10 Reasons Why Visual Basic is Better Than C#
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I love VB as a language. I also completely agree with the IntelliSense thing... C# IntelliSense is a disaster if you're used to VB. For example: Typing VB: Dim ex As ExcepR... Oops, backspace, tab and it's there. Typing C#: ExcepR... Oops, backspace, no IntelliSense window pops up, either four times backspace or Shift + Home + Delete/Backspace. If you're lucky you don't have to switch to a new line to get IntelliSense support again! This becomes really very frustrating when you got code like obj.Property1.Property2.Property3... However, one reason NOT to use VB...
Form1.Text = "What the? Since when is Text a Shared/static Property!?"
The answer to that question is: Since VB1. And it's still there for 'backwards compatibility' (the compiler does create an instance though) :) So much for Object Orientism. Another one is the default of Option Strict Off. I've seen 'modern' VB code that used the horrible Form1.Text thing and Option Strict Off... You'll never see that in C#. Of course bad code can be written in both languages and with that philosophy in mind I don't really care which language I write. I just slightly prefer VB for IntelliSense and Event Handling in WinForms (that guy is so right about that!) :)
It's an OO world.
public class Naerling : Lazy<Person>{
public void DoWork(){ throw new NotImplementedException(); }
}I spent a year doing VB.net in Visual Studio and the Intellisense/autocomplete drove me nuts -- it kept deleting stuff I'd already typed. :mad: It never does that with C#.
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Here[^] Now, where was that bulletproof vest? <Takes cover under a fireproof blanket> A bulletproof vest can take at least one 45ACP, right?
Light moves faster than sound. That is why some people appear bright, until you hear them speak. List of common misconceptions
Jörgen Andersson wrote:
Now, where was that bulletproof vest?
I don't think that will be enough. You may consider moving to a deep bunker. About the article: 1 - Of those 10 reasons, mostly are unfounded and gives a pretty good impression that the author is very inexperienced on the subject he's writing about. 2 - For the same reason above, I get goose bumps when I inherit VB.Net code from a VB.Net developer. Not that VB.Net developers are inherently inexperienced, but I see far more bad VB.Net code than bad C# code. 3 - I'd say there are a hundred reasons why C# is better than VB.Net.
"To alcohol! The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems" - Homer Simpson "Our heads are round so our thoughts can change direction." ― Francis Picabia
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s = ((string) o).Trim()There are the extra parentheses mentioned by me above.
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I sincerely hope checked and the article is satire. If it isn't, the guy's I wrote the following because I'm an idiot: 1. Writing software well is a matter of attention to details. If you can't be arsed to even get the name of something right, you're probably going to screw up more important things. 2. If you're going to criticize a language, at least get your examples right. His C# code doesn't duplicate the logic in his VB. 3. Learn how your IDE works, moron. I can assign events in my C# code any time I like, and I'm using VS2008. 4. These are operators, which I would expect to be concise. Can you imagine writing this:
proportion = openquantity openquantity a addto b addto c addto d closequantity dividedby e closequantity multipliedby 100
instead of
proportion = ((a + b + c + d) / e) * 100
Secondly, programming is symbol manipulation. As in my response to #1, if you can't get this right, there are a whole bunch of other things you won't get right. 5. Sigh. Snippets in the IDE. The guy's like a carpenter who has to be told how to use a hammer every morning. 6. They's in the bloody CLR library. In 30 years of programming, not once have I needed to use the mortgage payment function. As far as 'is number' goes, I do localized applications. The library functions for validating localized numbers are usually inept. The .NET versions are actually pretty good, from what I've seen. They seem to work well for common number formats found in the U.S., Europe, and Asia. 7. VB's line continuation character is as annoying as Pascal's use of the semicolon as a statement separator. It's a special case you have to remember all of the time. At least with the C-style languages, you just put the semicolon at the end of every statement. Period. 8. To-may-toe, To-mah-toe. 9. VB encourages you to be sloppy. Once again, point #1. 10. C# gives you a whole lot more control over data structure transformations. With a language that encourages sloppiness, I wouldn't expect it to handle this kind of thing in a fashion that performed well.
Software Zen:
delete this;Gary Wheeler wrote:
you just put the semicolon at the end of every statement. Period.
Even after a compound statement? :-D
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s = ((string) o).Trim()Anyway, it can be more interesting, defeating intellisense a bit longer: int _ownerid = ((dsApartmentHouse.OwnerLookupRow)((DataRowView)OwnerLookupBindingSource.Current).Row).OwnerId;
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Gary Wheeler wrote:
you just put the semicolon at the end of every statement. Period.
Even after a compound statement? :-D
Sigh. I thought I felt a petard-wedgie coming on. Well, at least it's harmless if you do.
Software Zen:
delete this; -
Actually that was the reason I rejected learning c# when .net first came out. Intellisense now makes the issue irrelevant but a VB dev loathes the fact that the IDE does not format the variable name after typing, it is a form of validation that was very useful.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity RAH
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True, but it's my most used feature of my most used IDE. And this feature works for VB, but doesn't (or at least not good enough to my taste) for C# :)
It's an OO world.
public class Naerling : Lazy<Person>{
public void DoWork(){ throw new NotImplementedException(); }
}Naerling wrote:
And this feature works for VB, but doesn't (or at least not good enough to my taste) for C# :)
I have exactly the opposite opinion.
"To alcohol! The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems" - Homer Simpson "Our heads are round so our thoughts can change direction." ― Francis Picabia
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I do love the fact that a bunch of developers including myself read this article and took it seriously, but upon reading it again I noticed this at the top of the article. Andy ‘Wise Owl’ Brown decided to write a tongue-in-cheek rant whilst he could still remember the pain-points.
Lobster Thermidor aux crevettes with a Mornay sauce, served in a Provençale manner with shallots and aubergines, garnished with truffle pate, brandy and a fried egg on top and Spam - Monty Python Spam Sketch
I'm glad someone noticed. :thumbsup: The reaction from most people in the forum is actually quite worrying
Light moves faster than sound. That is why some people appear bright, until you hear them speak. List of common misconceptions
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I sincerely hope checked and the article is satire. If it isn't, the guy's I wrote the following because I'm an idiot: 1. Writing software well is a matter of attention to details. If you can't be arsed to even get the name of something right, you're probably going to screw up more important things. 2. If you're going to criticize a language, at least get your examples right. His C# code doesn't duplicate the logic in his VB. 3. Learn how your IDE works, moron. I can assign events in my C# code any time I like, and I'm using VS2008. 4. These are operators, which I would expect to be concise. Can you imagine writing this:
proportion = openquantity openquantity a addto b addto c addto d closequantity dividedby e closequantity multipliedby 100
instead of
proportion = ((a + b + c + d) / e) * 100
Secondly, programming is symbol manipulation. As in my response to #1, if you can't get this right, there are a whole bunch of other things you won't get right. 5. Sigh. Snippets in the IDE. The guy's like a carpenter who has to be told how to use a hammer every morning. 6. They's in the bloody CLR library. In 30 years of programming, not once have I needed to use the mortgage payment function. As far as 'is number' goes, I do localized applications. The library functions for validating localized numbers are usually inept. The .NET versions are actually pretty good, from what I've seen. They seem to work well for common number formats found in the U.S., Europe, and Asia. 7. VB's line continuation character is as annoying as Pascal's use of the semicolon as a statement separator. It's a special case you have to remember all of the time. At least with the C-style languages, you just put the semicolon at the end of every statement. Period. 8. To-may-toe, To-mah-toe. 9. VB encourages you to be sloppy. Once again, point #1. 10. C# gives you a whole lot more control over data structure transformations. With a language that encourages sloppiness, I wouldn't expect it to handle this kind of thing in a fashion that performed well.
Software Zen:
delete this;Gary Wheeler wrote:
I sincerely hope checked and the article is satire. If it isn't, the guy's I wrote the following because I'm an idiot:
That just earned you a five.:thumbsup: But it means that you're in a minority in this forum. :sigh:
Light moves faster than sound. That is why some people appear bright, until you hear them speak. List of common misconceptions
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What really matters is getting paid. If I get paid the same amount per hour either way to use C# or VB, then I'll keep my preferences (C#) to myself and give the client his money's worth.
When posting here, I do not represent anybody but myself.
Matthew Graybosch wrote:
If I get paid the same amount per hour either way to use C# or VB, then I'll keep my preferences (C#) to myself and give the client his money's worth.
What you get paid has nothing to do with the quality of the work, the difficulty involved or anything else. It has everything to do with how good a salesman you are and how dumb the customer is. I had a friend who was able to bill dBase IV programmers at $120 an hour (in 1996) to generate sales analysis reports. At the same time, my friend with a PhD in Computer Science was eking out $50 an hour from iCompany for writing communications code in C. And every quarter, iCompany would produce record profits and promptly cut his rate to $35 so that the next quarter's results would look even better. Do you get $120 an hour for C#? :-D PS. The story is even better. The guy who was doing dBase IV programming sold essentially the same system (with very minor modifications) to 7 different companies in Silicon Valley and so his billing rate was about 7 x $120 ($840) an hour because be billed every company all the development time for the software.
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>> VB syntax smells horribly Amen to that! Since my last job, maintaining a legacy VB6 app, and a very sloppy one at that, I've not even touched a line of VB code, .NET or otherwise, and I'm a happier camper for it. That was almost 3-years ago and I've never looked back.
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Anything is more useful than the (type)object of C# beyond the most basic typecasting. Delphi's type(object) and VB's CType(object,type) leaves us something that can be followed by a dot at least.
You can use the as operator:
object a = "test";
(a as string).Trim(); -
I've worked extensively with both. I prefer C# because of my years working with brace-based languages. However, the snobbery that real C# enthusiasts exhibit toward VB.NET programmers is also misplaced in my opinion.
_beauw_ wrote:
However, the snobbery that real C# enthusiasts exhibit toward VB.NET programmers is also misplaced in my opinion.
I agree, various dialects of BASIC, including VB, paid my bills for several decades. That said, I've viewed VB.NET as an abortion, bringing the worse attributes of VB across the divide and few or the advantages. You are talking to the same objects, just with different control structures. I found C# a bit more concise,
int i=0;
vs.
Dim i as Integer = 0
I remember when Dim meant Dimension Array, not Define Variable Type (and maybe declare it an array) that MS gerrymandered into the language. I do miss For...Next, you immediately knew what the control variable was, where it starts, ends, and increments. I hate C's
for(maybe I'll declare a control variable;something that equates to true or false;maybe I'll increment the correct variable)
I've dealt with too many coders who thought that since they code something too clever for words (and many times themselves) who have not followed the convention because the compiler did not force them to. I made the decision that my team's development language would be C#.NET instead of VB.NET, and I HATE C, but C#.NET was OK.
Psychosis at 10 Film at 11 Those who do not remember the past, are doomed to repeat it. Those who do not remember the past, cannot build upon it.
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Here[^] Now, where was that bulletproof vest? <Takes cover under a fireproof blanket> A bulletproof vest can take at least one 45ACP, right?
Light moves faster than sound. That is why some people appear bright, until you hear them speak. List of common misconceptions
I write in both VB.NET and C#. When I want to do something fast, I usually pick VB because some of the features (like the Select Case statement vs. the Switch statement) allow a lot of logic to be written quickly. When I need to engineer something carefully, especially what I call "graduate-school algorithms", I usually choose C# because I still think in C. As to which is a "better" language, well, I leave that to the rest of you nutbags my fellow developers with stronger opinions ;)
"It's not what you don't know that will hurt you the most, it's what you think you know that isn't so." - Unknown
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For 2. he says that "It’s easy to forget to type in each of these Break statements!" conveniently ignoring that C# Compiler gives you an error saying that Control cannot fall through from one case label to another...
A year spent in artificial intelligence is enough to make one believe in God
Then why do you have to type them in at all?
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case-sensitivity alone is sufficient reason to ditch C#!
If he meant it seriously, then he's a complete moron.
Mladen Jankovic wrote:
If he meant it seriously, then he's a complete moron.
Really? I'm no moron, but I understand the irritation he feels. If you're doing fast prototyping and rapid incremental maintenance without good Intellisense support, case sensitivity is another distraction. Now, don't get on your high horse, because I did cut my professional teeth on C, the K&R kind that gave no quarter, and I was quite accustomed to taking great care with the use of case. I don't know that this offered me any advantages. I don't know that you were challenging his dislike of case sensitivity, or just the importance he placed on it, so I thought I'd ask: Is case sensitivity in the language itself a valuable feature? If so, why?
"It's not what you don't know that will hurt you the most, it's what you think you know that isn't so." - Unknown
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VB has both is and output parameters...
Why can't I be applicable like John? - Me, April 2011
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Beidh ceol, caint agus craic againn - Seán Bán Breathnach
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Da mihi sis crustum Etruscum cum omnibus in eo!
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Just because a thing is new don’t mean that it’s better - Will Rogers, September 4, 1932I think it has ref parameters, but not out parameters. Or, it doesn't differentiate between them the way C# does. In C#, a ref parameter must be initialized before being passed to the method, and an out parameter need not be initialized, and the out parameter must be assigned a value in the method. I don't think VB.net has a way to indicate that a parameter must be assigned a value in the method.
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I've worked extensively with both. I prefer C# because of my years working with brace-based languages. However, the snobbery that real C# enthusiasts exhibit toward VB.NET programmers is also misplaced in my opinion.
_beauw_ wrote:
I've worked extensively with both. I prefer C# because of my years working with brace-based languages. However, the snobbery that real C# enthusiasts exhibit toward VB.NET programmers is also misplaced in my opinion.
I've worked extensively with both, as well, and I went through the language wars when it was (just about) everything against C - and I was the C fanatic. At that time, most other language systems did not offer the capabilities of doing as much as C could. Even so, the level of pure vitriol one encountered then (and now, with far less concrete justification for a real advantage between systems) continues to amaze me.
"It's not what you don't know that will hurt you the most, it's what you think you know that isn't so." - Unknown
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See here. I think you are correct that VB.net doesn't quite have out parameters (though it has ref parameters). Conversely, in C# you can't pass an instance by ref as you can in VB.net.
