>One of my support people asked me how to learn to program. I learned to program in 1970 and learned it from machine code up. I'm not sure that is still the best approach. Any ideas on the best tools/books to learn programming?

Jack;

I like Dean's suggestion! What I tell people is to start with something meaningful and useful like an address book or program to enter his/her CD collection.

Begin with basics and build your knowledge as required. The idea is to "get your feet wet" and then decide what you want to do based upon requirements. Most of all think and ask questions. What do I want to do, how many ways can it be done, which is best and why? Keep a list of titles of what you need to learn such as how to View, Add, Edit, and Delete records for a start.

There are many tools and books out there. Some are of more value than others. Do not forget White Papers - they often contain great information unlike some 1500 page "paper weights" on book shelves. :)

Tom