Re: which to learn? C, C#, VB6, VB.Net?

From: alpine (alpine_don'tsendspam_at_mvps.org)
Date: 09/20/04 

Date: Sun, 19 Sep 2004 22:38:36 -0600

On Sun, 19 Sep 2004 21:38:44 -0500, "Larry Serflaten"
<serflaten@usinternet.com> wrote:

>"alpine" <alpine_don'tsendspam@mvps.org> wrote
>
>> So, you agree that they *are* using C based languages internally. Got
>> it! ;-)
>
>Yes, I'd agree 'most' of their .NET work is 'probably' done in C#.
>
>> I see you've also bought into the "spiel" that the marketing
>> department is spewing despite the history of incompatibility with MS's
>> BASIC based languages. Got that too! ;-)
>
>That's no play on words from some marketing guy, its my own opinion
>from understanding how much any managed language relies on the .NET
>framework. MS has no vendetta to break backward compatability just
>to keep BASIC developers on their toes. BASIC has always been a high
>level language, and you'd find different reditions of it from different vendors
>on their different platforms. It is no surprise that a platform change would
>bring about a new version of BASIC. When COM was introduced, guess
>what, the rules changed and so did VB. But that version lasted until the
>next change in the platform, ala .NET.

It's not that they have a "vendetta" against VB, but rather that no
one of importance within the company uses or understands their BASIC
based languages from a *user's* perspective. Thus, when they decide
to make changes to a BASIC dialect, they have no understanding of what
effect it will have on the actual users of the language.

Furthermore, the use of COM within VB had nothing to do with any
breaking changes in the language unless you count the removal of COM
when they created VFred. The changes I believe you are referring to
were actually the change of the String data type to mean Unicode
String in 32 bit versions of VB. Once again, since no one within MS
really understood how VB was being used, because they didn't use it
themselves, they corrupted the String data type instead of creating a
new data type to handle unicode data. After that fiasco, they claimed
that they finally understood where VB developers were coming from and
that such events would never happen again. We believed them and look
where it got us!

>So if MS is adding .NET to their enterprise (SQL) servers and nearly
>everything else under the sun, it is a safe bet they expect that paradgm
>to last a good long while. Those that think software is meant to run
>forever are living in a dream world! <g>
   
They probably do expect the platform to last (until the next big, cool
thing comes along anyway ;-) ) but that doesn't mean that they use or
understand VFred any better than they used or understood VB since they
are, after all, users of C based languages. I fully expect them to
live down to their history the next time they decide to make changes
to their current BASIC based language since, they haven't shown any
real signs that they have any greater understanding or any further
desire to have any greater understanding of the users of their current
BASIC based language, than they have had in the past.

I think it is clear that the only "dream world" around here is
believing the MS claims that they understand and care about the BASIC
community and that community's long term code assets. ;-)

Bryan
____________________________________________________________
New Vision Software "When the going gets weird,"
Bryan Stafford "the weird turn pro."
alpine_don'tsendspam@mvps.org Hunter S. Thompson -
Microsoft MVP-Visual Basic Fear and Loathing in LasVegas

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