Auto update for VB6 application

My daily work used VB6 or VB.net to create application, therefore I read books on those programming language to find out better ways to write. In one of the VB books, which I forgotten which one, I came across a point that mentioned "Desktop application lacks of scalability; Internet application lacks of security". Well, perhaps scalability wasn't an issue anymore since DotNet allow automatically update for VB6 application.

Automatically Updating Visual Basic 6 Applications: Part I
Automatic Updating of Visual Basic Applications: Part II

I prefer desktop application to handle data intensive program rather than internet application, which gaining popularity very fast these days especially with introduction of Ajax. No offense to web developer, but I think desktop application provide better response (in terms of UI) than using the browser. I also believe the desktop application will be remain on the PC for many years down the road before internet application would actually take over (Until then, I would probably too old to write programs :P).

Design Patterns

I was browsing at Kinokuniya the other day on the programming section. Interestingly, I found some book regarding design pattern. Well, I have learned about design for IT in my college years, (Usually about creating forms or database design.) but this topic really catches my eyes. By the way, those books on the shelves at Kino are tightly wrapped and I was lazy to take the book to the counter for unwrap. Therefore, I just read the cover for some brief information and try to remember the book title.

Back at home, I did some research on the internet on what I have discovered. To my surprise, all this information was available back in 1995. Till today, none of these terminology was apply in my working years.

Perhaps I can say that, these design patterns was not that crucial or important enough to practice in real world. So, why do I need read all these stuff and talk about it here? The big advantage of design pattern is that it reduce software maintenance and adapt to change. (In IT world, a software application has to adapt to change else it will die or outdated. This also mean out of job for programmers. :D) Well, I have seen company putting in a lot of investment just to maintain an application and it doesn't adapt to change either. (Maybe that's how I and everybody else could get a job and put the food on the table. I would disagree with this because that means we lose a competitive edge to our competitor due a lot effort was spend in maintaining the software instead of moving forward for new functionality, scalability, usability and improve performance. Competition not in term just for local but applies to global competition as well)

So, what so special about it? Well, for people who interested in the Object-Oriented Programming, here a sample chapter of Decorator Pattern and it was described in Java programming. I believe this also can be done on dot Net technology since it is a OOP also.

If you have started talking in OOP language, that's great. Perhaps you can try out talking in Pattern language, trust me, that's even exciting.

Programming can be fun

In my colleague years, I have done my first program using turbo pascal. Then I moved up from there using C programming. Unfortunately, the way of the tutor teaching C programming was too dogmatic and it makes the whole class very boring and dull. Nevertheless, I still pass the subject in a hard way.

Then I went into university and heard something about C++, which is more advance than C and most of my friend said that this language is too hard to learn. (I've learn pointers in C and it took me some time to figure it out.) Anyway, I get a sense of fear when people talks about C++ even though I haven't touch and see the language itself. Well, perhaps it was because the "++" follows behind the "C" word makes it sounds like very advance, tough and only genius knows how to use it.

So, it's been 5 years now and people still using C programming to write their program for commercial use. It's hard for me to believe due to I'm VB fan and I thought people should have advanced to a more high level language (like .Net). Due to this fact, I went to the internet to find something about C programming.

The site provide a lot material and resource regarding this language. I started to find my initial perception on C++ wasn't quite true (perhaps it was Object Oriented Programming language that cause a lot of people to stay away it). After looking through the book review section on that website, I bought myself a book on C++, titled "C++ without fear". How nice. The best thing was, I got the book through a book fair with a very affordable price.

Perhaps it was time for me to pick up a "new" language. Not for academic purpose but for the fun of learning and knowledge. :)