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Your thoughts on Visual Basic .NET? (social.fossware.space)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/programming

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Hey, community.

This one might probably trigger some of you. But just a question that comes out of the blue: What are your thoughts on it?

I first learned programming back in the day with Visual Basic 2008. Nowadays, I can program with C#, Java, PHP and some other languages rather well (I'm no professional, though), but I often come back to Visual Basic, because I'm just so used to it. Even though it's not that often, because I'm a Linux user.

But let's say I need a small program for Windows real quick? VB.NET is gonna be my choice. Right now, I'm implementing a board game server + client for the game of go (also called baduk or wei'qi) and I'm making really good progress.

I personally think that people should just use what they want to use. I don't get the hate for PHP and some other languages and I think this gate-keeping and god complex some developers have is really annoying. Makes me want to use VB.NET even harder.

I also don't like to jump on board with every new and upcoming programming language or library, just to be cool.

I'd also like to emphasize that I'm not creating software for a living right now. I do have a small company for a little bit of freelance work, but that's just money on the side that comes in by creating really small projects.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Atari Basic was my very first programming language, so I grew up learning Basic. Having said that: I don't see any reason why new software should be written in any Basic-dialect except for fun (the same kind of fun like writing a game engine in Ada) or because of legacy reasons. So programming on the C-64, or QBasic and DOS, a.s.o. all those are fun projects, kind of like reenactment of medieval knight fights.

In your case: If you feel comfortable using VB for your personal projects, then go ahead. But for me any variant of VB is awful, and this also applies to PHP. And in a perfect world we also wouldn't use JavaScript.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Got it, but on the other hand (and as someone else commented): With the right settings, VB.NET can be en par with C#, for instance. They both compile to the same MCIL code, so it should really boil down to a matter of personal preference, right?

I feel that many people don't know that and tend to think back to C64 Basic, etc. and just laugh it off.

I mostly use it for personal projects, yes. I also enjoy other "hated" languages like PHP and Java. To me, they're just tools to accomplish a task. I also like to play the UNO reverse card: I personally hate projects that run with Electron, for instance. Such a waste of resources, things don't integrate well into the DE, etc.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Got it, but on the other hand (and as someone else commented): With the right settings, VB.NET can be en par with C#, for instance. They both compile to the same MCIL code, so it should really boil down to a matter of personal preference, right?

I mean, you could also use C++/CLR. Please don't. Because at some point people like me have to maintain it and they will hate every minute of that experience.

I feel that many people don’t know that and tend to think back to C64 Basic, etc. and just laugh it off.

I don't know if people laugh it off because of the 8bit Basics, I think it's more because of VB6. And AFAIR VB.net was made to make it easier for VB6-developers to switch to .net. The real programming language for .net was supposed to be C# and I guess some people at Microsoft also like F#.

I also enjoy other “hated” languages like PHP and Java

But Java is not a bad language per se; I actually enjoyed programming in Java more than C#. Java is hated because of its Enterprise-stuff. C# has managed to get a foot-hold in game development and is therefore cooler than Enterprisey-Java.

I also like to play the UNO reverse card: I personally hate projects that run with Electron, for instance.

I don't see how that is a UNO reverse card :)

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago

Thanks for the heads-up. 😀 It's not that I consider VB.NET to be my favorite language. I just wanted to say that I don't feel alright with all the "hate" that I've seen in the past when it comes to programming languages. I often see people ask what their first programming language should be and the "gatekeeping" answers are really annoying. Maybe gatekeeping isn't even the right word...