Frameworks
VSM Reader Survey: Who We Are
Every year we survey our readership to better understand who we're serving, and set the direction of our coverage in VSM and on the VisualStudioMagazine.com Web site.
What did we learn this year? We already knew that our readers are experienced working programmers (79 percent with 10-plus years on the job) engaged with a wide range of programming platforms, languages and frameworks. On the language front, 46 percent of surveyed readers reported working primarily in C#, while 26 percent said their first language is VB.NET. Nine percent rely most on C/C++, while only 4 percent work mainly with native Visual Basic 6 (or earlier).
When it comes to tools and platforms, some interesting things came to light. For instance, 64 percent of respondents reported already working with Visual Studio 2010 -- more than those who use Visual Studio 2008 or Visual Studio 2005. Also interesting was the prevalence of Web development: 66 percent of respondents work with ASP.NET. However, only 34 percent reported working with Silverlight.
We also asked readers to tell us what specific topic interested them most in 2011. Two topics drew higher levels of interest than all others: Microsoft development tools/frameworks and programming languages. Behind those we found a second tier of interest in Web development and data-access technologies, followed by a third tier of interest in programming methodologies (including Agile), mobile development and third-party development tools.
Was it a surprise that hot-button topics like Windows Phone 7 and Windows Azure/cloud-based development didn't score higher? Not entirely. I expect these nascent platforms will gain importance over time.
What issues and topics would you most like to see covered in Visual Studio Magazine? E-mail me at [email protected].
About the Author
Michael Desmond is an editor and writer for 1105 Media's Enterprise Computing Group.