Comments on Moserware: VB: The 800 lb (363 kg) Gorilla in a C# Fanboy Wor...

Maybe it's just me but I found C# often has three ...

2008-03-11T00:14:00.000-04:00

Maybe it's just me but I found C# often has three ways to do something but two of them don't work, including the most obvious way.

anonymous: Interesting. I worked with Delphi in th...

2008-03-05T20:25:00.000-05:00

anonymous: Interesting. I worked with Delphi in the late 90s (2.0) and sort of see it as an early C# with Pascal syntax. What do you think makes Delphi more intuitive?

In theory, it is a matter of personal preference b...

2008-03-05T20:17:00.000-05:00

In theory, it is a matter of personal preference but my experience is that developers like C# and management prefers VB.NET, and no, they won't let you choose both.

Both languages lack the intuitiveness and good documentation that Delphi had.

Great perspective on the historical baggage. As a ...

2007-12-17T17:25:00.000-05:00

Great perspective on the historical baggage. As a former Delphi programmer, it's good to see that Anders took the good from it and added even more good ideas into C#. It's much more consistent than VB since it's had one principal architect from the start.

I think it's good to deprecate obscure heritage, like Paul's mentioned doing already which will help clean things up a little. However, with Microsoft so focused on compatibility, it'll be a slow road. That is, much slower than starting fresh.

I would assert no one knows which is more popular ...

2007-12-17T15:28:00.000-05:00

I would assert no one knows which is more popular as many developers simply download VS. However, IMHO, C# is more consistent and coherent as it doesn't carry the historical baggage VB has. C# was designed from scratch which gives it an advantage. Even the VB team architect mentions this disadvantage.

Interesting feedback. I take that you like the mor...

2007-12-17T10:59:00.000-05:00

Interesting feedback. I take that you like the more verbose syntax of VB?

I think to some it's a matter of taste and the more rhetorical nature of VB wins out.

I think they can coexist. VB probably head towards the more dynamic language style with VB10 and higher and C# will stay true to its C syntax heritage, but will also keep stealing from F#.

This is no surprise. VB pwns C# and always will. ...

2007-12-17T10:41:00.000-05:00

This is no surprise. VB pwns C# and always will. Nobody wants to code in some case-sensitive, curly brace ridden, semi-colon infatuated cryptic code. Looking at C# makes me want to vomit.

Good point. However, it makes me wonder what the m...

2007-12-15T16:37:00.000-05:00

Good point. However, it makes me wonder what the majority of the under 18 crowd is going for. That is, which one is closest to my "GW-BASIC." Although Alice is nice, I don't think it's of GW-BASIC status. It's just not the same.

How much efficiency could be had in this world if more people (of the "spreadsheet guru" type) knew a language like VB.NET. This would leave more interesting problems for the C# & F# crowd.

While Paul's information is probably spot on, it i...

2007-12-15T16:08:00.000-05:00

While Paul's information is probably spot on, it isn't reflected in the marketplace reality.

Do a search on Dice.com for vb vs c# in any given local and you'll see that c# wins out handily.

I am guessing that the reality is that most c# get their VS installs from MSDN or their company buys it.

It makes me wonder if people are just downloading ...

2007-12-15T14:38:00.000-05:00

It makes me wonder if people are just downloading C++ Express to work on class/homework assignments or maybe to take advantage of its good native code compiler?

I honestly thought VB and C# would be within 10% of each other. Visual C++ is definitely very alive and it's good to see Microsoft is investing in the language and platform beyond VC++ 2008.

Inconceivable!
I am only mildly surprised to se...

2007-12-15T13:31:00.000-05:00

Inconceivable!
I am only mildly surprised to see VB.NET as number 1. VB has always been a good language to know on the Windows platform due to its various incarnations (VB.NET, VBA, Classic VB, VB Script). But C++ as number 2 is a total surprise! C++ Express does not support the classic C++ frameworks such as MFC and ATL. Developing a GUI-based app in C++ Express requires .NET which is fine, but I didn't see much difference between C++.NET and C#, in a pure .NET setting. I guess you can say that C++.NET is just C# with a hat (get it?).
Herb Sutter blogged about how VS 2008 C++ Express Edition will be updated to include TR1 support sometime later next year. I probably will have to check it out. It will be a lot of fun to check out the boost-like capabilities in TR1 using the slick VS IDE.