Drop VB ?

[Paul Warren]

This is a hard decision but one that must be taken by all of us shortly. Will you stick with VB.Net ( VB 7 ) or drop it and use a language like C#/C++/etc ? If you've seen the changes that are coming you'll know that there's very little chance of your existing code working under the new version. It's all to do with compatibility with C# and the .net framework and it spells a major headache for anyone who supports VB 3,4,5,6 app.'s.

It looks to me like MS are trying to force people to drop VB in favour of C# and .net technologies and I've got to admit I'm tempted. I've made the decision to drop VB at the end of the year and concentrate on another language although I haven't decided which.

It's a sorry state of affairs but I don't want to be involved with the mess that VB is about to become.

What do the rest of you think ?

I was born with VB, And i will die with VB. i see VB as my mother languest.
I know C/C++ and C# and Java. But i love VB more then any other languest on the market.

[André]

VB is the the language with the most programmers world wide. MS will NOT let VB die, on the contrary, VB is growing and improving VB7 will be great.

You need another language? why not try VB7?

Enjoy life
André

[Paul Warren]

André,

I'm sorry to tell you this but MS don't seem to want you to use VB. They're trying to tell us that C# does everything better and is just as easy to use. Basically they've sided with the C++ boys and also because Windows is written in C variations they're pushing C# not VB. I agree, it is a real shame because VB is a great language and development tool but MS are undermining the developers with the next release. They've said that they have not considered compatibility with previous releases when designing the new version. This means that all those applications out their will have to be redesigned, not just tweaked.

For example the Long datatype becomes an Integer and an Integer becomes a Short. How would this affect your code ?

[André]

Well, that's scary.
Last I heard, at Tech Ed Amsterdam, they presented VB7 and assured everyone that MS was committed to improve and support the language.
The improvements on VB/ put VB closer to Java and C# due to new object oriented capabilities, and yes some changes are needed.
About compatibility, hmmmm you're right its a headache.

André

[crispin]

If you're interested in the changes in VB then check out the group at news.devx.com, its vb.vb7. There you'll find the occasional post from Ari Brixhorn the new MS VB7 Project manager, and most of the VB MVPs battling it out over these changes - it makes for interesting reading (for a while anyway). I'm not in any way trying to get people to hit devx, it's just interesting and about as close to information regarding the development of the product is i have managed to get...

[ExcalibursZone]

Personally, I see no problems with moving to VB7. It finally gains quite a bit of functionality I've wanted in it since the beginning. I am going to go to VB7. C# is being hyped right now mainly as a way to kill off JAVA as the dominant internet programming language. That's how I see it. MS would be very foolish to discontinue VB considering the sheer amount of people who use it.

With the vast improvements being made in VB (and Visual Studio for that matter) it was only a matter of time before VB's functionality was increased to a point where the old terminologies and coding conventions would change to continue the ease of use that VB has always offered. Personally, if this means that backwards compatibility has to suffer, then that's an acceptible loss. I'm sure the runtimes will support the previous versions of VB (if there will be any runtimes for VB7, in which case your previous runtimes will still work) without a problem. Converting will be a pain, but how many people complained from VB2 to 3 to 4 to 5 then to 6?

Well, anyway, the High and the Low of it? I'm not dropping VB any time soon. I'll add other languages for paycheck profitability, but my language of choice is VB

[André]

I agree!!!

Have a great weekend everyone!!

André

[André]

Hi Paul look at this:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/de...tovbdotnet.htm

Cheers André

[ender_pete]

well its kind of a given with the amount of changes/improvments they are making to vb that there will be compatibility problems. ive been working with vb since
vb3 when i was a teenager and ive grown up through the changes they have made to vb. but the sacrfices of adjusting to the new, benefits you with the rewards of growth and power. ive read all the prospected capabilities of vb7/net and i for one can't wait for it to come out.
microsoft is pushing c# more because thats where the challenge for them is, java is very widley used an accepted.
its hard to get programmers to drop a language they are good at and like. microsoft isnt worried about anyone dropping vb cause it is so widley used, they know the support for vb is already there. there are so many programmers that live and die by vb that it will probably never go away. so microsoft knows that they will have plenty of support for vb7, thus no need to push it hard.
or thats my take... remember microsoft is in it for the money... so they push where there weak...