So... Is Visual Basic officially dead?
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Well, C# allows a few things which VB doesn't.
And VB has
On Error Resume Nextwhich is a damn good reason for killing it! :-D"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony "Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Clearly, the pinnacle of every VB app ever written right there.
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I'm working for a customer who uses Visual Basic. VB was my first language so I don't mind too much, although after years of C# it feels a bit bloated and archaic at times. I still have another VB project as well, so at least I knew what to expect. It's an old web forms project though, so all in all it's pretty meh X| So anyway, I had to start a new project (not something they do often, they basically have the one monolith) and thought I'd pick a VB project template since that's what the client is using. I have VB templates for WPF, WCF, Console, Library, WinForms and Test projects But as soon as I filter on the more modern project types, like Web, Web API, Cloud, Games or Blazor, I get zero templates. Ended up picking C# instead, as those are readily available. I remember reading Microsoft isn't actively developing VB anymore and I'm pretty sure the earlier version of .NET Core did not support VB. When googling the subject I find a mix of "VB dead" and "VB coming to .NET (Core)", but evidence would suggest it never actually came to .NET (Core). All in all it seems to me like Microsoft pulled the plug or is this wishful thinking?
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VB is among the walking dead of programming languages. Ruby is its sidekick. There's undoubtedly more.
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It's more down to the editors and compilers supporting the language. I could undoubtedly compile my own VB files and run them on .NET 6 (I'm assuming the resulting MSIL will run fine, but it isn't guaranteed as Microsoft seems to have dropped support). However, Visual Studio doesn't support VB projects anymore, so I'd have to do it all manually, which is a pain, and not viable for a professional project. And, as said, it's not VB.NET generating the MSIL, but the compiler, and when Microsoft drops support for that, it could be possible that VB.NET becomes incompatible with newer versions of the framework.
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was it ever alive ? dat it da question.
CI/CD = Continuous Impediment/Continuous Despair
Judging from the amount of VB code that's still around it was very much alive.
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I'm working for a customer who uses Visual Basic. VB was my first language so I don't mind too much, although after years of C# it feels a bit bloated and archaic at times. I still have another VB project as well, so at least I knew what to expect. It's an old web forms project though, so all in all it's pretty meh X| So anyway, I had to start a new project (not something they do often, they basically have the one monolith) and thought I'd pick a VB project template since that's what the client is using. I have VB templates for WPF, WCF, Console, Library, WinForms and Test projects But as soon as I filter on the more modern project types, like Web, Web API, Cloud, Games or Blazor, I get zero templates. Ended up picking C# instead, as those are readily available. I remember reading Microsoft isn't actively developing VB anymore and I'm pretty sure the earlier version of .NET Core did not support VB. When googling the subject I find a mix of "VB dead" and "VB coming to .NET (Core)", but evidence would suggest it never actually came to .NET (Core). All in all it seems to me like Microsoft pulled the plug or is this wishful thinking?
Best, Sander Azure DevOps Succinctly (free eBook) Azure Serverless Succinctly (free eBook) Migrating Apps to the Cloud with Azure arrgh.js - Bringing LINQ to JavaScript
Sometimes I feel like I am beating a dead Horse. :( First, Haters are going to hate. Second, programmers, for the most part, like and defend the language they know best, and disparage almost every other. Third, VB isn't "cool" anymore. Fourth, the main problem with VB is the word "Basic" in the name. Particularly the "B" which stands for "Beginners". For Sander. No, it is not dead. See steveb's post above about MSIL. For Griff I sincerely, greatly appreciate your knowledge, wisdom, and the fact you help a whole lot of people in this site, myself included. However, if you don't like "OnError Resume Next", or "OnError GoTo" (which is also found in C#), then DON'T USE THEM. Saying that VB should be dropped because of those statements, is like saying all tigers, extremely beautiful animals, should be killed because they might bite your head off when you try to pet them. Or saying that most women should be killed because they are a PITA. IMO this is not only foolish, but ridiculous. Finally, I am pretty sure that quite a lot of businesses are still using VB6 and VB.net to run their business, if not the majority. And I apologize for not being one of the "cool kids" and being subject to my second observation above myself.
Sometimes one man's trash is just trash, but not in the case of VB.
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was it ever alive ? dat it da question.
CI/CD = Continuous Impediment/Continuous Despair
It pioneered component (vs object) oriented development; a pattern which is useful today.
"Before entering on an understanding, I have meditated for a long time, and have foreseen what might happen. It is not genius which reveals to me suddenly, secretly, what I have to say or to do in a circumstance unexpected by other people; it is reflection, it is meditation." - Napoleon I
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And VB has
On Error Resume Nextwhich is a damn good reason for killing it! :-D"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony "Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Sometimes I feel like I am beating a dead Horse. :( First, Haters are going to hate. Second, programmers, for the most part, like and defend the language they know best, and disparage almost every other. Third, VB isn't "cool" anymore. Fourth, the main problem with VB is the word "Basic" in the name. Particularly the "B" which stands for "Beginners". For Sander. No, it is not dead. See steveb's post above about MSIL. For Griff I sincerely, greatly appreciate your knowledge, wisdom, and the fact you help a whole lot of people in this site, myself included. However, if you don't like "OnError Resume Next", or "OnError GoTo" (which is also found in C#), then DON'T USE THEM. Saying that VB should be dropped because of those statements, is like saying all tigers, extremely beautiful animals, should be killed because they might bite your head off when you try to pet them. Or saying that most women should be killed because they are a PITA. IMO this is not only foolish, but ridiculous. Finally, I am pretty sure that quite a lot of businesses are still using VB6 and VB.net to run their business, if not the majority. And I apologize for not being one of the "cool kids" and being subject to my second observation above myself.
Sometimes one man's trash is just trash, but not in the case of VB.
I think Sanders point was that the tooling for VB.Net is lagging behind the more main stream c#. And yeah lots of people like to kick the old VB dog but there are also a lot of us that cut our teeth on it. I got a hell of a shock a few years ago when I tried to show a newbie (school kid) how vb worked, I could it even connect to the database it had changed so much.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity - RAH I'm old. I know stuff - JSOP
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I'm working for a customer who uses Visual Basic. VB was my first language so I don't mind too much, although after years of C# it feels a bit bloated and archaic at times. I still have another VB project as well, so at least I knew what to expect. It's an old web forms project though, so all in all it's pretty meh X| So anyway, I had to start a new project (not something they do often, they basically have the one monolith) and thought I'd pick a VB project template since that's what the client is using. I have VB templates for WPF, WCF, Console, Library, WinForms and Test projects But as soon as I filter on the more modern project types, like Web, Web API, Cloud, Games or Blazor, I get zero templates. Ended up picking C# instead, as those are readily available. I remember reading Microsoft isn't actively developing VB anymore and I'm pretty sure the earlier version of .NET Core did not support VB. When googling the subject I find a mix of "VB dead" and "VB coming to .NET (Core)", but evidence would suggest it never actually came to .NET (Core). All in all it seems to me like Microsoft pulled the plug or is this wishful thinking?
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This might be an interesting read, describes some VB follow up tools. - RAD Basic releases third alpha • The Register[^]
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This might be an interesting read, describes some VB follow up tools. - RAD Basic releases third alpha • The Register[^]
And RemObjects "Mercury": VB for all platforms ... for a bunch of $$$ but it exists!
I cannot remember: What did I before google?
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I'm working for a customer who uses Visual Basic. VB was my first language so I don't mind too much, although after years of C# it feels a bit bloated and archaic at times. I still have another VB project as well, so at least I knew what to expect. It's an old web forms project though, so all in all it's pretty meh X| So anyway, I had to start a new project (not something they do often, they basically have the one monolith) and thought I'd pick a VB project template since that's what the client is using. I have VB templates for WPF, WCF, Console, Library, WinForms and Test projects But as soon as I filter on the more modern project types, like Web, Web API, Cloud, Games or Blazor, I get zero templates. Ended up picking C# instead, as those are readily available. I remember reading Microsoft isn't actively developing VB anymore and I'm pretty sure the earlier version of .NET Core did not support VB. When googling the subject I find a mix of "VB dead" and "VB coming to .NET (Core)", but evidence would suggest it never actually came to .NET (Core). All in all it seems to me like Microsoft pulled the plug or is this wishful thinking?
Best, Sander Azure DevOps Succinctly (free eBook) Azure Serverless Succinctly (free eBook) Migrating Apps to the Cloud with Azure arrgh.js - Bringing LINQ to JavaScript
Darwin's Theory: Humans are a product of development and what is produced by them falls under these rules, that means programming languages too.
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I'm working for a customer who uses Visual Basic. VB was my first language so I don't mind too much, although after years of C# it feels a bit bloated and archaic at times. I still have another VB project as well, so at least I knew what to expect. It's an old web forms project though, so all in all it's pretty meh X| So anyway, I had to start a new project (not something they do often, they basically have the one monolith) and thought I'd pick a VB project template since that's what the client is using. I have VB templates for WPF, WCF, Console, Library, WinForms and Test projects But as soon as I filter on the more modern project types, like Web, Web API, Cloud, Games or Blazor, I get zero templates. Ended up picking C# instead, as those are readily available. I remember reading Microsoft isn't actively developing VB anymore and I'm pretty sure the earlier version of .NET Core did not support VB. When googling the subject I find a mix of "VB dead" and "VB coming to .NET (Core)", but evidence would suggest it never actually came to .NET (Core). All in all it seems to me like Microsoft pulled the plug or is this wishful thinking?
Best, Sander Azure DevOps Succinctly (free eBook) Azure Serverless Succinctly (free eBook) Migrating Apps to the Cloud with Azure arrgh.js - Bringing LINQ to JavaScript
Darwin's Theory: Humans are a product of evolution and what is produced by them falls under these rules, that means programming languages too.
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Sometimes I feel like I am beating a dead Horse. :( First, Haters are going to hate. Second, programmers, for the most part, like and defend the language they know best, and disparage almost every other. Third, VB isn't "cool" anymore. Fourth, the main problem with VB is the word "Basic" in the name. Particularly the "B" which stands for "Beginners". For Sander. No, it is not dead. See steveb's post above about MSIL. For Griff I sincerely, greatly appreciate your knowledge, wisdom, and the fact you help a whole lot of people in this site, myself included. However, if you don't like "OnError Resume Next", or "OnError GoTo" (which is also found in C#), then DON'T USE THEM. Saying that VB should be dropped because of those statements, is like saying all tigers, extremely beautiful animals, should be killed because they might bite your head off when you try to pet them. Or saying that most women should be killed because they are a PITA. IMO this is not only foolish, but ridiculous. Finally, I am pretty sure that quite a lot of businesses are still using VB6 and VB.net to run their business, if not the majority. And I apologize for not being one of the "cool kids" and being subject to my second observation above myself.
Sometimes one man's trash is just trash, but not in the case of VB.
Yeah, I agree with you on all points.
Slow Eddie wrote:
For Sander. No, it is not dead. See steveb's post above about MSIL.
See my reply though. The tooling seems to lag behind and Microsoft seems to not update VB anymore, making the gap with C# even bigger in the future. Sure it's not "dead" because many people and companies still use it, but it doesn't seem like a good alternative for new development anymore. In the end, VB.NET can do everything C# can (or it could a few years ago) and you can write good and bad code in both languages, but how long will this be true? So by "dead" I mean Microsoft isn't actively developing it anymore, making it a no-go for new development.
Best, Sander Azure DevOps Succinctly (free eBook) Azure Serverless Succinctly (free eBook) Migrating Apps to the Cloud with Azure arrgh.js - Bringing LINQ to JavaScript
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Sometimes I feel like I am beating a dead Horse. :( First, Haters are going to hate. Second, programmers, for the most part, like and defend the language they know best, and disparage almost every other. Third, VB isn't "cool" anymore. Fourth, the main problem with VB is the word "Basic" in the name. Particularly the "B" which stands for "Beginners". For Sander. No, it is not dead. See steveb's post above about MSIL. For Griff I sincerely, greatly appreciate your knowledge, wisdom, and the fact you help a whole lot of people in this site, myself included. However, if you don't like "OnError Resume Next", or "OnError GoTo" (which is also found in C#), then DON'T USE THEM. Saying that VB should be dropped because of those statements, is like saying all tigers, extremely beautiful animals, should be killed because they might bite your head off when you try to pet them. Or saying that most women should be killed because they are a PITA. IMO this is not only foolish, but ridiculous. Finally, I am pretty sure that quite a lot of businesses are still using VB6 and VB.net to run their business, if not the majority. And I apologize for not being one of the "cool kids" and being subject to my second observation above myself.
Sometimes one man's trash is just trash, but not in the case of VB.
I agree that that is no good reason to hate a language. I remember having to do some changes in a VB6 project many many years ago, there was a dynamic form, which means that when the user chooses a value from a combobox than some controls could be created at runtim (depending on the choice) I don't remember if it gave a compile error or a runtime error, what I do remember is that it did not worked as we expected, so we called for microsoft support which the company paid for. Their answer was that this is by design, VB did not allow creating controls in the closeup event of a combobox... I did not liked the language before this, but at that time I did became a real hater. There are so many examples of stuff in this language that was unbelievable, there are so many reasons not to like it. But agreed, the reasons you mention are not reasons to hate it.
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I'm working for a customer who uses Visual Basic. VB was my first language so I don't mind too much, although after years of C# it feels a bit bloated and archaic at times. I still have another VB project as well, so at least I knew what to expect. It's an old web forms project though, so all in all it's pretty meh X| So anyway, I had to start a new project (not something they do often, they basically have the one monolith) and thought I'd pick a VB project template since that's what the client is using. I have VB templates for WPF, WCF, Console, Library, WinForms and Test projects But as soon as I filter on the more modern project types, like Web, Web API, Cloud, Games or Blazor, I get zero templates. Ended up picking C# instead, as those are readily available. I remember reading Microsoft isn't actively developing VB anymore and I'm pretty sure the earlier version of .NET Core did not support VB. When googling the subject I find a mix of "VB dead" and "VB coming to .NET (Core)", but evidence would suggest it never actually came to .NET (Core). All in all it seems to me like Microsoft pulled the plug or is this wishful thinking?
Best, Sander Azure DevOps Succinctly (free eBook) Azure Serverless Succinctly (free eBook) Migrating Apps to the Cloud with Azure arrgh.js - Bringing LINQ to JavaScript
was it ever really alive then ?
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It pioneered component (vs object) oriented development; a pattern which is useful today.
"Before entering on an understanding, I have meditated for a long time, and have foreseen what might happen. It is not genius which reveals to me suddenly, secretly, what I have to say or to do in a circumstance unexpected by other people; it is reflection, it is meditation." - Napoleon I
Quote:
It pioneered component (vs object) oriented development; a pattern which is useful today.
I'm pretty certain that it did not; unless my memory is failing me (and at this age that is very possible), components were part of the Windows tech stack since '92 (COM and/or OLE). VB, like other Windows programming language tools, could use them. IOW, they were installed with Windows, not with VB. VB was just the most popular way of writing Windows programs for well over a decade.
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I wouldn't mourn. It was in the eighties when I wrote:
10 PRINT "Herman is the best !!1!!1!11!";;;;;
20 GOTO 10In Word you can only store 2 bytes. That is why I use Writer.
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I'm working for a customer who uses Visual Basic. VB was my first language so I don't mind too much, although after years of C# it feels a bit bloated and archaic at times. I still have another VB project as well, so at least I knew what to expect. It's an old web forms project though, so all in all it's pretty meh X| So anyway, I had to start a new project (not something they do often, they basically have the one monolith) and thought I'd pick a VB project template since that's what the client is using. I have VB templates for WPF, WCF, Console, Library, WinForms and Test projects But as soon as I filter on the more modern project types, like Web, Web API, Cloud, Games or Blazor, I get zero templates. Ended up picking C# instead, as those are readily available. I remember reading Microsoft isn't actively developing VB anymore and I'm pretty sure the earlier version of .NET Core did not support VB. When googling the subject I find a mix of "VB dead" and "VB coming to .NET (Core)", but evidence would suggest it never actually came to .NET (Core). All in all it seems to me like Microsoft pulled the plug or is this wishful thinking?
Best, Sander Azure DevOps Succinctly (free eBook) Azure Serverless Succinctly (free eBook) Migrating Apps to the Cloud with Azure arrgh.js - Bringing LINQ to JavaScript
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I'm working for a customer who uses Visual Basic. VB was my first language so I don't mind too much, although after years of C# it feels a bit bloated and archaic at times. I still have another VB project as well, so at least I knew what to expect. It's an old web forms project though, so all in all it's pretty meh X| So anyway, I had to start a new project (not something they do often, they basically have the one monolith) and thought I'd pick a VB project template since that's what the client is using. I have VB templates for WPF, WCF, Console, Library, WinForms and Test projects But as soon as I filter on the more modern project types, like Web, Web API, Cloud, Games or Blazor, I get zero templates. Ended up picking C# instead, as those are readily available. I remember reading Microsoft isn't actively developing VB anymore and I'm pretty sure the earlier version of .NET Core did not support VB. When googling the subject I find a mix of "VB dead" and "VB coming to .NET (Core)", but evidence would suggest it never actually came to .NET (Core). All in all it seems to me like Microsoft pulled the plug or is this wishful thinking?
Best, Sander Azure DevOps Succinctly (free eBook) Azure Serverless Succinctly (free eBook) Migrating Apps to the Cloud with Azure arrgh.js - Bringing LINQ to JavaScript
We started using C# many years ago (10 years or so). Although we've had to continually adjust/tweak our dependencies, mainly due to interactions with SQL Server and backup functions, it has done the job for us. I learned VB in college, but we are strictly C# now. We moved away from WinForms due to some inherent functionality restrictions that were cramping our style.
