I am a pretty new starter when it comes to programming. I had a bit of knowledge of VBA (Macro stuff in excel) and have used LabView quite a bit.

I'm looking at trying Visual Basic, as it is similar to VBA, but more general and more powerful (That's what I understand), but someone has also mentioned C.

Which would be the best to learn or is there another language which is easier and more widely used?

if you learn c then you will find all other programming languages in the future easy as it is the daddy..

If I had to go back I would learn C first and then move on to python (I love python so much I fuck it) it is so simple to grasp, the syntax is so elegant and almost plain english.

but you could just go straight on to python, the tutorial files on the official python site are great and "thenewboston" on youtube has good getting started tutorials.

he has some on vb and c# too..

What kind of applications do you have in mind? Phone apps? Scripting to aid gathering data? Or more into lower level stuff, microcontrollers, and other embedded systems?

If you are reading this...........take my advice........... and learn how to programm. There is a shortage of top class technical people and it`s going to get worse before it gets better.

Cheers mate. May try and give C a bash then.

What sorts of things can you do with it? Like I say, all I've basically done is a few Macro's with VBA and some hardware controls and readers using LabView.

well my background is in embedded systems so programming microcontrollers in c to do things.. like robotics.

and then whenever I want to do something on a computer I use python and labview..

but now with the advent of things like the raspberry pi you can program embedded systems in python just fine..

It depends what you want to do really? hardware/software?

if hardware c is a must really. If you just want nice computer apps then I like python but for visual apps with nice buttons and such labview or C# in visual studio is where you want to go.

Not that you can't go visual in python ..or java etc.

Nothing in particular. I fell into doing bits in my last job, and learned a bit of LabView and VBA, and enjoyed doing it (Sad I know). Used a bit of VBA in my new job (No been able to keep up with the LabView, which I'm a bit gutted about), so just wanted to know which coding language is most widely used, as I enjoy doing it, and hopefully it may come in handy in the future.

Thought about maybe having a go at making an app of some sort, but that's not the main reason.

I only got into LabView to help out the electrical engineer, as he was stretched (And I'd enjoyed the VBA). I used LabView to control engineering test rigs, by controlling pumps and heaters, and monitoring flow rates and temperatures, through a plc which the electrical engineer constructed. I really enjoyed it,.and wanted to get more involved. He also suggested I learned C/C#, giving me some circuit board thing to practice with, but I didn't get much time to practice, as I moved jobs.

I still want to keep up the coding though. It would be hard for me to integrate the hardware side of the coding now though (I think), as I don't have the facilities at work, so I suppose software would be more useful for my current position, but again, I'm willing to try any as they are all string to the bow.

There are plenty of development boards that do not really require you to be an electronics engineer to enjoy the fun with programming embedded systems. Have you heard of the Arduino? Though you do need an electronics background, just the basics, to start enjoying it. No fancy equipment required, just a USB cable.

Thanks

I don't really have an electronics background, my background is more chemistry/chemical engineering. I may give it a look and see if I can muddle through though.