The c# and VB.net wars...

Why is it that whenever there is a difference in opinion, people tend to get violent and nasty about it?

Once upon a time there was Borland GW Basic. That was about 20 or so years ago.

Do you remember having to number your lines of code? I do, and if that makes me old, then so be it.

After a little while there was Q Basic from Microsoft. To get any sort of graphical anything, you had to use funny things like any normal keyboard character.

Microsoft then brought VB version 1 out. While it still was run and compiled in a DOS environment, it actually has a visual element to it that allowed the developer to create a GUI for their apps.

When windows 3.0 came out, Microsoft came up with VB3. I'm not really sure where VB2 went, but they provided developers with the ability to create apps with niceer looking GUI's. It wasn't great, but it worked.

By this time Borland seemed to have given up on Basic as a language, and came up with C and Delphi.

C and C++ became known as the elite developer's language, and Delphi, while being taught in schools, never really made it to the big time.

As the versions of Windows became bigger and more extensive, so did the VB versions.

Microsoft went on to VB4, VB5 (very briefly) and then on to VB6. Each version was a little "better" and offered more extensive featured.

VB6 stuck around for many years, with most C and C++ developers laughing at the VB6 developers because VB didn't have the complexities that C and C++ had. There was even some guy that asked me what language one of my applications was written in, and when I said VB6, he laughed and said it looked like it. How stupid is that. Can you not write an application in C++ that someone else may not like the look of?

If anything VB6 gave a lot of developers what they wanted and needed. Something to create applications quickly and easily with. This is why C and C++ developers laughed at the VB6 crowd. They were, and are still of the opinion that if you cannot control the memory allocations yourself, then you are a moron, and need to learn how to write real applications.

VB6 had one huge hole in its armor. DLL Hell. I can't tell you how often I was brought to a shaking rage at having to deal with the problems brought about my this. I even once managed crashed the OS of one of the CEO's of one of the biggest companies in South Africa, to the point of the OS needing to be re-installed from scratch because one of our dll's over wrote a newer one. You get my point, I'm sure.

After the many years that VB6 stuck around, Microsoft came up with their holy grail of ideas on the software development front. They, in theory had come up with a way to get rid of dll hell, and then dot net framework was born.

VB.net came out as part of the Visual Studio .net suite of development tools. This included a new visual version of C++. Version 1.0 of the framework was cool, but was quickly replaced with version 1.1.

It tool me a long time to get the hang of VB.net. ADO.net threw me. Call it what you like, but there are far more differences between VB6 and VB.net than there are similarities. Despite the differences, it was kept in the VB suite, probably because if the syntax similarities.

I do wonder if anyone at Microsoft ever thought about scrapping the VB line, and just moving over to c#. It would have been just as much effort for me to learn c# way back when, instead of VB.net. If anyone can tell me why VB was kept, please do.

It wasn't really until version 2.5 of the framework came out that the "c# is better" thing started.

I currently use both c# and VB.net. I find c# to be a little easier and quicker to develop in. Both can do pretty much exactly the same things, so why keep both?

I do feel that VB.net will be fazed out over the years, but I doubt it will be any time soon.

I only started working with c# in late 2007, and was pretty happy with my ability to work with it after only a week or two of using it.

My current job is at a company that claims to be a VB.net only shop, but there are PHP, c# and VB.net apps here.

While I do prefer to work in c#, I find that VB.net gets the job done just as well.

So why this hate for VB.net by c# developers? as far as I know VB.net developers don't hate c#.

Some say that they dislike the way functions and subs are started and ended. Others just don't like the syntax because it is too cluttered or whatever.

I personally don't care either way. The way I look at it, is that I am a professional, and I am paid to write software. If my employer wants me to use VB.net, then that is what I will do.

Apparently c# developers get paid about 30% more than VB.net developers. Really? I'm being paid the same as any c# developer, and I get the job done for my employer.

What's the problem?