vb.net

programming languages

Computer Languages aren't Human Languages

Though I've become agnostic about the utterly meaningless non-choice between VB.NET and C#, the inherited syntax of C leaves a lot to be desired, in my opinion. And not just in the case sensitivity department. Daniel Appleman, in his excellent e-book, VB.NET or C#, Which to

By Jeff Atwood ·
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c#

The Last Configuration Section Handler.. Revisited

If you need to store a little bit of state-- in your configuration file, or on disk-- nothing is faster than some quick and dirty serialization. Or as I like to call it, stringization. In late 2004, I wrote about The Last Configuration Section Handler, which does exactly this for

By Jeff Atwood ·
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c#

Compiler, It Hurts When I Do This

Here's a question that recently came up on an internal mailing list: how do I create an enum with a name that happens to be a c# keyword? I immediately knew the answer for VB.net; you use brackets to delimit the word. Public Enum test [Public] [Private]

By Jeff Atwood ·
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.net

Choosing between .NET Pepsi and .NET Coke

I've increasingly come to believe that the debate between C# and VB.NET is a red herring. Choosing between C# and VB.NET isn't a meaningful choice. It's like choosing between .NET Pepsi and .NET Coke. Either way, you're getting a cola

By Jeff Atwood ·
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c#

C#, VB.NET, and echoing strings in the VS.NET Immediate Window

I've become rather agnostic on the whole topic of C# versus VB.NET, but there are still those annoying little differences that sneak up behind you and rabbit-punch you in the kidneys. Like, say, using the VS.NET 2003 command window in immediate mode to print a string:

By Jeff Atwood ·
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vb.net

Option Strict and Option Explicit in VB.NET 2005

I just noticed that Option Explicit [http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/vblr7/html/vastmOptionExplicit.asp] is on by default for new VB solutions in Visual Studio .NET 2005: It's about damn time. There's nothing more vicious than making an innocent typo

By Jeff Atwood ·
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programming languages

You Can Write FORTRAN in any Language

A recent user-submitted CodeProject article took an interesting perspective on the VB.NET/C# divide by proposing that the culture of Visual Basic is not conducive to professional software development: We’ve seen that the cultures of VB and C# are very different. And we’ve seen that this is

By Jeff Atwood ·
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vb.net

The Slow Brain Death of VB.NET

It’s amusing that the very people defending VB.NET are, ironically, illustrating precisely why VB.NET is in such trouble: I just want to make it clear that I am one MVP that does NOT intend to sign this petition about VB. And by the way, my background is

By Jeff Atwood ·
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programming languages

MS Language Equivalents

As a complement to my C# to VB.NET cheat sheet links, here's a comparative list of programming language equivalents in VB, J#, C++, C#, JScript, and even Visual FoxPro. Since .NET is just a thin wrapper over Win32 (or so I've been told), you may

By Jeff Atwood ·
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vb.net

Resharper for VB.NET

Inspired by Jeff Key’s, “If loving Resharper is wrong I don’t wanna be right” soliloquy, I emailed JetBrains to see if they had plans to bring Resharper – currently a C# only tool – to VB.NET. This was their response: Of course there will be support for VB.NET,

By Jeff Atwood ·
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refactoring

Programming for Luddites

There was much handwringing last week when Somasegar announced what we already knew: VB.NET 2005 will not have refactoring. This resulted in a few emotional outbursts: We don’t need toys like [the] MY [namespace], we need working tool like Refactoring!! How can Microsoft refuse us those magical software

By Jeff Atwood ·
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vb.net

VB.NET vs C#, round two

I saw on Dan Appleman’s blog that a new version of his Visual Basic.NET or C#: Which to Choose? is available, reflecting the latest changes in VS.NET 2005. I immediately bought a copy from Lockergnome, apparently the only vendor that allows instant eBook downloads after purchase.* There

By Jeff Atwood ·
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