Hii highlanders, with the rapid rate at which microsoft (and some few vendors) effect change(s) in their software, can we say they are making the IT world confusing or are they justified. Take for instance. a guy just finished learning VB.NET 2003 , onlt to discover that VB.NET 2005 is out. He felt so discouraged cos despite all the hardwork he put into learning, he's still considered as falling behind technology. Are the vendors not really selfish of making money for themselves that they have forgotten about the users. Share ur own opinion pls

There is no much difference between VB 2005 and 2003. Infact, The Development team at microsoft moved 2003 into 2005. There are only a few differences. In web development, there is a bit movement in assemblies- from system.web to system.net and this is only in few areas such as sending mail. The smtp object uses the same signature to send its mail. They have done a lot of work to represent most objects visually, that it would take you about 25%coding to achieve what you would have done with 100% coding in 2003. The introduced some visual objects that I enjoy and failed in most of the areas we developers expected them to improve on. For instance you may not find an appropriate date and time control as the calender control is out of it.
I developed on in the form of masked textbox that will not accept any wrong date except client validation is canceled. I am working on another that will be in the form of a picker. That one will not give the user an opportunity to key in an invalid date. What he sees is what he selects.
Okoronkwo Alfred Chinedu.
MCAD, MCP

Ever changing development tools are a fact of life that all programmers have to deal with due to the fast pace of evolving technologies and development methods. It's also the case that end users and customers demand more complex applications delivered in shorter time spans to I for one am happy that the vendors generally do the best they can to help me keep delivering to schedule.

I agree that it can sometimes be almost overwhelming but perhaps one thing that a lot of new programmers overlook is the fact that you always have to keep learning in order to that your skills remain marketable.

This is a very dynamic environment. We just have to keep learning the new technology/tools. What really matters is the core development, Logic and problem solving skills. The rest are just a way help get the job done, and they can be picked up on the job as you go.  As an enterprise Java developer, I can tell you that I learn something new almost every day. That's just the nature of the game. There is always an article/chapter for me to read on the train ride in and out.  For example, at this current client, I started out writing a web app using Java servlets/JSP/struts, etc. Once that project ended, I was shifted to another team that needed someone to write a webservice. Heck! I have never written a webservice, I have only heard and read a little about the darn thing!  I got stuff off the net and read as much as I could, and still learning. So far, the project is moving along smoothly.  The good thing about is that, it's one more thing for me to add to my Resume. And, hence more money I can command in the market.  It's not easy, but it's very rewarding.

its good to hear experienced developers share there thoughts on the effects of the meteoring change in IT technology and the joys they bring. i agree to the fact that new technology platforms are needed in other to provide solutions to the changing buisness requirement of enterprises and companies like microsoft are putting in tremendous effort to keep up with these changes.

like earlier comments it might heart breaking to migrate to a new tech. but the reward far outweighs the efforts