Future Of VB.NET

[muzammil]

What do you think what is the future of VB.NET as more and more developers are going to adopt Visual C#

[szlamany]

What do you think what is the future of VB.NET as more and more developers are going to adopt Visual C#

I was involved in a "best practices and tools" meeting the other day at a large customer of mine. Thousands of users - with dozens and dozens of applications.

The overall concensus was that the backend tool of choice would be MS SQL SERVER (or MSDE for a single PC app) and VB.Net for the front end. It was discussed how VB.Net has made it so easy to develop a small scale database application - that even ACCESS as a front-end should drop down the list of choices.

We have many users with a VB6 frontend and with mainstream VB6 support ending around 2008, the migration to VB.Net will be starting shortly.

C# or any derivation of it was never even discussed!

[RobDog888]

Since they are both derrived from the same Framework, they both will have their uses where appropriate.
C# handles graphics a little better/faster, but VB.NET is easier to learn (basing this on the
fact that C# is similar to C++).

Also, since they are releasing VS 2005 later this year and its more of an upgrade and not a
completely different language re-write (like they did with VB6 to VB.NET), it should have a decent future.

[Pino]

On that note, are they looking at keeping .NET 'in' fora few more years or is it hard to say?

[szlamany]

On that note, are they looking at keeping .NET 'in' fora few more years or is it hard to say?

What makes you ask this? .Net is what MS has sunk all their eggs into...

The common-runtime - interaction with the new SQL - and on and on and on...

VS 2005 is just a new version of .Net - nothing that replaces it.

[Pino]

What makes you ask this? .Net is what MS has sunk all their eggs into...

The common-runtime - interaction with the new SQL - and on and on and on...

VS 2005 is just a new version of .Net - nothing that replaces it.

what are the compatibility options with the up and comming longhorn? which i perosnally think will be microsofts biggest downfall

[szlamany]

what are the compatibility options with the up and comming longhorn? which i perosnally think will be microsofts biggest downfall

Longhorn seems unavoidable - I hope that MS pulls it off...

Found this on a MS website - seems Longhorn and VS are not ready to talk yet...

No, M7.2 Longhorn does not have a corresponding version of Visual Studio. Neither the PDC release of Visual Studio codenamed Whidbey, nor the latest Visual Studio 2005 community drop, nor even the upcoming Visual Studio 2005 Beta will install or run properly on the M7.2 Longhorn. We're hoping for future Longhorn drops to include the matching Visual Studio bits, but this one doesn't.

Luckily, MSBuild is included along with the compilers, so you can still build Longhorn code under the M7.2 Longhorn using exactly the same back end that Visual Studio 2005 uses.

Whidbey is the code name for the .NET Framework 2.0 and Visual Studio 2005 development tools, incorporating new features such as support for 64-bit platforms. Whidbey is planned for release in 2005.

Will my existing Win32 and .NET apps continue to run under Longhorn without modification?

The goal is that apps written against the documented Win32 APIs and the .NET Framework will absolutely run well without any modifications under Longhorn when it ships.

Chris Sells, MSDN, October 2003 #

This FAQ item is current to the M6 Longhorn release. Please report status updates here.

Will my MS-DOS apps continue to run under Longhorn without modification?

Yes, they will.

Karsten Januszewski, Microsoft, 15 September 2004 #

This FAQ item is current to the M6 Longhorn release. Please report status updates here.

The site was this: MS Longhorn Site

[Valleysboy1978]

what are the compatibility options with the up and comming longhorn? which i perosnally think will be microsofts biggest downfall

They are supposedly having compatability problems with longhorn, but as they are keeping facts tight to their chest this is probably all conjecture so I wouldn't take much notice.

I think Longhorn is going to be Microsoft's downfall, or re-emergence. If they can create a superb OS they will be untouchable, otherwise they will get more and more criticism piled on them and people will stick with the Windows they have

[tr333]

Since they are both derrived from the same Framework, they both will have their uses where appropriate.
C# handles graphics a little better/faster, but VB.NET is easier to learn (basing this on the fact that C# is similar to C++).

if both languages compile into MSIL, how can one be faster than another?

as for the future of .NET, there are open-source alternatives to VisualStudio and even the .NET framework (SharpDevelop and Mono come to mind here) so .NET will not be going away in the near future.

[szlamany]

if both languages compile into MSIL, how can one be faster than another?

Because both languages have a different syntax that is not compiled into the same machine code instructions. The two compilers have unique challenges, presented by these syntax differences, in how to arrive at the most optimized machine code.

[zildjohn01]

can someone tell me some of the discrete differences and strengths between VB.NET and C#.NET? I know both equally well and I'm trying to decide. Is it too much work to code some parts in C# and some parts in VB and interoperate them together, if their strengths are different?

[DWRoelands]

It's virtually impossible to objectively say that one has any advantage over the other. Choose whichever one you feel will make you the most productive. If you have a strong background in Java, then C# is a good choice. If you have a strong VB6 background, then VB.NEt probably makes more sense.

There's no -right- answer, and there's no clear objective standard by which one language can be said to be better than the other. Every comparison of the languages that I have read comes down to subjective evaluations.

I'm probably going to learn C# just so I can have VB.NET and C# in my toolbox.

[StrangerInBeijing]

Here's my 9cents...

I've been using vb6, and then vb.net for a couple of years, nothing else.

So when I was "forced" to learn a more popular language (I was job hunting) and I tried my hand at Java, I really was not having my usual good time learning some new stuff. Anycase, got a job now, and have to learn C# for it. All the years of vb helps me zit! The week of Java helped me stacks though.

So what I'm saying is, got to C#. Once you know it, you can easily learn switch to Java, C++ or whatever circumstances might require. Remember the good of Vb, but leave it behind.

[zildjohn01]

i agree with you both. for the past few weeks i have been working in C# just to get the feel of it. VB.NET did help me, though: it helped me learn about inheritance and interfaces, etc. Anyway I found this in the help file of VS.NET:

Applications made with Visual Basic are built on the services of the common language runtime and take advantage of the .NET Framework.
[...]
Applications written in Visual C# are built on the services of the common language runtime and take full advantage of the .NET Framework.

I am trying to understand what 'full advantage' is in C# and not VB, and if it is anything important that i should become fluent in C# to take advantage of these, or if it does not matter.

[szlamany]

Neat little difference - heh?

I bet the people at MS spent days trying to come up with a way of saying that C# works closer with the framework than VB without putting VB down!

[StrangerInBeijing]

Here's another cent for which some people might hate me..

I think MS did us all a favour (Saying that, also for themselves) having VB.Net, C++.Net, C#.Net, blah blah blah.

The "ideal" solution would have been that when .Net came out, is to scrape support for VB, Java, C++, and make the only language you could use the new C# language. Of course this would have gone with a enourmous amount of objections, pain, etc., but after 10 years or so....who's gonna worry about learning the "right" language?

Of course, if MS went this way, it probably would cut it's own throat.

Anycase, as far I know the "many" languages are available to make the transistion from whatever you used before smooth. For ppl like me (think John too) who came from VB6, went to VB.Net learning about the framework, OOP, etc, and then moving over to C# it's really a smooth process. For most things in life of that complexity you need to go to some kind of training institution, and here we are using only some tutorials we grab somewhere for free.

[muzammil]

Well if we see form jobs point of view the jobs for C# programmers are more then the jobs available for vb.net

If we see http://www.tiobe.com/tpci.htm Index it shows that C# is on number 9 where as vb.net is on 27 far far away from top level.

And if we see MS Longhorn project some people says that most of the parts of Longhorn are coded in C#.

In .NET Docs most of the examples are in C#.

All these facts shows that C# has much bright future then vb.net

[StrangerInBeijing]

Ｉ don't know much about what is used here at MS (I just started this week), but it seems that application development and testing are used in C# exclusively.

Hey, how bout a www.c#forums.com?

[DWRoelands]

And if we see MS Longhorn project some people says that most of the parts of Longhorn are coded in C#.

Longhorn is NOT being written in C#. You can't write an operating system in managed code, because managed code requires an operating system underneath it.

In .NET Docs most of the examples are in C#.

99% of the examples I've ever seen in MSDN documentation have examples for both VB and C#. Therefore, I could say that most of the examples are in VB.

If we see http://www.tiobe.com/tpci.htm Index it shows that C# is on number 9 where as vb.net is on 27 far far away from top level.

That same chart also shows COBOL, LISP, and PASCAL as being higher than VB.Net. By your logic, we should all drop VB.NET and go learn COBOL.



You chose your language. Good for you. Please don't come here and spout misinformation simply to make yourself feel better about your choice.

[StrangerInBeijing]

Hey Muza, seemed you p!$$ed on someone's strawberry's..ha ha ha

[DWRoelands]

Hey Muza, seemed you p!$$ed on someone's strawberry's..ha ha ha

Hardly. If someone had posted equally stupid nonsense in favor of VB, I would have given an identical response.

There are plenty of perfectly valid reasons for someone to choose C# over VB. Muzammil's post didn't have any of them.

[StrangerInBeijing]

No offence mate...Just had a cr@ppy day at work and felt like talking some nonsense

Hey, that surname sounds south african....not?

[DWRoelands]

Belgian. My father was born in Brussels.

[muzammil]

Friends you take my arguments in wrong way.

Shall i submit a notice to admin for abuse ?

i am not providing reasons to adopt C# or degrade vb.net both has same power . i was talking about what i saw here and there these days.

Any way, Lots of Longhorn's parts are created in C# does not means that OS is written in C# it means that the windows components like Mediaplayer, Defrag, Explorer, browser etc.....
I am saying that because in MSDN Mag 70% examples for longhorn are in C#

I show you the tiobe index which shows that vb6 is in much better position then vb.net . Commonly vb6 developers are not taking much interest in adoping vb.net ( they should do that ) where as C# gets Open Source Comunity support as well as java / C / C++ programmers are also taking interest in C#, that's whay C# is in much better position and vb.net is not taking off.

Open Source Projects that i know

Sharp Develop .NET IDE

MONO Project

both are written in C#

Yesterday i saw a new MSDN Center named www.msdn.microsoft.com/coding4fun

there was not even a single line of code was written in vb.net all was in C#