David Stone likes my advice below, except that he would recommend C# over VB.NET. I was mostly using VB.NET below as an example. It could also be C#, and most of the advice would still be true. But, VB.NET does offer some features that help lower the irratation level for begining coders: case correction, no need to remember semi-colons, and line compilation while still editing. Either one would work though. I really don't think learning VB.NET would hamper anyone much, or prevent you from moving on to C# someday. As Joel says: 80% of what you learn is about which method to call in the framework anyways.