VB.NET Thursday, May 08 2008
So I've been writing VB.NET code for a few days now, and I can't believe how much I've grown to dislike the VB syntax in the time I've been using C# (Beta1 - I've actually forgotten when that was). The place I'm consulting at doesn't care what language I use, however for existing projects I have to use what they already have, so I'm stuck in a largely VB.NET world.
So here I am, writing VB.NET code, longing for my curly braces and semi-colons and it finally came to me why I like C# so much more than VB.NET: I dislike the old VB6/ASP mentality of writing web applications.
For instance, in ASP3 you would get yourself some set of data and loop through it manually and write out table rows and cells and format your output that way. In ASP.NET you should use a Repeater, DataGrid or DataList to do exactly that, and quite frankly in so very little time compared to the old way of doing it. For instance #2, you don't need to parse file paths any more, there is a wonderful class called Path in the System.IO namespace that does everything for you.
So basically what I'm getting at, is I shed the VB syntax because I wanted to actually learn and relearn my own techniques to be in line with what the .NET framework has to offer me. What I've noticed more and more is that VB6 guys could easily become lazy and stick with what they know instead of relearning for what they're currently working on (the .NET Framework). I guess a C# guy could do that also, however I've noticed (in the "community" - mailing lists, etc) a number of ex-VBers like myself who switched to C# and forced themselves to shed the VB crutches.
So here I am, writing VB.NET code, longing for my curly braces and semi-colons and it finally came to me why I like C# so much more than VB.NET: I dislike the old VB6/ASP mentality of writing web applications.
For instance, in ASP3 you would get yourself some set of data and loop through it manually and write out table rows and cells and format your output that way. In ASP.NET you should use a Repeater, DataGrid or DataList to do exactly that, and quite frankly in so very little time compared to the old way of doing it. For instance #2, you don't need to parse file paths any more, there is a wonderful class called Path in the System.IO namespace that does everything for you.
So basically what I'm getting at, is I shed the VB syntax because I wanted to actually learn and relearn my own techniques to be in line with what the .NET framework has to offer me. What I've noticed more and more is that VB6 guys could easily become lazy and stick with what they know instead of relearning for what they're currently working on (the .NET Framework). I guess a C# guy could do that also, however I've noticed (in the "community" - mailing lists, etc) a number of ex-VBers like myself who switched to C# and forced themselves to shed the VB crutches.
