4 ms·

Visual Basic .Net dead? No, it's fifth most popular programming language

16 points by myinnerbanjo 8y ago

strikelaserclaw 8y ago
unfortunately
- aNoob7000 8y ago
  why?
ocdtrekkie 8y ago
Visual Basic is still my preferred language for hobby code. It's the first language I learned, and it's still where my headspace defaults to when I'm writing code. Kinda like my personal native language. If I'm writing in another language, for instance, I might go "I need a Select Case" in my head, and then have to process what it is in that language, like "switch". So when coding for myself, it often saves me a lot of time and effort to just write in VB. Now that VB .NET is moving towards being fully supported (it's own namespaces like My, especially) in cross-platform contexts in .NET Core 3.0, there's really no downside to using it.
tabtab 8y ago
There are some things about VB syntax over C# syntax that I like. 1) Having the type-name come after the variable name makes for more readable code (in my opinion). The variable itself is more important than its type. (Other languages use a colon. Example: "counter: int;") 2) Having the block "ender" name match the starting name makes for less confusion and block-related IDE miss-matches. All the C# "}" look the same to the IDE and human eye. However, I do wish VB's block naming were more consistent, such as "while...end while" instead of "while...wend". (The later versions mostly fixed this.) In other words, always have the pattern be "X...end X" so you don't have to think. 3) Better switch/case syntax, because it's set-oriented. Needing "break" is silly. 4) Not needing parentheses in IF statements.
- zapzupnz 8y ago
  All these reasons bar 2 are why I like Swift. I didn't realise Swift was made by users of VB.Net; or perhaps VB inherited these from another language? Anyway, rather nice to learn something new.
  - jen20 8y ago
    I believe some of the F# team moved to Apple to work on Swift, so that explains some of it - as another poster pointed out, a lot of the stated pros are also in F#.
    - tabtab 8y ago
      A lot of it is subjective. Diff people like diff things. Two more things I wish to add to the list: 5) Less need to type a semicolon. Although, this increases the need to use continuation marks. The balance may depend on your coding style. 6) Less need to use the Shift key, overall. If you have RSI medical issues, you may like this.
- sparkie 8y ago
  Most of these are all true for F# too. On 2, most of the syntax is indentation sensitive, but for types you can optionally annotate them with `class`/`struct`/`interface` and the keyword `end` to finalize them. Pattern matching in F# is more powerful than simple switch/case statements.
  - zapzupnz 8y ago
    TIL again! I've always wanted to try F#, so I might give it a whirl now. I like learning about these little quality-of-life titbits before jumping into something.
jwkane 8y ago
The language may not be dead -- just the souls of the people forced to use it.

16 points by myinnerbanjo 8y ago

strikelaserclaw 8y ago

unfortunately

aNoob7000 8y ago
why?

ocdtrekkie 8y ago

Visual Basic is still my preferred language for hobby code. It's the first language I learned, and it's still where my headspace defaults to when I'm writing code. Kinda like my personal native language. If I'm writing in another language, for instance, I might go "I need a Select Case" in my head, and then have to process what it is in that language, like "switch". So when coding for myself, it often saves me a lot of time and effort to just write in VB. Now that VB .NET is moving towards being fully supported (it's own namespaces like My, especially) in cross-platform contexts in .NET Core 3.0, there's really no downside to using it.

tabtab 8y ago

There are some things about VB syntax over C# syntax that I like. 1) Having the type-name come after the variable name makes for more readable code (in my opinion). The variable itself is more important than its type. (Other languages use a colon. Example: "counter: int;") 2) Having the block "ender" name match the starting name makes for less confusion and block-related IDE miss-matches. All the C# "}" look the same to the IDE and human eye. However, I do wish VB's block naming were more consistent, such as "while...end while" instead of "while...wend". (The later versions mostly fixed this.) In other words, always have the pattern be "X...end X" so you don't have to think. 3) Better switch/case syntax, because it's set-oriented. Needing "break" is silly. 4) Not needing parentheses in IF statements.

zapzupnz 8y ago
All these reasons bar 2 are why I like Swift. I didn't realise Swift was made by users of VB.Net; or perhaps VB inherited these from another language? Anyway, rather nice to learn something new.
- jen20 8y ago
  I believe some of the F# team moved to Apple to work on Swift, so that explains some of it - as another poster pointed out, a lot of the stated pros are also in F#.
  - tabtab 8y ago
    A lot of it is subjective. Diff people like diff things. Two more things I wish to add to the list: 5) Less need to type a semicolon. Although, this increases the need to use continuation marks. The balance may depend on your coding style. 6) Less need to use the Shift key, overall. If you have RSI medical issues, you may like this.
sparkie 8y ago
Most of these are all true for F# too. On 2, most of the syntax is indentation sensitive, but for types you can optionally annotate them with `class`/`struct`/`interface` and the keyword `end` to finalize them. Pattern matching in F# is more powerful than simple switch/case statements.
- zapzupnz 8y ago
  TIL again! I've always wanted to try F#, so I might give it a whirl now. I like learning about these little quality-of-life titbits before jumping into something.

jwkane 8y ago

The language may not be dead -- just the souls of the people forced to use it.