maybe I'd be better off hiring a programmer to create the stuff I want...but even then I'd like to know a thing or 2 about code.

seems like you already know what you want, try with Zennoposter, it should be intuitive for nobs as i read; there is a thread on bhw somewhere;

If your interested in learning, I'd say just get stuck in - the most important thing (I think) is a purpose, if you have a task to accomplish -and it sounds like you do-just start trying to accomplish it - break it down in to the most basic modules then research how to do each small bit - as you progress you'll begin to learn more and more.

You might get fed up and decide to pay someone else (if the project is really your goal, that might be easier), or you might get really in to it - if so then id say go get some professional training as there's nothing worse than learning to do something the wrong way because you taught yourself

suicyco said:

seems like you already know what you want, try with Zennoposter, it should be intuitive for nobs as i read; there is a thread on bhw somewhere;

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I'd get Zennoposter in a heartbeat if I could export .exe's. I wanna be able to create programs to run on multiple computers (or even sell). As of right now, it's way too tied up with the templates and whatnot. I considered uBot, but it currently doesn't offer multithreading....so I figured what the heck, might as well learn VB.NET.

You might get fed up and decide to pay someone else (if the project is really your goal, that might be easier), or you might get really in to it - if so then id say go get some professional training as there's nothing worse than learning to do something the wrong way because you taught yourself

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Very good point. Any idea on where to get good professional training? How did some of you experts (like smack) on here first learn?

open notepad and type:

<html>hello world</html>

save it as a .html file and open it with your browser.

you've just made your first web site.

now keep going from there.

tacopalypse said:

open notepad and type:

<html>hello world</html>

save it as a .html file and open it with your browser.

you've just made your first web site.

now keep going from there.

Click to expand...

I literally remember that day

http://www.homeandlearn.co.uk/NET/vbNet.html
This page has the very basics of programming in vb.net. Helped me alot when i first started.

How do you make your program click links?

I don't know how basic you want to get but try cs50.tv It's harvard's computer science course and teaches the fundamentals.

I don't know about you guys but I started from c programming language and it really helped me to understand how the programming works from c i moved on to c++ and from c++ to c# and I think c# is the best programming language for bots trust me , you can't compare it to visual basic...

souljaboy said:

I don't know about you guys but I started from c programming language and it really helped me to understand how the programming works from c i moved on to c++ and from c++ to c# and I think c# is the best programming language for bots trust me , you can't compare it to visual basic...

Click to expand...

Why ?
I am struggling between C# and Vb.
I like more the C# syntax because I am an old school programmer , but it seems that VB is more spread around programmers.
Am I wrong?

I recommend NOT starting with Visual Basic.

You'll get many bad habits from this language.

I suggest something like Python to get you started, then Java or C#

Get started with Python. Best language I've ever used for bots.

I am an old fashion programmer. I learned C and C++ in ..the mid 90' at college school.
I never touched python. I am accustomed with the C# syntax. So I am wrong to develop in C# against other languages like Python? C# feels most close to my ..memories.I am accustomed with his syntax.
Vb is also ease to use , but I do not like the syntax. Too long and many words.

Is Python better then C# when dealing with web requests and application as bots, automate postings on blogs ..so on) ??

Vb is a great language to start from.

take a class at your local community college. It's usually cheap and you will actually learn something.

I started about 6 years ago from scratch and I got really into it, one thing I can say for sure tho the more you practice and create things out of the blue even without a cause the more better you will get. Almost every chance I got to make something I took!