VBForums most active sections stats.

**Niya** · Jun 17th, 2022, 09:26 PM

So the other day me and sapator got into a little guessing game about which sub-forums here have the most activity which started at this post. We had a bit of fun guessing back and forth but then today I realized.....I'm a programmer, why am I guessing, I could just find out so I did just that.

I wrote a little VB.Net program to find out which sections of these boards are most active and I thought I'd share the results:-

Code:

Visual Basic 6 and Earlier               : 57.04%
General Discussion / Chit Chat           : 14.79%
Other Programming Languages              : 7.04%
Visual Basic .NET                        : 5.99%
Database Development                     : 3.87%
Other BASIC                              : 3.87%
CodeBank - Visual Basic 6 and earlier    : 3.17%
Office Development                       : 2.46%
C#                                       : 0.70%
Network Programming                      : 0.70%
World Events                             : 0.35%

I got that by processing the newest 10 pages of the "What's new" page on these forums. Here is a link to the source code in .Net Fiddle so you can run it yourself and play around with it.
https://dotnetfiddle.net/TppbNv

You can change the following line to get more accurate results by processing more pages if you desire:-

Code:

Dim sections = GetActivitySections(10).GetAwaiter.GetResult

The above line tells it to process the newest 10 pages but you can change that to any number you like. Note that it will take longer the more pages you want obviously.

[UPDATE]

https://dotnetfiddle.net/QJNPnC

Made a slight improvement by having it fetch multiple pages in parallel instead of sequentially. You should now be able to collect data for up to 100 pages in .Net Fiddle. The previous one could only go up to about 40 because .Net Fiddle limits execution time of programs executing on their platforms.

[UPDATE 2]

https://dotnetfiddle.net/7S9tuA

Improved the fetching of pages even further by using semaphores to limit the number of concurrent HTTP requests being processed at the same time. This would allow on-site(meaning on your machine and not .Net Fiddle) processing of any number of pages without the program running out of resources.

[UPDATE 3]
https://dotnetfiddle.net/72DCl9

The program now also produces data on the most active users which include how much they post in relation to other members and how much they post in each section of the forums. The program code has also been refactored in a number of places to make things a bit more manageable and cleaner. A number of functions and variables have been renamed to more accurately reflect their purpose.

Have fun

**Niya** · Jun 17th, 2022, 09:30 PM

Here are the results when I process the newest 30 pages:-

Code:

Visual Basic 6 and Earlier               : 45.80%
Visual Basic .NET                        : 17.13%
General Discussion / Chit Chat           : 12.59%
Other BASIC                              : 5.24%
CodeBank - Visual Basic 6 and earlier    : 4.43%
Database Development                     : 3.73%
World Events                             : 3.15%
Other Programming Languages              : 2.80%
Office Development                       : 2.21%
C#                                       : 0.82%
General Developer Forum                  : 0.58%
ASP.NET And ASP.NET Core                 : 0.35%
Application Deployment                   : 0.35%
Network Programming                      : 0.23%
Games and Graphics Programming           : 0.23%
ASP, VB Script                           : 0.23%
Maths Forum                              : 0.12%

**dilettante** · Jun 17th, 2022, 09:37 PM

The skewed numbers don't surprise me. VB6 programmers really have nowhere else to go any more, while those using more recent and popular languages and tools have lots of options.

**Niya** · Jun 17th, 2022, 09:39 PM

Originally Posted by dilettante

The skewed numbers don't surprise me. VB6 programmers really have nowhere else to go any more, while those using more recent and popular languages and tools have lots of options.

Yea, that's what I figured too. I was still surprised by how skewed it was towards VB6 though. I was expecting maybe 20% but it's a lot closer to 50%.

**Shaggy Hiker** · Jun 17th, 2022, 10:27 PM

Yeah, but Dil is right. There is nowhere else.

Other Basic is entirely due to Wayne.

World Events is 50% Sapator.

**Niya** · Jun 17th, 2022, 10:42 PM

I was expecting VB6 and VB.Net to be a lot closer but thinking about it, I realize I got that bias because of the main forum page. Since the day I arrived here, the number of people viewing each sub section was always dominated by VB6 and VB.Net with both sections being almost even in number of viewers. I expected something similar to be reflected in the activity stats but it turned out to be very different.

**dilettante** · Jun 17th, 2022, 10:51 PM

There are still some marginal alternatives for VB6 programming questions but they are very marginal.

Stack overflow is a bigger one, but their format is a mess.

I think the idea was to be a database of clear and concise questions of general interest with corresponding single best clear and concise answers.

Not only are most of the questions poorly formed and the "best" questions by vote often wrong or of poor quality... there is really no good mechanism for dragging the real question kicking and screaming out of the O.P. And more often than not questions are absurdly specific rathe than of general use. It is hard to escape the reality of "Plz gives me da codez!" from Mortimer Scripty.

**Niya** · Jun 17th, 2022, 10:58 PM

Originally Posted by dilettante

Stack overflow is a bigger one, but their format is a mess.

I don't think the format is that bad. I think the real problem is that all the remaining heavy hitters are here. You, Olaf, the trick, wqweto and until recently, Lavolpe. All the remaining VB6 experts are here and nowhere else, not even on StackOverflow. There are people that answer VB6 questions at SO but it's very basic stuff. You will not get the kind of detailed knowledge you need for those really nasty problems that might require some real wizardry to overcome.

**Niya** · Jun 17th, 2022, 11:04 PM

Originally Posted by dilettante

It is hard to escape the reality of "Plz gives me da codez!" from Mortimer Scripty.

They shut that down very quickly at SO. We are far more patient on this forum. In fact, all forums with this format are better at cultivating patience from the membership.

**dilettante** · Jun 17th, 2022, 11:58 PM

Wizardry? Not me, you must mean the other guys.

I only have two super powers: I'm old and I read the documentation.

**Niya** · Jun 18th, 2022, 12:18 AM

Originally Posted by dilettante

Wizardry? Not me, you must mean the other guys.

I lurk about in the forums from time to time checking out what people are doing. I've seen some pretty amazing stuff by you particularly with your knowledge of COM, graphics and strings formats. Don't sell yourself short

Originally Posted by dilettante

I only have two super powers: I'm old and I read the documentation.

lmao

**Niya** · Jun 18th, 2022, 12:24 AM

I made some minor changes and ran it to collect from the newest 1000 pages and this is what I got:-

Code:

Visual Basic 6 and Earlier               : 42.79%
Visual Basic .NET                        : 20.00%
General Discussion / Chit Chat           : 15.26%
World Events                             : 3.96%
CodeBank - Visual Basic 6 and earlier    : 3.56%
Database Development                     : 3.47%
Office Development                       : 2.72%
Other BASIC                              : 2.23%
WPF, WCF, WF                             : 1.02%
Other Programming Languages              : 0.99%
Forum Test Area                          : 0.74%
C#                                       : 0.59%
General Developer Forum                  : 0.56%
General PC                               : 0.50%
CodeBank - Visual Basic .NET             : 0.37%
Application Deployment                   : 0.25%
C and C++                                : 0.19%
Games and Graphics Programming           : 0.15%
ASP, VB Script                           : 0.15%
ASP.NET And ASP.NET Core                 : 0.09%
XML, HTML, Javascript, Web and CSS       : 0.09%
UtilityBank - Components                 : 0.09%
Game Demos                               : 0.09%
Network Programming                      : 0.06%
Maths Forum                              : 0.06%

Note that .Net fiddle won't allow you to process 1000 pages since it limits the execution times of applications executed on the platform. You have to run this test on site. I think 1000 pages is more than enough to get an accurate representation of activity here.

[EDIT:]

I just made an interesting discovery.....The "what's new" section doesn't go back more than 114 pages so 1000 pages is the same as 114 pages.

**Shaggy Hiker** · Jun 18th, 2022, 06:00 PM

SO comes up first, or near first, for just about any coding question. The quality of the responses seems to depend largely on the popularity of the language. You get questions for things like VSTO in Word, but there are often no answers, or just one weak one. Meanwhile, if you ask about .NET, you tend to get C#, but also VB, and there are generally LOTS of answers.

In the SO format, lots of answers matters a lot, because the cream rises to the top. If there are only one or two answers, there's no top for the cream to rise to. It's easy to be number one when playing solitaire.

**sapator** · Jun 19th, 2022, 01:02 PM

Oh Niya, such determination just to prove me correct.

And kindly check Shaggy vs Sap posts to see who is the most frequent chit chatter here. Once again the provocation won't go unpunished!!

**Niya** · Jun 19th, 2022, 01:15 PM

It's easy to guess that someone else's guess was wrong

**Niya** · Jun 19th, 2022, 01:19 PM

Originally Posted by sapator

And kindly check Shaggy vs Sap posts to see who is the most frequent chit chatter here. Once again the provocation won't go unpunished!!

Come to think of it, I could actually do this using the exact same data pulled from the "What's new" page that was used to generate the percentages of sub-forum activity. All I have to do is parse different parts of the HTML.

**sapator** · Jun 19th, 2022, 01:53 PM

I was kidding of course. I wouldn't want to be forcing labor to you (and if by any chance I have more posts than Shaggy then I'm scr....Naaahh) .

**Niya** · Jun 19th, 2022, 02:36 PM

Originally Posted by sapator

I was kidding of course. I wouldn't want to be forcing labor to you (and if by any chance I have more posts than Shaggy then I'm scr....Naaahh) .

Too late, I'm already in the process of doing it. This the output from testing of an as of yet unpolished version:-

Code:

==============================
Member activity stats
==============================
sapator : 2
Niya : 2
dilettante : 4
Nouyana : 2
Luboc : 1
Shaggy Hiker : 1
argen : 4
Mysystem : 1
newbie2 : 1
tmighty2 : 2
Daveeed : 1
olek_w1 : 1
VB6 Programming : 2
uneek35 : 1
wqweto : 1
TysonLPrice : 1
JohnMarch : 1
baka : 1

Of course that data is just from a single page. I'm polishing up the LINQ queries that crunch the data to return the stats in a more meaningful way.

Originally Posted by sapator

I wouldn't want to be forcing labor to you

This is leisure to me. Entertaining distractions like this is the only time I truly actually have fun writing code. Most real life projects are actually quite boring and many times either don't provide enough challenge or provide too much of a challenge because of time constraints.

**sapator** · Jun 19th, 2022, 02:59 PM

Well OK then.
But some users I haven't ever seen or in a very few posts on Chit Chat.
argen?JohnMarch??Mysystem??tmighty2??
Unless it's from 2000 posts.

**Niya** · Jun 19th, 2022, 06:52 PM

Ok here are the stats:-

Code:

==============================
Member activity stats
==============================

------------------------------------------------------------
Niya            : 6.96%
------------------------------------------------------------
      Visual Basic 6 and Earlier              : 52.89%
      General Discussion / Chit Chat          : 25.33%
      Visual Basic .NET                       : 13.78%
      Other BASIC                             : 2.22%
      Other Programming Languages             : 1.78%
      General Developer Forum                 : 1.33%
      General PC                              : 0.89%
      CodeBank - Visual Basic 6 and earlier   : 0.89%
      CodeBank - Visual Basic .NET            : 0.44%
      WPF, WCF, WF                            : 0.44%

------------------------------------------------------------
Shaggy Hiker    : 6.09%
------------------------------------------------------------
      General Discussion / Chit Chat          : 57.36%
      Visual Basic .NET                       : 14.72%
      World Events                            : 12.69%
      Database Development                    : 8.12%
      Other BASIC                             : 2.03%
      Forum Test Area                         : 1.52%
      Visual Basic 6 and Earlier              : 1.52%
      C#                                      : 0.51%
      Office Development                      : 0.51%
      General Developer Forum                 : 0.51%
      Maths Forum                             : 0.51%

------------------------------------------------------------
dilettante      : 4.95%
------------------------------------------------------------
      Visual Basic 6 and Earlier              : 59.38%
      General Discussion / Chit Chat          : 29.38%
      World Events                            : 9.38%
      UtilityBank - Components                : 1.25%
      General Developer Forum                 : 0.63%

------------------------------------------------------------
jmcilhinney     : 3.74%
------------------------------------------------------------
      Visual Basic .NET                       : 64.46%
      Database Development                    : 7.44%
      Forum Test Area                         : 5.79%
      WPF, WCF, WF                            : 4.96%
      C#                                      : 4.13%
      Visual Basic 6 and Earlier              : 4.13%
      Application Deployment                  : 2.48%
      General Discussion / Chit Chat          : 2.48%
      General Developer Forum                 : 1.65%
      World Events                            : 1.65%
      ASP.NET And ASP.NET Core                : 0.83%

------------------------------------------------------------
argen           : 2.94%
------------------------------------------------------------
      Visual Basic 6 and Earlier              : 98.95%
      General PC                              : 1.05%

------------------------------------------------------------
Peter Porter    : 2.81%
------------------------------------------------------------
      General Discussion / Chit Chat          : 61.54%
      Visual Basic .NET                       : 32.97%
      Visual Basic 6 and Earlier              : 3.30%
      CodeBank - Visual Basic .NET            : 1.10%
      World Events                            : 1.10%

------------------------------------------------------------
gaouser         : 2.53%
------------------------------------------------------------
      Visual Basic .NET                       : 37.80%
      Visual Basic 6 and Earlier              : 21.95%
      General Discussion / Chit Chat          : 18.29%
      Forum Test Area                         : 9.76%
      Other Programming Languages             : 6.10%
      CodeBank - Visual Basic .NET            : 2.44%
      Game Demos                              : 2.44%
      CodeBank - Visual Basic 6 and earlier   : 1.22%

------------------------------------------------------------
dday9           : 2.47%
------------------------------------------------------------
      General Discussion / Chit Chat          : 53.75%
      Visual Basic .NET                       : 36.25%
      Visual Basic 6 and Earlier              : 6.25%
      CodeBank - Visual Basic .NET            : 2.50%
      C#                                      : 1.25%

------------------------------------------------------------
techgnome       : 2.35%
------------------------------------------------------------
      Visual Basic 6 and Earlier              : 32.89%
      Visual Basic .NET                       : 31.58%
      General Discussion / Chit Chat          : 11.84%
      World Events                            : 5.26%
      Other BASIC                             : 5.26%
      Database Development                    : 3.95%
      C#                                      : 2.63%
      CodeBank - Visual Basic 6 and earlier   : 2.63%
      Office Development                      : 1.32%
      XML, HTML, Javascript, Web and CSS      : 1.32%
      WPF, WCF, WF                            : 1.32%

------------------------------------------------------------
Zvoni           : 2.04%
------------------------------------------------------------
      Visual Basic 6 and Earlier              : 57.58%
      Database Development                    : 28.79%
      Office Development                      : 12.12%
      Visual Basic .NET                       : 1.52%

------------------------------------------------------------
baka            : 1.98%
------------------------------------------------------------
      Visual Basic 6 and Earlier              : 98.44%
      CodeBank - Visual Basic 6 and earlier   : 1.56%

------------------------------------------------------------
wqweto          : 1.89%
------------------------------------------------------------
      Visual Basic 6 and Earlier              : 73.77%
      Database Development                    : 16.39%
      Other BASIC                             : 3.28%
      Office Development                      : 3.28%
      General PC                              : 1.64%
      CodeBank - Visual Basic 6 and earlier   : 1.64%

------------------------------------------------------------
Arnoutdv        : 1.89%
------------------------------------------------------------
      Visual Basic 6 and Earlier              : 40.98%
      Visual Basic .NET                       : 16.39%
      Other Programming Languages             : 13.11%
      Office Development                      : 8.20%
      CodeBank - Visual Basic 6 and earlier   : 4.92%
      Forum Test Area                         : 4.92%
      General PC                              : 4.92%
      Other BASIC                             : 1.64%
      Games and Graphics Programming          : 1.64%
      Database Development                    : 1.64%
      General Discussion / Chit Chat          : 1.64%

------------------------------------------------------------
SearchingDataOnly : 1.85%
------------------------------------------------------------
      Visual Basic 6 and Earlier              : 66.67%
      World Events                            : 8.33%
      Visual Basic .NET                       : 8.33%
      General Discussion / Chit Chat          : 6.67%
      CodeBank - Visual Basic 6 and earlier   : 5.00%
      Other BASIC                             : 5.00%

------------------------------------------------------------
TysonLPrice     : 1.82%
------------------------------------------------------------
      General Discussion / Chit Chat          : 55.93%
      World Events                            : 18.64%
      Visual Basic .NET                       : 10.17%
      Visual Basic 6 and Earlier              : 8.47%
      Database Development                    : 5.08%
      Office Development                      : 1.69%

------------------------------------------------------------
wes4dbt         : 1.79%
------------------------------------------------------------
      General Discussion / Chit Chat          : 56.90%
      World Events                            : 20.69%
      Database Development                    : 8.62%
      Visual Basic .NET                       : 6.90%
      General Developer Forum                 : 6.90%

------------------------------------------------------------
fafalone        : 1.73%
------------------------------------------------------------
      Visual Basic 6 and Earlier              : 82.14%
      CodeBank - Visual Basic 6 and earlier   : 16.07%
      General PC                              : 1.79%

------------------------------------------------------------
yereverluvinuncleber : 1.55%
------------------------------------------------------------
      Visual Basic 6 and Earlier              : 54.00%
      Other BASIC                             : 20.00%
      CodeBank - Visual Basic 6 and earlier   : 12.00%
      General Discussion / Chit Chat          : 6.00%
      Forum Test Area                         : 2.00%
      General Developer Forum                 : 2.00%
      Visual Basic .NET                       : 2.00%
      World Events                            : 2.00%

------------------------------------------------------------
Elroy           : 1.39%
------------------------------------------------------------
      Visual Basic 6 and Earlier              : 95.56%
      CodeBank - Visual Basic 6 and earlier   : 4.44%

------------------------------------------------------------
pmeloy          : 1.33%
------------------------------------------------------------
      Database Development                    : 39.53%
      Visual Basic .NET                       : 34.88%
      WPF, WCF, WF                            : 25.58%

------------------------------------------------------------
SamOscarBrown   : 1.30%
------------------------------------------------------------
      Visual Basic 6 and Earlier              : 90.48%
      General PC                              : 9.52%

------------------------------------------------------------
Schmidt         : 1.27%
------------------------------------------------------------
      Visual Basic 6 and Earlier              : 78.05%
      CodeBank - Visual Basic 6 and earlier   : 19.51%
      Maths Forum                             : 2.44%

------------------------------------------------------------
johnywalker     : 1.27%
------------------------------------------------------------
      Visual Basic 6 and Earlier              : 100.00%

------------------------------------------------------------
OptionBase1     : 1.24%
------------------------------------------------------------
      Visual Basic 6 and Earlier              : 37.50%
      World Events                            : 37.50%
      Visual Basic .NET                       : 12.50%
      C#                                      : 5.00%
      Office Development                      : 5.00%
      General Discussion / Chit Chat          : 2.50%

------------------------------------------------------------
sapator         : 1.14%
------------------------------------------------------------
      World Events                            : 37.84%
      General Discussion / Chit Chat          : 21.62%
      Visual Basic .NET                       : 10.81%
      Other Programming Languages             : 8.11%
      Database Development                    : 8.11%
      General PC                              : 8.11%
      XML, HTML, Javascript, Web and CSS      : 5.41%

------------------------------------------------------------
.paul.          : 1.11%
------------------------------------------------------------
      Visual Basic .NET                       : 97.22%
      Other Programming Languages             : 2.78%

------------------------------------------------------------
PlausiblyDamp   : 1.08%
------------------------------------------------------------
      Visual Basic 6 and Earlier              : 54.29%
      Visual Basic .NET                       : 37.14%
      General Discussion / Chit Chat          : 5.71%
      CodeBank - Visual Basic 6 and earlier   : 2.86%

At the top is the percentage of all posts that belong the user. Below that are how each member's posts are distributed among each section. For example, Shaggy's comes in second place making up 6.09% of all posts and the majority of his posts are in Chit-Chat topping out at 57.36%

This data was collected by processing 114 pages of the "What's new" section. The data was truncated at any member contributing less than 1% to the total posts.

I was actually surprised by the results here. I expected jmcilhinney to be at the top since he is the most prolific poster on these boards instead it seems that I have been posting the most for quite some time. The oldest post is dated May 19th, 2022 so since that date I have posted the most on these boards......Damn I need a life

I also updated the OP with a link to the updated program.

**Shaggy Hiker** · Jun 19th, 2022, 06:52 PM

Originally Posted by Niya

Too late, I'm already in the process of doing it. This the output from testing of an as of yet unpolished version:-

I would expect that you know that the number of posts per thread is already available, so are you looking at posts per forum?

**Niya** · Jun 19th, 2022, 07:37 PM

Originally Posted by Shaggy Hiker

I would expect that you know that the number of posts per thread is already available, so are you looking at posts per forum?

That is useless in this case because I also need to know who is posting. I was already parsing the "What's new" section which has this data so it wasn't a very far leap to also collect data on who was posting and where they were posting. All I have to do is collect that data and put some LINQ on it.

**Jacob Roman** · Jun 19th, 2022, 08:35 PM

So what you are saying is that VB6 and Chit Chat are the only things keeping VBForums alive?

**Niya** · Jun 19th, 2022, 09:03 PM

VB6, then VB.Net, then Chit Chat, in that order

**dilettante** · Jun 19th, 2022, 09:07 PM

Originally Posted by Jacob Roman

So what you are saying is that VB6 and Chit Chat are the only things keeping VBForums alive?

A little scary.

Not so much for those as the idea that so many forum sites are on the verge of collapse after we've already lost so many in the last decade.

While people can get raspy or irascible here it is still far better than the toxic pools festering elsewhere on the web like general social media sites. I'd hate to see people get pulled into the gateway sites and then the extremist sites they lead to. Twitter, Facebook, Quora, Dank Left, 4Chan, Liker, Parler, Sanders Fansters... they're all pretty reprehensible.

Programming forums offer a couple of advantages. For one thing most threads are trying to lead to tangible and constructive goals. Another is that participants can learn about things they care about from each other by sharing information and examples. And setting aside tussles over the "best way" to do this or do that, whether some code works or doesn't work can be objectively demonstrated much of the time. No not perfect by any means, but trending upward rather than downward into pits of despair that can breed negative action.

**Shaggy Hiker** · Jun 20th, 2022, 01:31 PM

Once you add in the average age of this site, it gets a little darker. When I started on this forum, I think I was at, or just a bit above, the median age of the members. I may still be.

**dilettante** · Jun 20th, 2022, 02:43 PM

I know a few people who were into gaming so they had used Discord. Now they have tried moving their other "communities" of people over into Discord "servers" which seems to be goofy slang for "voice chat and messages site" and in many ways a close analog of traditional forum sites though more like Twitter in some ways.

I've found that several groups operate individual YouTube channels, have sites that are storefronts for cheaply customized mugs and clothing, and then a Discard "server" for general communication. YouTube videos and multi-participant livestreams with text chat on the side seem to be the way they grow their communities.

However the result is nothing like a programming forum. It is more about fandom, whether segments fictional genres, space exploration, electrified vehicles, etc. I suppose many are primarily political as well.

Yet it all seems to be very much a "narrowcasting" among relatively small groups.

One I find really funny has a set of "big players" who are all California university professors constantly bragging about their many vehicles and their elevator storage in big garages. They all have Tesla Cybertrucks on order. Of course their main topic is solving the problems of the working class and homeless. As you might imagine, their answers always come down to (1.) free government university tuition, (2.) eliminating the threat of Donald Trump, and (3.) moving the working class into space where there will be lebensraum and opportunity galore. Also unsurprisingly, they teach in aerospace and weapons engineering and something called "nation development and transformation." One even talks about consulting for Raytheon but "can't go into details."

**dilettante** · Jun 21st, 2022, 11:00 AM

Originally Posted by Shaggy Hiker

Once you add in the average age of this site, it gets a little darker. When I started on this forum, I think I was at, or just a bit above, the median age of the members. I may still be.

Despite that (as far as I can recall) we haven't seen discussions on navigating the minefield of filing for Social Security and Medicare in the US, or similar programs elsewhere. Don't even get me started on managing any cash savings, investments, home equity, etc. after retirement.

You'd think those would have reasonably simple guidelines and a limited set of paths to take... to allow the growingly feeble to avoid making really poor decisions. Nope. Decades of suppressed interest rates and now rapidly rising inflation only complicate the decisions.

Those on the verge of retiring are deciding to stay in the game. In an already shrinking job market this puts more pressure on younger programmers previously looking forward to moving up as people retire out. The offshore body shops have already been downsizing rapidly for the past 5 years. Companies are adapting their processes to packaged software now rather than paying for the reverse.

It's like a lot of custom programming has given way to "All restaurants are Taco Bell."

I'm not sure what is more eerie there: Taco Bell taking over or 20th century advertising jingles becoming the popular music.

**wes4dbt** · Jun 21st, 2022, 11:58 AM

You'd think those would have reasonably simple guidelines and a limited set of paths to take... to allow the growingly feeble to avoid making really poor decisions. Nope. Decades of suppressed interest rates and now rapidly rising inflation only complicate the decisions.

That's so true. Your only hope to keep up with inflation, or maybe make a little gain, is to invest in the stock market in some form. As you can see this year, that's risky. I hate having my retirement in the hands of the stock market.

**dilettante** · Jun 21st, 2022, 01:32 PM

I think the way that the whales or high rollers do it requires a good accountant. That way they can siphon off cash when the market runs hot and then as it dips buy back in at low prices. Rinse and repeat, ride the waves.

The accountants are required to finesse short and long term gains taxes and loss deductions to optimize the surfing experience.

That way you can take advantage of near peak and valley levels. You don't have to try to ride right up to major inflection points to make money.

**dday9** · Jun 24th, 2022, 03:53 PM

gaouser is 7th, that's the scariest.

I had noticed that Visual Basic .NET activity has dropped recently. I know that we go through peaks and valleys, but it seems to be a much longer lulls here recently.

**Niya** · Jun 24th, 2022, 04:28 PM

Originally Posted by dday9

gaouser is 7th, that's the scariest.

Isn't he determined to get the most posts or something like that?

Originally Posted by dday9

I had noticed that Visual Basic .NET activity has dropped recently. I know that we go through peaks and valleys, but it seems to be a much longer lulls here recently.

I can't write a program to test this one but I believe it's because VB.Net is dying in favor of C# becoming the dominant .Net language. I honestly can't say I blame those jumping ship. I keep up with what's going on in C# from time to time and I've seen some C# features that would turn VB.Net programmers green with envy. C# has a much sharper learning curve than VB.Net but you could write some truly beautiful code in C# once you get to know it.

**dday9** · Jun 24th, 2022, 04:42 PM

One thing I recently found out that you can do in C# but not as elegantly in Visual Basic .NET is this incrementing variables inline, e.g.

Code:

var parameterIndex = 0;
// filters is Dictionary<string, dynamic>
if (filters.ContainsKey("my super cool filter"))
{
    // whereClause is List<string> and parameters is List<dynamic>
    whereClause.Add($" MyTable.MyColumn = @{parameterIndex++} ");
    parameters.Add(filters["my super cool filter"]);
}

Edit - I think this is the equivalent of parameterIndex++:

Code:

Math.Min(Threading.Interlocked.Increment(parameterIndex), parameterIndex - 1)

**dday9** · Jun 24th, 2022, 04:45 PM

Then again, Visual Basic has the XML literals which are very useful:

Code:

Dim foo = <xml>
              <something></something>
          </xml>

**sapator** · Jun 24th, 2022, 04:46 PM

I can't agree to that.
I really don't like C# and I'm forced to used it on and off for the last 15 years.
Of course one can say that I don't know how to use the features properly and I can agree to that, maybe some features have been added lately but when the tide was 50-50 it was utter rubbish to even think of using C# . For example GetType() . I was trying to convert from VB to C# but whatever I tried did not work.
I admit I thought to post on the C# section but then I used the .name so that sorted things out with a rather harsh way. A couple of words that cannot be spoken and I moved on on a upper case issue, some more words and some brackets later, it's weekend and I'm going for swimming an my first beers since October (although the price has gone 15% up on beverages)!
The good news is that we are possibly merging with an even bigger company that has dedicated programmers so I will be programming C# less and do SQL more.

**dilettante** · Jun 24th, 2022, 04:46 PM

I'm not sure why because I see nothing compelling about it and a lot to dislike, but Python seems to be soaking up a lot of adherents in recent years.

I imagine two rich old guys who control university boards and faculty around the globe making a bet with other of $1 over whether people can be swayed against their best interests or are too savvy deep down to blindly drink the kool-aid dispensed to them.

**Niya** · Jun 24th, 2022, 05:04 PM

Originally Posted by dday9

One thing I recently found out that you can do in C# but not as elegantly in Visual Basic .NET is this incrementing variables inline, e.g.

Code:

var parameterIndex = 0;
// filters is Dictionary<string, dynamic>
if (filters.ContainsKey("my super cool filter"))
{
    // whereClause is List<string> and parameters is List<dynamic>
    whereClause.Add($" MyTable.MyColumn = @{parameterIndex++} ");
    parameters.Add(filters["my super cool filter"]);
}

Edit - I think this is the equivalent of parameterIndex++:

Code:

Math.Min(Threading.Interlocked.Increment(parameterIndex), parameterIndex - 1)

That is inherited from C and it's a pretty ancient as far as C features go. But yea, there are quite a few things like that inherited from C and C++ that make the language more terse. One of my favorites is this:-

Code:

public int Add(int a, int b) { return a + b; }

An entire function can be declared in a single line, something that you cannot do in VB.Net:-

Code:

    Public Function Add(a As Integer, b As Integer) As Integer
        Return a + b
    End Function

That's as good as it gets in VB.Net. You really feel it when you have a bunch of tiny functions in a class and looks bloated while in C# it looks neat:-

VB.Net

Code:

    Public Function Add(a As Integer, b As Integer) As Integer
        Return a + b
    End Function

    Public Function Subtract(a As Integer, b As Integer) As Integer
        Return a - b
    End Function

    Public Function Mul(a As Integer, b As Integer) As Integer
        Return a * b
    End Function

    Public Function Div(a As Integer, b As Integer) As Integer
        Return a / b
    End Function

C#

Code:

        public int Add(int a, int b) { return a + b; }

        public int Subtract(int a, int b) { return a - b; }

        public int Mul(int a, int b) { return a * b; }

        public int Div(int a, int b) { return a / b; }

It's pretty obvious which of those is easier to read.

**peterst** · Jun 24th, 2022, 05:27 PM

C# Code:

public int Add(int a, int b) => a + b;
 
public int Subtract(int a, int b) => a - b;
 
public int Mul(int a, int b) => a * b;
 
public int Div(int a, int b) => a / b;

**Niya** · Jun 24th, 2022, 05:34 PM

Originally Posted by dilettante

I'm not sure why because I see nothing compelling about it and a lot to dislike, but Python seems to be soaking up a lot of adherents in recent years.

I imagine two rich old guys who control university boards and faculty around the globe making a bet with other of $1 over whether people can be swayed against their best interests or are too savvy deep down to blindly drink the kool-aid dispensed to them.

Not so fast. I really had no love for Python when I first learned about it but I have to admit my opinions have been softened quite a bit over time.

Python is very very good for quickly prototyping minor stuff that you want to share with others. The program I wrote for this very thread is the perfect example of this. As a matter of fact, I almost wrote it in Python. The only reason I didn't is because I'm just way more familiar with .Net than I am with Python. It would have taken too long. I can read and understand Python but I'm not familiar enough with it to know how to make HTTP requests, parse it and crunch the data to produce the results. I already know how to do all that stuff in .Net.

Anyways, Python allows you to very quickly churn out little programs like this and share with other people because mainly because you can be about 95% certain that no matter who copies it, they would get it to run with no changes. None of you know this because I haven't said anything but when I was writing the .Net code for this thread, I had to spend a great deal of time sanitizing it for it to work in .Net Fiddle because of difference between the compilers and versioning issues with the Framework. In Python, none of this would have been a concern. Some guy deep in a basement somewhere in a Alaska running an old Linux build on a Pentium II would have most likely been able to run my code unchanged. Python just runs and it runs everywhere and unlike JavaScript, Python is beginner friendly. It's very easy for people to follow along without ever having written a single line of Python. I think these are the reasons for it's massive success.

On the flip side, I would not recommend writing enterprise level software with it. Some people have done it though. I think that is insanity but that's another discussion entirely.

**dday9** · Jun 24th, 2022, 05:36 PM

Any language that depends on indented whitespace is a hard no for me.

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