Best Language

[Lucio]

I'm looking to try a little project to try and teach myself a bit more about programing but I'm unsure what would be a suitable langauge to learn. The last time I tried this, I was using ADA...

Basic concept is a front end that a user can type in a reference, and be presented with all the other possible references that are associated with it. This data is already stored in an Excel file. Ideally it should let me create a fairly simple graphical front end as well and if possible the compiler and design tools should be cheap or free.


Any ideas?

[directhex]

the best language is always specific to a job. in this case, you probably want c#

[TheAnimus]

Second the C#.

Enless you really need to be able to use the excel file. I wouldn't.

I'd look at using a database like:

Microsoft SQL Server: SQL Server Compact 3.5

this is an incredibly light weight database (that somehow manages to outpefrom MySQL.... cripes!) that you can host "in-process" that is, you load it into your application.

Very useful, very easy.

[ipridian]

Or you can do python with graphical front end from wxPython (wxWindows) as well. It's a basic scripting language and doesn't take too long to learn (you might want to export that excel into csv and importing it into an SQL server though, it'd be better).
Though I admit C# is a good choice too.

[stytagm]

As usual, I'll join the votes for C#. I'd also say, that you don't necessarily need to move the data into a database (although it'll be nicer) as with C# you can connect to an excel sheet as if it were a database.
Accessing an Excel Spreadsheet in ASP.NET (VB and C#) by Alex Lowe

[TheAnimus]

Or you can do python with graphical front end from wxPython (wxWindows) as well. It's a basic scripting language and doesn't take too long to learn (you might want to export that excel into csv and importing it into an SQL server though, it'd be better).
Though I admit C# is a good choice too.

Given interop with excel (which is horrifically nasty), python would be a bad choice, as its COM interop abilities are limited, and afaik there are no xls file format adapters for python. IronPython would be a different matter.

[mysticmog]

If you really want to learn programming langugae then C# is a good way to start. Of course the other maybe easier method is to use the script tools in Excel itself??? I'm assuming that they are good enough to do what you require although personally I don't like doing scriping.

[manwithnoname]

Why not use the file -> find front end on Excel

And a little more seriously I only used C and vb to create stand alone windows executable. I would recommend you do NOT attempt to use C -the learning curve is comparable with Everest as you need to use the WinAPI functions (Win32) it's a whole world of pain - vb was ok to use (it's been a while) but I could see the parallels with C and the Win32 functions so that probably help me, I think C# may be vb successor so that might be a better bet.

Unless things have changed greatly in the 8 or 9 years it might be worth starting with a command line program that just list the matches in the file. That way you can test the functionality before you move on to the GUI.

But the task you have chosen is a good one to test because you can file -> find in excel.

[TheAnimus]

C is completely obsolete for this type of task. no one had recomended it.

in no way confuse it with C# (or C incremented twice as you can think of it) its not remotely the same.

[Lucio]

But the task you have chosen is a good one to test because you can file -> find in excel.

This is true however Excel won't secure the data very well and won't work if this is distributed commerically

[manwithnoname]

This is true however Excel won't secure the data very well and won't work if this is distributed commerically

If you end up with a front end to excel file it not going to be too secure anyway, get the data in a database that someone else looks after (i.e. they have to deal with the security) and write a simple db client that connects using your favourite database communication protocol C#


All my ramble stuff about C was more about the complexities of a windows native executable, I'm not sure how much of the windows stuff is hidden with C#. But having never used C# it maybe straight forward, to those who have created windows executable with C# would you bother getting use to the language creating a command line executable first?