Beginner Question

[pat_masters]

Hey guys, first off, I beg of you not to flame me. I have no prgramming experience but am very intrigued and admire you all greatly for what you all know and have accomplished. What I am trying to do is create a program that will make mine and my associates job a little bit easier.

I work for Staples Direct and I am in the Product Lead Group. The sales associates call us for information and item numbers on various numbers. What I am trying to is minimize the number of calls we have to take by making all of this information available on the computer. I have started with Visual Basic 6 and created 7 different screens (forms) the associates will see. The question I have right now, is how do I link the forms together? Example: On the main window fter execution, there are 6 buttons the associates can click on for various categories. Each button brings up its correspinding screen. If the asscoiate clicks on the printers button, then the printers button comes up displaying all kinds of information on various models etc... How do I get each of these screens to pop up from the main screen. The logic seems to be the same as html but unfortunately, I am unable to figure out. Once i can figure this part out, my gui part is done. Then all I have to do is figure out how link the dialog boxes to the database. I'll save that task for later. If you would like to take a look a project and show what i am doing wrong, I'd be glad to email it to you. Just send email address to mastersp@staples.com

Thanks in advance.

[Michael Bechard]

So you want the different forms to pop-up when called on from the main screen? You have to implement code that will show a form as a response to a button being pressed, a menu item selected, etc. Use MyForm.Show

to do this. Microsoft's web-site has a lot of helpful information, tutorials, etc. to help you with basic and advanced topics. Also there are various other web-sites around with plenty of beginner material. If you want links to some of these, I'd be glad to send you some.

[Michael Bechard]

As far as implementing code from a command button, if you double-click on the button you draw onto the gui, the code window should pop-up, then you can show the form by (name of form to show).Show.

As far as getting started in programming, VB is the best way. It's easy, yet it teaches you vital concepts required for object-oriented programming. And it's a useful, professional programming language, so you don't waste time learning it. I myself am a self-taught C++ programmer and I started the same way. Once I was comfortable in VB, I moved on to C++. Not without help from the internet, though. I never once bought a book, and never had to. The web has plenty of information and tutorials. Here are a couple that can get you started:

http://www.programmersheaven.com/ (best one; plenty of links to other sites...)
http://www.programmingtutorials.com/ (lots of links to tutorials)
http://msdn.microsoft.com/ (subscribe with them and you get access to the developer's library; a good supplement to the help documentation you should already have)

Well, that's it. I would stay away from Assembly or Pascal for now. Another good way to learn, though, is to look at other people's source code; again, all available on the web. Good luck.

Michael Bechard