Least Among Equals
Is VB treated poorly compared to C#? Readers weigh in.
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Least Among Equals
Patrick Meader posed this question at the end of a recent Editor's Note ("Least Among Equals," April 2008): "Do you think VB is treated as a first-class member of the VB.NET suite? Should it be?"
Should it be? Yes!!! I'm tired of trying to write code and only have C# examples. I find more support from Google than MSDN and SDKs.
Sherrie Stein,
received by e-mail
Meader's Editor's Note on the lack of VB.NET samples reminds me why I switched to using C# in the first place.
I was a VB developer for a number of years. I worked with VB4 through VB6, and I was very excited about the future of the language when .NET was announced. After a short time, it became apparent to me that the numerous "experts" were feverishly lobbying to ensure VB would in fact remain as crippled in the .NET world as it was in version 6.
That was when, for me, the writing on the wall became clear, and I decided it was time to move on to C#. I haven't looked back since. XML literals might be a cool feature, but it's not a practical solution given that XML documents will and should evolve over time.
Brad Raulston
received by e-mail
Software Stagnation
As a former developer and now teacher of Microsoft Office suite for high school students, I understand first-hand how the software experience hasn't improved to the same degree that computer performance has [Editor's Note, "Software Advancements Fail to Keep Pace," March 2008].
My first PC was a Radio Shack Model III because it compiled Pascal and cost only $1,000. The sales department drives innovation because it requires not fewer bugs, but more features. Over time, this creates huge applications that have more power and features than most people will ever need. I haven't upgraded Microsoft Word on my high school kids' computers beyond Word 2000 because there's nothing in Word XP or Word 2003 worth teaching high school kids.
The most negative comments you see about the latest Office suite concern the new UI, which obviously caters to a small minority of users. Marketing survey results where people requested the latest modifications actually caused fewer people to be enticed by Office Vista. Repeat the above for Windows Vista versus Windows XP. What Microsoft should do is offer the old versions at almost no cost, and they'll fly off the shelves.
John Ceneviva
Morrisville, Pa.
posted originally to VisualStudioMagazine.com
About the Author
This story was written or compiled based on feedback from the readers of Visual Studio Magazine.