What is VB.net for?

[Maximilian]

Ill be learning some VB in my course, ive only done java before, the two big languages seem to be java and c#, where does VB.net fit into things?

 

[nickbits]

vb.net is only for legacy vb programmers who don't want to learn c#

stay away from it if you can. if you like java, you'll like c# much better anyway.

 

[clamum]

It's just an alternate way to code in .NET. It has a "simplier" syntax (more like standard English, I guess) than Java or C#, and can be more forgiving, but ultimately it gets transformed into the same intermediate language as C# does (AFAIK).

Personally I think it blows, but I'm kinda stuck with it for the project I'm currently working on. :-\

 

[WannaFly]

vb.net is just another .net language. I believe if the same program was written in vb.net and c#, the IL code would be VERY similar. There are some performance differences, but for most operations it is very negligible. Most functionality is interchangeable between vb.net and c#, barring a few differences. Really, the biggest difference is syntax, IMO.


Perhaps this link will help:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.NET_Framework#Common_Language_Infrastructure_.28CLI.29

 

[PhatoseAlpha]

It's for writing programs. It's very nearly a syntax swap on C#. There are a few things you can do in c# that you can't do in vb - mostly unsafe things, like pointers - but by and large they are equivalent.

These days it's mostly something that gets used because the devs on a project prefer it - less common then the C-type syntax, but it does happen.

Why choose it instead of c# way back when? Well...install VS2003, and compare intellisense in VB.net vs c#. C# intellisense has vastly improved, but back then? It was useless.

 

[Markbnj]

It's for writing programs. It's very nearly a syntax swap on C#. There are a few things you can do in c# that you can't do in vb - mostly unsafe things, like pointers - but by and large they are equivalent.

These days it's mostly something that gets used because the devs on a project prefer it - less common then the C-type syntax, but it does happen.

Why choose it instead of c# way back when? Well...install VS2003, and compare intellisense in VB.net vs c#. C# intellisense has vastly improved, but back then? It was useless.

There were also a ton of corporate VB developers knocking out database applications back then. MS needed to provide some migration path to .NET for those shops. No reason to begin with it today, imo, unless your job calls for it.

 

[Maximilian]

Balls... i like java.

Oh well, exposure to another language wont hurt anything i guess. The visual studio IDE is pretty slick looking.

On a related note, is intellisense the thing that shows up with a list of methods and what they do? Like if i type someObject. a list will show of every method i can use with someObject. Netbeans does this with java, what is this feature called in broad terms?

 

[Markbnj]

Balls... i like java.

Oh well, exposure to another language wont hurt anything i guess. The visual studio IDE is pretty slick looking.

On a related note, is intellisense the thing that shows up with a list of methods and what they do? Like if i type someObject. a list will show of every method i can use with someObject. Netbeans does this with java, what is this feature called in broad terms?

I'm not exactly sure which features fall under the "intellisense" umbrella. I think it's the term that MS uses for all the related technologies that reflect on the code you're writing and provide for syntax highlighting, code-time error detection, and auto-complete (the specific feature you're referring to).

 

[douglasb]

It's for scrubs and for teaching you sloppy coding habits. Lots of VB developers are notorious for things like having all sorts of implicit casting going on when the developer probably isn't even aware that it's happening. Then they wonder why their app is much slower than the same thing in another language, even C#.

Turn "Option Strict On" before you write anything, and it will keep you from falling into some of the bad VB habits.

 

[KentState]

Like all .Net languages, you have access to the same classes so it's mostly a different syntax. There are some shortcuts that don't follow .Net standards correctly like the My namespace and preserved cast functions. The performance is exactly the same if you write the same thing 1:1.

 

[Merad]

Balls... i like java.

Oh well, exposure to another language wont hurt anything i guess. The visual studio IDE is pretty slick looking.

On a related note, is intellisense the thing that shows up with a list of methods and what they do? Like if i type someObject. a list will show of every method i can use with someObject. Netbeans does this with java, what is this feature called in broad terms?

Autocomplete would be the general term, I think. Although intellisense is pretty close to being a generic term for it.

Also, VS with C# is amazing.

 

[KentState]

Intellisense is little more though. It lets you reference classes and objects and their methods while providing a parameter list and overloads. Makes coding much easier as you don't have to lookup the namespaces and dig into documentation. I find I spend less time on MSDN and more time in the code. They've also added it to SQL Server which is a huge help.

 

[Cogman]

Intellisense is little more though. It lets you reference classes and objects and their methods while providing a parameter list and overloads. Makes coding much easier as you don't have to lookup the namespaces and dig into documentation. I find I spend less time on MSDN and more time in the code. They've also added it to SQL Server which is a huge help.

That being said, netbean's autocomplete is pretty much at the same level now as Visual studios. I've been working a lot with netbeans recently and have been really impressed by what it provides (mainly for the java language, I don't know how it does for other languages).

 

[Merad]

That being said, netbean's autocomplete is pretty much at the same level now as Visual studios. I've been working a lot with netbeans recently and have been really impressed by what it provides (mainly for the java language, I don't know how it does for other languages).

I'd say Netbeans is about on par with VS' default C++ intellisense. VS/C++ with Visual Assist X or VS/C# blow it out of the water IMO.

 

[sze5003]

I wish we used NetBeans or eclipse at work. We have to use IBM rational app developer and websphere server. So slow and clunky and the app is all java and XHTML /jsp .

I actually had to convert a vb website to asp 4.0 with vb.net. at first I hated it but comparing to the java code I get into now it was cake walk.

 

[DannyBoy]

Inducing pain.