I've been the solo IT guy at a medium size metal building company for a while. I've gotten high marks and their supreme trust in my skills.
While my strengths are in administration, backups, DR and workstation/server support, they still want me to troubleshoot their in-house apps. Most, if not all, are Excel/VBA sheets with some writing to SQL.
To use a cliché', "I know enough to be dangerous." I've been able to fix most (only one I didn't fix yet) issues with code that I've faced but I've yet to have to make new subroutines, modules or new code. And I know that day will come. I have several VBA books ready for self study but I've yet to find the time.
They tasked me with creating a new application to keep track of customer credits we give out. I fired up Visual Studio LightSwitch and in no time, I was able to create a user interface with data written to SQL. They were impressed with it but the lack of reporting with LightSwitch has put this on hold, especially since I am not good at custom SQL reports.
LightSwitch is pretty nice but I wonder about the future of Silverlght as well. I don't want to create new apps and then lose Silverlight down the road.
SO, as a newbie, I'm looking for advice on how to proceed. I've played with Visual Basic in the past but never completed my studies.
My current plan is to hit the VBA books hard but wasn't sure if I should continue with VBA or perhaps try full Visual Basic application and supplement my education with a stronger SQL background. Looking for suggestions.
Having kids and a Daddy's girl, I need time too which is so hard to find!