Visual Basic

Christian Graus28-Nov-06 20:29

Christian Graus

28-Nov-06 20:29

Tretanya wrote:
Left
Right
Mid
Instr
Trim
UCase

If it's VB.NET, don't use these, use the ones that are on the string class.

Christian Graus - C++ MVP

'Why don't we jump on a fad that hasn't already been widely discredited ?' - Dilbert

Tretanya29-Nov-06 2:19

29-Nov-06 2:19

Yes it is vb.net. Unfortunately I have to use those. That is what my instructor is requiring. That is part of why I am having such a hard time trying to decide what to do. Anytime I think of an idea, it doesn't cover all requirements.

I have thought about just going through and making examples of each being used ("This is an example of Left String Manipulation" and so on), but don't think my instructor would like that or that I would get a decent grade lol.

I have considered the project being like an accounting or such, with the files being "client" data. I could use a 2D array for getting the data outta the file for use. Accessing the data I can cover both the sequential and random access. I could probably do one of the string manip's by making first and last name 1 value in the array. But then, where could I fit in using a random number, and no clue how I could fit in smoothly using the other string manip's hes wanting us to use.

I know I feel that we are having to do a bunch of extra coding when there is simplier ways, but I don't have that choice since this is for my class project. I do think hes expecting alot outta 6 forms, and it STILL look good and run smoothly.

Christian Graus29-Nov-06 8:27

Christian Graus

29-Nov-06 8:27

Tretanya wrote:
Unfortunately I have to use those.

No, you don't. Instead, you can turn in a project that comments on why those methods are deprecated, and poor practice.

If I were you, I'd do that, and if you were marked down, I'd go to the principal and complain that you were marked down for refusing to learn bad practice from a bad teacher. At an absolute minimum, I'd use those methods and add a comment that has the name of the string. method that you should use, and explaining why.

Tretanya wrote:
Anytime I think of an idea, it doesn't cover all requirements.

I think your instructor is an idiot. I actually think that it's really hard to contrive a project based on a list of methods you will use, and it's not conducive to good coding to say 'I ned a while loop here somewhere', instead of just writing an app the way that seems right.

How about a quiz program ? You could use a file format that forces you to use string manipulation to get the answers out of the file, and note that this is convoluted code, written to meet the requirements. Then you can randomise the order in which potential answers are shown. I'm thinking you'll use left, right and mid to split out hte answers, and your comment will be that string.split is what you'd have used if not for the requirements )

Christian Graus - C++ MVP

'Why don't we jump on a fad that hasn't already been widely discredited ?' - Dilbert

Tretanya29-Nov-06 9:46

29-Nov-06 9:46

Christian Graus wrote:
No, you don't. Instead, you can turn in a project that comments on why those methods are deprecated, and poor practice.

If I were you, I'd do that, and if you were marked down, I'd go to the principal and complain that you were marked down for refusing to learn bad practice from a bad teacher. At an absolute minimum, I'd use those methods and add a comment that has the name of the string. method that you should use, and explaining why.

There's a problem with that. I am not in high school. This is for a 3000 level college course. When an instructor assigns a project, unless they state that we can adjust the assignment to fit what we are programming better, we can not. I do understand the instructor giving us a list of requirements for our program, to help him know what we actually learned in the course, i just dont understand his choices for some of the requirements.

I might not like some of his requirements for the project, but I do have to meet those requirements. Same thing in the real world. A customer will have certain requirements that must be met, atleast then they won't be coding requirements like in this project.

Dave Kreskowiak29-Nov-06 9:56

Dave Kreskowiak

29-Nov-06 9:56

Tretanya wrote:
This is for a 3000 level college course.

Then they have no business teaching you anything about VB6. A compiler that Microsoft no longer supports!

Dave Kreskowiak
Microsoft MVP - Visual Basic

Paul Conrad29-Nov-06 10:04

29-Nov-06 10:04

Dave Kreskowiak wrote:
they have no business teaching you anything about VB6. A compiler that Microsoft no longer supports!

Yep. Somebody offered me a job about 3 months ago in VB6. I told him I only know VB.Net on top of C#.Net. That didn't fly with the guy. Guess some people just don't catch on?

If you try to write that in English, I might be able to understand more than a fraction of it. - Guffa

Dave Kreskowiak29-Nov-06 10:13

Dave Kreskowiak

29-Nov-06 10:13

It sickens me to see classes like this, still teaching VB6. Granted, there is still a large base of VB6 users and apps out there, but damn(!), it's worth upgrading! I dropped all my VB6 developement the DAY I got my hands on the .NET 1.0 Beta. Stuff you find in the .NET Framework would have to be written from scratch in VB6. Why anyone would want to keep wasting their time and money on a legacy platform is beyond me.

Hmmm...let me see, drop a couple controls in a VB.NET form, a few lines of code... and Done! In VB6, File->New->Project, OpenFileDialog.vb...

Dave Kreskowiak
Microsoft MVP - Visual Basic

Paul Conrad29-Nov-06 10:17

29-Nov-06 10:17

Dave Kreskowiak wrote:
sickens me to see classes like this, still teaching VB6

And the thing is, I teach a VB.Net course and it gets old when I have to explain the differences between VB6 and VB.Net.

If you try to write that in English, I might be able to understand more than a fraction of it. - Guffa

Tretanya29-Nov-06 11:14

29-Nov-06 11:14

It is not vb6, it is vb.net. I stated that earlier on in my second post I think.

Dave Kreskowiak29-Nov-06 12:06

Dave Kreskowiak

29-Nov-06 12:06

Yeah, but the functions he's asking you to use are all native to VB6. Their in the VB.NET Microsoft.VisualBasic namespace for backward compatibility, not becuase they're the best way of doing things.

Dave Kreskowiak
Microsoft MVP - Visual Basic

Christian Graus29-Nov-06 10:12

Christian Graus

29-Nov-06 10:12

Tretanya wrote:
I do understand the instructor giving us a list of requirements for our program, to help him know what we actually learned in the course, i just dont understand his choices for some of the requirements.

I think he's being lazy, he should think of the project, so you can focus on writing the code.

Tretanya wrote:
This is for a 3000 level college course.

Then you need to decide if you're willing to not make a fuss about a teacher who is going to teach you badly. IMO it sucks that they teach VB at all, but to teach it wrong ? I guess it's not different to the bad C++ courses they've had over the years ( teaching it as C )

Tretanya wrote:
. Same thing in the real world.

No, in the real world you may have to discuss dumb features, but you are free to write them as you like.

Christian Graus - C++ MVP

'Why don't we jump on a fad that hasn't already been widely discredited ?' - Dilbert

Tretanya29-Nov-06 11:18

29-Nov-06 11:18

Christian Graus wrote:
No, in the real world you may have to discuss dumb features, but you are free to write them as you like.

Tretanya wrote:
Same thing in the real world. A customer will have certain requirements that must be met, atleast then they won't be coding requirements like in this project.

I didn't say that the coding wouldn't be up to me. As I quoted from my previous post, the requirements won't be coding requirements.

Paul Conrad29-Nov-06 11:25

29-Nov-06 11:25

Tretanya wrote:
I didn't say that the coding wouldn't be up to me. As I quoted from my previous post, the requirements won't be coding requirements.

I think he's meaning that the real world is a bit different than the classroom Smile | :)

If you try to write that in English, I might be able to understand more than a fraction of it. - Guffa

Paul Conrad29-Nov-06 6:35

29-Nov-06 6:35

Tretanya wrote:
The following string munipulations
Left
Right
Mid
Instr
Trim
UCase

You could have a textbox of a string the user enters, then, have seperate read-only textboxes showing what happens to the user entered string when the string manipulation functions are used. As Christian said, the String class methods are better. Your instructor should know this Big Grin | :-D

If you try to write that in English, I might be able to understand more than a fraction of it. - Guffa

Tretanya29-Nov-06 9:17

29-Nov-06 9:17

I can understand him wanting to test us to see what we have learned, but you would think he would try to stick with things that we will be using. I really doubt I would be using any of those after I am outta the class.

Hmm, and with what you said gives me an idea. Maybe make it like a game. Have the user put in a few words or a short sentence and see what gibberish could be made with it. Or even a "pig latin" translator, lol. I could definately use atleast a couple of those with doing that.

Thanks! Smile | :)

So I might just make it like its a bunch of kids games. Have like hangman (game itself covering random access files, adding and viewing word list for sequential access), tick tac toe, the above idea, and maybe math. Any forms not used for the games to be played on, could be the ones for menu and adding/viewing word list. Will have to play around with this idea and see how it comes out. :p

Paul Conrad29-Nov-06 10:02

29-Nov-06 10:02

Tretanya wrote:
even a "pig latin" translator, lol.

If you try to write that in English, I might be able to understand more than a fraction of it. - Guffa

Johan Hakkesteegt29-Nov-06 23:09

Johan Hakkesteegt

29-Nov-06 23:09

It seems to me that we are discussing semantics here, as well trying to solve an entirely different problem than originally stated.
See it this way: sometimes you have to make do with what you are given. (people have actually made a million bucks that way)
Your teacher, as is general practice in (public) education, is behind a couple of years. If you tell him so, like someone here suggested, he will find an excuse to fail you on this project. If you don't tell him, he'll keep on teaching the same crap to future generations for at least three more years.
I suggest the subtle approach: write an application, of which half of the forms do nothing usefull ("A-do-nothing-for-a-do-nothing" ), but that include all the requirements (have a string go through all the different manipulations and post back and forth between the forms with the buttons), and the other half you make do something usefull (search a user entered string for mistakes or something, and correct them), using good vb.net code.
And then you keep your fingers crossed that your teacher also learns something.

Good luck,

Johan

Evolution outlasts revolution.

Tretanya30-Nov-06 2:21

30-Nov-06 2:21

I can agree that he is probably a bit behind the times. When the semester started, we spent the first two weeks using vb6 because vb.net wasn't installed on the computers yet. For the most part of the course, he hasn't followed with the text book that was required. He would make copies of a gui and would tell us what he wanted the command buttons etc. to do, then we would build it. The book has been mainly for reference. Not saying that is bad since it is one that basically walks you step by step through assignments, giving the exact code and completed code at the end. When I had taken this course, it was more to bring me up to date with vb. I had taken a course on vb6 about 6 years ago, but hadn't done much with it at all since so figured this course would help me out alot. The only thing it has actually helped me with was using vb with excel and word.

On how you was saying to do this project, if it wasn't worth many points I could do that. But this is for 1/4 of our grade, so I am not about to risk getting alot of points taken off. Frown | :(

Hmm, maybe I could do what he is wanting, how he is wanting, then also do the same thing using vb.net coding. That might get the point across a little more nicely. Smile | :)