Which programming language is most similar to Macro Express?

[nkormanik]

I am not a programmer, but I want to learn.  I've used Macro Express for years, and find it essential every day.

 

Of all the programming languages out there, I would like to start learning one that is most similar to Macro Express.  I feel that way I can more smoothly transition, and possibly do things that I can't with Macro Express alone.  Or if/when Macro Express for some reason stops being developed.

 

Would greatly appreciate hearing your thoughts on the matter.

 

Thanks,

Nicholas Kormanik

 

 

[Cory]

There's nothing that I know of like MEP.

Python is considered the easiest and most readable of the modern object-oriented languages. I have not written anything in it but one of the criticisms is that it's a little too easy and facilitates sloppy code by allowing les strict typing and rules. So the "easy' is a double edge sword. There's tons of free training and swarms of people who use it.

When I decided I wanted to amend my skills, I looked around and elected to learn VB.NET. It's uses the same framework, IDE (Visual Studio) and all that is the same as the other big languages like C#, but I find much more readable. Also I used to write some MS Office macros and so I liked that VB.NET is similar to VBA and VBScript. 

However it has now been deprecated. MS will continue to support it but they have stopped developing it. However it's not likely that I will ever need any of those improvements in the remainder of my career. But I am considering learning C#. For the kinds of things I do it's the most common and best language that MS has to offer. 

[acantor]

I agree with Cory. Macro Express is unique. There's not much like it. Maybe there's nothing like it.

 

I don't think of the Macro Express "language" as simple. One of strengths of Macro Express is that its user interface is relatively straightforward, which contributes toward its ease-of-use.

[rberq]

ME is like low-level Assembler languages, in (sometimes) manipulating data at the bit and byte level; and in advancing by excruciatingly-small steps from beginning to end of a process.  It’s also a bit like COBOL, where the procedural code is almost readable like English.  COBOL is easy to learn, at least superficially, but I don’t think it is much used any longer.  Those were languages I used extensively for many years. 

 

But I agree with Cory that, for a PC or server, one of the object-oriented and database-focused environments is where you want to be.  I found the transition from the dinosaur languages, to object-oriented, to be mentally very taxing.  Maybe it was just me; but it seemed a very different way of thinking.  So perhaps you should skip learning something “most similar to Macro Express” – bite the bullet and go right to the modern stuff. 

[nkormanik]

Any votes for Go?  That seems to be getting a lot of positive attention.

 

[Cory]

I don't know Go.

I would also consider the application. Like C++ is more for hardware. C# better for databases. I know that some hobbyist who do a lot of automation gadgets use Python mostly. So I'd find some forums of people doing the kind of things you do and see what they tend to use the most. Or just search for a typical problem and then see which languages pup up the most often. For me it should be C# so I will be learning it soon.

Here's a nice list.

What rberg said about getting your mind around OOP is key. It isn't so important what language it is, the biggest problem is un-learning procedural language and understanding classes, objects, events, threading, and so forth. Once that's in yoru brain, it's more like semantics. For instance I can look at a program in almost ant even driver OOP and make sense of it. So I believe that learning C# for me will be one tenth as hard as it was to learn my first OOP language, VB.NET. 

You might have a look at the classes at W3Schools. I'm considering taking a few of their classes.