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[szlamany]

I feel this is on topic

People who write the kind of project I'm thinking of need it to work for 20 years. The kind of people excited about C#'s progression towards a functional language tend to think in terms of 2 years, and are open to full rewrites if they manage to create a mess they can't clean up.

20-year programmers need to learn a process that works and works forever. They can't be updating the codebase constantly. They've got more 20-year systems to write. The targets they're chasing move, but rarely move quickly.

2-year programmers are so used to seat-of-their-pants they aren't averse to rewriting the application if a sea change happens. The targets they're chasing often disappear before they hit it.

I know we have some steady job folk here on the forum - kareninstructor comes to mind - doing some kind of state job in Oregon. TG just changed jobs. Shaggy codes for fish!

I'm a contract programmer - ISV - my jobs are all over the place.

I did a gig at Sealed Air fixing Y2K problems in old COBOL LOB software (where I first learned EDI) - without that bubble wrap you wouldn't be shipping much yourself

I did a gig at Anthem BC/BS - more COBOL.

Did I tell you I don't know COBOL?

At Sealed Air they made me work on a data mining app that used DIBOL - some odd FORTRAN'y like language.

Did I tell you I didn't know DIBOL?

I've written pocket PC app's in VB - that hardware barely had a two year lifespan.

I've written WPF proof-of-concept code in C# - just because the temp I hired preferred it and the APress book I had was C#.

I've written Android code in that odd Java-like language Eclipse uses. And I now write more JavaScript then anything else!

It's not all 2 year vs. 20 year programmers - so it doesn't all turn into C#-youth vs. VB-geriatrics. Boxes man - boxes - I don't need no stinkin' boxes...

Coming from the mini-computer world 20 years ago - coming into the PC world - I was shocked at the hobby like nature of VB6. I was used to Digital VAX's with a 30 manual heavily documented sys lib / api stuff.

Since I coded BASIC prior - and .Net was way too new - I migrated my clients to the VB6 world. All in all it did the job 100% to the level it needed to.

With the advent of .Net - MS has given huge legs to the future of the BASIC syntax. Finally a library that gives full access to the API at your fingertips.

My experiences with ASP.Net eight years ago could have led me to a completely different backend (PHP?) for my current web app - but I saw the power of the .Net library. And the path of least resistance was to stick with BASIC for my backend CRUD code.

I've seen you point out all the syntax sugar that VB now has that mirrors C# - with that said aren't the two languages basically the same?

I don't think any of that was your "weird technical stuff". I tend to not group people if I can help it - lots of individuals here with lots of different experience levels in both coding and problem solving. Some college learned - some self taught - some individuals - some workers-in-cubicles.

We must all have BASIC in common or we would not even be on this site.