IMO Its either C++ or COBOL. If you know either then VB wont be a hard nut to crack at all. Contrary to popular opinion on sites like this VB very certainly has a place in the programmers tool box. But like most of MS's stuff its pretty easy to learn just from the documentation that comes with it. For someone that has achieved a decent level in almost any other language VB would be a piece of cake.

Personally I regret not learning C++ properly, wheras ive never regretted not learning COBOL at all. Some of the posters in this column state that there is lots of work on legacy COBOL systems (and other mainframe languages). This is true, I know several people who earn a very good living doing this type of programming. However I would think carefully about the choice. Maintenance programming is not all that fun in any language, doing it an a beast of a language like COBOL doesn't appeal to me that much. Whatever the cash.

In the spirit of honesty however, I do have a book on COBOL that I went out of my way to find. However I did that more for the reason that Abigail-II points out, that is to learn our mutual heritage a bit better, and as a parachute if I _really_ _really_ _really_ need to take that job...

Good luck.

--- demerphq
my friends call me, usually because I'm late....