[Fhios]

I get intimidated looking at all the packages and development environments. I don’t know which one to pick to learn. I’ve intermediate skills, but lack any gui programming ability and would like to learn a multi-platform development environment, but mainly focus on Windows.

[w1andsodidwe]

I know what you are saying. However if you are good at programming really the language does not matter. I am retired now, but I found that I was always having to program in a different environment depending upon what I was trying to do. You either are a good programmer or you become an IT manager who thinks you know everything that you were no good at.

[Edward.Fish]

> I’ve intermediate skills, but lack any gui programming ability and would like to learn a multi-platform development environment, but mainly focus on Windows.

You might want to check out the latest versions of Delphi then; it’s now cross-platform and has a solid GUI-designer (introduced in Delphi 1 [1995] for Win 3.11; updated through present).

[freeandfreezing]

If you would like to work in the Windows environment one good approach is to get a free copy of Visual Studio Express and start working through the many example programs available. Pick a language you are interested in, C# is fine if you don't have any other preference.

You can buy books aimed at beginners, or just read material posted on-line. Use Google to look up every error you run into, and learn from other developers' answers on codeproject or stackoverflow.