C++ or VB.NET: You Make the Call

One thing about holidays is that you usually get to see relatives you haven't seen for a while. This year, it was nephew Austin, a college student working towards a Bachelor of Business Administration in Information Systems degree. I'm not sure what it is all about, but suspect it is the kind of degree where I'll be working for him one of these days.

Of course, information systems isn't where we started talking. (Even I wouldn't do that to a kid who just finished finals.) Instead, we were on to more interesting stuff -- World of Warcraft, Call of Duty, and Assassin's Creed.

But return to his Bachelor of Business Administration in Information Systems degree we did, which gave me the opportunity to give some advice. (Okay, I admit to feeling like Walter Brooke giving advice to Dustin Hoffman in the movie "The Graduate": Brooke: I want to say one word to you. Just one word. Hoffman: Yes, sir. Brooke: Are you listening? Hoffman: Yes, I am. Brooke: Plastics.)

Back to my giving advice: From what I could tell, the degree is a standard business degree with special emphasis on how information flows in organizations to facilitate planning and decision making. It's not about computer programming per se, although a knowledge of computer programming is required -- and rightly so. Austin doesn't want to be a software developer, but he knows that programming is at the heart of information systems. Plus he just likes hanging around computers.

As it turns out, his degree does require one of two programming classes -- Visual Basic .NET or C++. And where Austin made his mistake is asking me which one he should take. Which gave me the opportunity to give advice (and, no, I didn't say "Plastics").

Knowing what you do about Austin's degree program (which is about as much as I know), what advice would you give him -- C++ or VB.NET? Drop me a note and I'll pass it on to Austin the next time we chat over World of Warcraft.

-- Jonathan Erickson
jerickson@ddj.com

Posted by Jon Erickson at 10:26 AM  Permalink