My boss asked me to learn either Java or Visual Basic, which should I learn?

I am an eLearning developer (my background is in curriculum development, not software development) and the program I am working with requires some programming.





My boss (who has a fair bit of programming knowledge) says either Java or Visual Basic will work and that I should look into learning one or the other.





Can someone suggest why either Java or VB would be a better choice to learn?

My boss asked me to learn either Java or Visual Basic, which should I learn?
Visual Basic is more widley used than Java.
Reply:Java is more powerful than VB. Java is platform independent and therefore a program writen in Java can run on any operating system. VB programs are usually limited to a Windows based environement. However, VB is easier to learn than Java. So you have to weight what would be more benificial. I would tell your boss that you are looking at taking the luanguage that would benifit both you and the company the most. Tell him that you know java is more powerful and platform independent, but VB is easier to learn and would take less time to become knowledgable in. Ask him his opinion. This will show you are cocerned with doing what is best for the company.
Reply:I'll make it really simple:


Java is better, Visual Basic is easier
Reply:Visual Basic would suite your needs much better.
Reply:I would opt for VB. The power and flexibility versus ease to lean ratio is very high. Basic has started out from the beginning as a programming (some people may argue that it is scripting and not really programming) language for non-programmers that need to program. It remains a very good tool for this purpose and has had many features and improvements added while still retaining this original goal.