The commands are nearly identical in naming so if you know your way around in dbp its not a big leap at all in that regard. What is the big leap is moving from dbp's procedural basic structure and syntax to a standard OOP language like C++, C#, or VB.NET. If the time comes and your ready to move to the next level in your coding, and you have no oop experience, I would suggest giving VB.NET a serious look. Of the 3 langs mentioned above, its going to have the friendliest syntax, but it does not sacrifice one bit on the power. C# and VB.NET are identical minus the syntax, C++ is a bit harder and more cryptic in its syntax. If you want to learn DX programming (without any dgdk) you can still use .NET or C++, but that will be the longest road of them all. It depends on what you want invest in learning, time-wise.