Hi Che, My advice, if you want specifically to learn VB, would be to go for VB.NET. You could wait for Visual Studio 2005 to be released, as there is the option of the cheaper Visual Basic 2005 Express Edition. However, I don't know what the restrictions are on that, or whether such restrictions would hamper your intended projects. Another good reason to go the .NET route, is that there are a large number of languages that you can use. There is, I am fairly sure, a version of PHP for .NET. So you could even produce software for the Windows .NET Framework using a language you are largely familiar with. By learning VB or C#, you could even extend your skills to building applications that run on Unix or Linux under Mono.NET, to build on any existing skills you might have on those platforms. All the best, David -----Original Message----- From: program-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:program-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Che Sent: 15 September 2005 05:39 To: program-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [program-l] VB: newbie needs guidance Hi gang, I am fairly new to the programming game, having just finished a few PHP mySql projects, and I'm looking to learn some windows application programming, mainly with the hopes of creating games for the blind. I know there will be a lot of hard work involved in learning something like this, as well as a lot of time. I am prepared for that, but I would like to get off on the right foot. I know there are several versions of VB out there, and I'm not sure which I should look into. I am wanting to create applications that allow users to interact over the internet, as well as save their information to a database. I have been told that VB .net 2005 is coming out soon. Is that something I should wait on? In short what would you reccomend a neophyte programmer such as myself get started with, and what are some good resources for the blind programmer to learn from out there on the web? Any advice is greatly appreciated, and feel free to email me directly at che@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Thanks, Che Come check out our football betting simulation designed with the blind in mind at http://linksforblinks.com