Steve, the answer depends on what you will be doing.  Several books come with
the Learning edition of Visual Basic.  This edition lacks some facilities and
doesn't include the help files, which they are readily available from
Microsoft's MSDN web site.  (Not for download but for net access.  I find it
more awkward to use then having help installed on the local system.)  If you are
a student, you can also purchase the academic packaging.  I can't recall if it
is VB Standard or Professional that cost $100 for the Academic package.  I'd
recommend getting Professional.  There are some licensing constraints, but that
is why I said the answer depends on what you will be doing.

On Wed, 24 Jan 2001 21:47:24 +0000, you wrote:

>Several years ago I used Visual Basic to develop some programs where I
>worked. Since then I have changed jobs and haven't done any programming.
>However, I would like to refresh my rusty knowledge if, for nothing else,
>to satisfy myself.
>I have an old version of Visual Basic, version 1.0. I want to get the
>latest version 6.0, but found out that it sells for $470 to $530. The
>upgrade version requires at least an existing 4.0. I have seen some lowball
>prices for apparently the full version at around $200, but I am very
>dubious. Something is not right.
>I would appreciate some direction from those of you with experience on
>buying/upgrading Visual Basic.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
Harry Lichtbach
Almaden Unlimited
San Jose, CA. USA

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