Having lasted 25 years as an electronic Tech, I am needing to expand to cope with the continued blurring of the line between when the electronics start and the Programming of PC's takes over. I already write assembler for microcontrollers (programming from 2K to 2 meg in assembler) and really should be using c for this, but have never took the time to learn it.I have however programed in both Portran (port-a Punch) and basic many years ago. Ancient history lesson ends I basically need to program PC's to set up/ colect data/ process data and probably via a graphical interface. so my question ... in 2 parts: 1. Is C still a viable language to learn to write programs for PC/MAC Ideally in Win MacOSX (cocoa looks nice) and Linux or should I be looking at C# / Mono / QT / ?? It seems that all later programming languages seem to be adding to C (extend .. embrace ??) so Would C be a good start place ? All opinions welcome.... and crystal ball gazing will be entertained. 2. Does anyone have experience with a good course / course provider that they would recommend to provide such training. I would prefer part time training, as my family like to eat, but this is flexible, as I can work nights/weekend is the course is not too long. Of course, then I could apply for the job that just hit my inbox too :-) Thanks in advance.