[size=14pt]Should I abandon VB.Net?[/size]
by Christiaan Baes (chrissie1) on Feb 28, 2011 in categories Professional Development

Should I abandon VB.Net? This is a question that crosses my mind from time to time, but lately it is getting stronger. At least it would make my life simpler. Copy paste coding gets even better when you are a C# programmer since there are so much more examples out there. The community is bigger and better for C#. Even Microsoft discourages the use of VB.Net. If you ever go to something like techdays you will find that VB.Net is nowhere to be found. In that community you will be mocked and ridiculed if you tell them you are a VB.Net programmer. You are looked down upon, even by the spaghetti programmers. But then the .Net community seems to be rude and unfriendly whatever you do. I noticed that when I did my little powershell series over the weekend.

So the question crosses my mind if I was wrong to choose VB.Net and to choose Winforms. I guess the same questions are asked by the VB6 community. And the Delphi community. Apparently even the WPF community is already feeling the love draining away. Did you notice these are all Microsoft communities. Microsoft seems to be in the habit of creating things and then abandoning them for the next big thing without even trying to make it easy for people to convert their old code.

Do you know how hard it is to even find VB.Net developer on the web that have great blogs? I guess most of them decided to blog in C# instead and get more out of the experience or else they are just not there.

I have been trying to convince Scott Hanselman to incorporate a few lines of VB.Net in his keynote for the 2011 Belgian Techdays. It feels like an uphill battle. Considering the result of this poll I think he will be even less inclined now.

I don't blame them, they are in the business of making money and they should do what they think they have to do.

Do I think I should change because of all of the reasons above? Nope, not any time soon. I will keep using VB.Net and winforms for as long as I can and that will be awhile. Rewriting an application just because of a new technology is not a good move, it looses you money in the short and long term. You are better of adding features to your existing application.

The first thing to think about when things like this arise, is if they add value to your situation. Don't change things for the sake of change, change things for the better. Let's not forget that even the best and brightest get it wrong.

I guess being philosophical from time to time comes with old age.

*dhtml:

This is serious mehn. When the .NET rave started - i heard all of them get the same power - so naturally i picked vb.net
but i was too engrossed in web development and just abandoned everything.
But i heard that it was C# that was the main then sha - to create controls and all that. So now you are saying VB.NET is obsolete?

That one go mean civil war be that o - because ha!!!

netghost:

i used to be a big fan of vb6 back in school, 'waste of programming time' thats what i call it, cos moving to c relate languages was kind of hard, i expected everything to be vb inclined , story for another day
in my opinion everything with 'VB' attached to it, died with the basic programming language before they were ever created,
C# rocks

Mobinga:

You're indirectly saying the "Microsofts Java Port Rocks"

LMFAO.

Mobinga:

You're indirectly saying the "Microsofts Java Port Rocks"

LMFAO.