Originally Posted by
Shaggy Hiker
The message that should have been sent is: Don't get into programming if you don't like change.
The hardware changes, the languages change, open source projects come and go as interest waxes and wanes, companies grow and fold, and all of this happens within the timespan of our careers. Coding isn't like ranching where people can say, "my daddy did it this way, and his daddy before him, and his daddy before him." In coding, the last decade is for old folks. I started in the 80s. There was no VB, of course, because there was no V to B. I then wandered off until the mid-90s, at which point there was a VB, there was ANSI C, no ANSI C++, GUI OS were just starting to appear (unless you were a mac fan), and Java was just a drink. I went through PDA's, too. I even had one, and wrote a few programs for them. That tech lasted only a few years before being replaced by smartphones.
I wrote a tablet app before Apple came out with the iPad. The app would have worked a whole lot better had there been any tablets at that time. Now, tablets are becoming ubiquitous. Dilettante feels that the MS OS is going to be replaced by Android, but that's nothing new. It was going to be replaced by Linux before that, and Apple even earlier (not to mention OS/2, since nobody probably thought THAT was going to replace anything). Still, he could just as easily be right as wrong. The only thing certain is that what is the standard today is not going to be around tomorrow.
So, don't abandon MS because VB6 was discontinued. Instead, abandon the entire career, because it's probably moving too fast for your comfort. I know the technology will change. I know that the language I know now will not last until my retirement. I just don't know where to move to, and when will not even be my decision.