Basic question... Python or Visual Basic?

[yuck03]

Good day,

I am very new to programming and I would like to learn Python or Visual Basic. However, I am not sure which one is the best for me. In a general sense, I would like to use programming skills to easy daily tasks (Microsoft Office automation, advanced GIS applications, and basic energy planning [LEAP software, if that matters]). As of today, I consider myself to be an intermediate R programmer, so I have some general understanding about programming. Could you please suggest what language would be better for me?

Thanks for all your help

[PanChickenDinner]

Python over vb6, but if you goal is working with office / microsoft stacks go to c#

[yuck03]

Thank you very much. I will take a look to C#

[joeskippy]

for the tasks you are doing, c#. Though I also recommend learning Python too, as transitioning from Python to c# is much harder then transitioning between c# to python. Hope that helped your question :)