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Microsoft plots the end of Visual Basic

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Re: Microsoft plots the end of Visual Basic

#71

Post by BuckRogers »

formercoder wrote: post #25

This is gonna be like Python 3. There is an innumerable amount of “production” VB.

Python didn't have the developer will to embrace interop between Python 2 and 3 transparently in bytecode, so you had a hard switch over.

CIL doesn't have that problem, you can keep writing in VB.Net without being forced off a supported compiler.

I was in a fork in the road and had the choice between Python or .Net to move forward with my career a few years back, there were a few factors on why I went .Net. Being one of very few pleasing to use and (extremely) widespread languages with static typing, along with MS's early embrace of WebAssembly were both major influences. Yet the biggest was the Python core devs refusal to address Python2/3 in a better way. There's no good reason why you couldn't use the same Python 3 interpreter for Python 2 code. I get the maintenance argument, but this raises questions about the future, and it makes their platform look rinky dink today. I came to the conclusion I'd never build anything important on it, which is essentially everything you write, as projects tend to grow.

Re: Microsoft plots the end of Visual Basic

#72

Post by [deleted] »

29athrowaway wrote: post #68
rkagerer wrote: post #6

I loved VB6. Of all the languages and IDE's I've ever used, I've never been more efficient in any other one. As long as MS doesn't break my workarounds to run that old IDE or its EXE's, I'm happy. VB.NET was a great stepping stone, but after switching to C# I never looked back. The only thing I miss is global functions that don't need a class qualifier in front of them. And I still find the Edit-and-Continue debuggin…

Try Gambas. It is the spiritual successor of VB6.

[deleted]

Re: Microsoft plots the end of Visual Basic

#73

Post by notduncansmith »

applecrazy wrote: post #53
frequentnapper wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I first learned it by myself in VB5. I didn't even understand functions, but writing those MessageBoxes with buttons and then having them create even more message boxes was so great! I remember a high school friend bringing me 5 diskettes with VB4 installer because I didn't have it on my home computer. Then next year I enrolled in AP Comp Sci - hardcore turbo c++. Just blew my mind!

> Then next year I enrolled in AP Comp Sci - hardcore turbo c++. Funny enough, AP Comp Sci went the other direction in the early 2000s, switching from C++ to Java precisely because it was too hardcore for the average high school student.

My high school in ~2010 had the progression C -> C++ -> Java. I remember the C++ that we were taught being easy enough to learn after a semester of C, and graduated before I could take Java.

Re: Microsoft plots the end of Visual Basic

#76

Post by jl6 »

freehunter wrote: post #64
Koshkin wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> great learning language E.W.Dijkstra would disagree: "It is practically impossible to teach good programming to students that have had a prior exposure to BASIC: as potential programmers they are mentally mutilated beyond hope of regeneration."

Has there ever, in the history of learning, been a subject like that? A subject so damaging that it forever ruined anyone who learned it? Or maybe Dijkstra was wrong.

Probably just hyperbolic. Bad habits are a common complaint in music and sports education too. Not insurmountable, but not helpful, and it must be frustrating as a teacher to have to unteach bad habits.

Re: Microsoft plots the end of Visual Basic

#78

Post by iso1631 »

VB3 was my first real language. I'd attempted stuff before on spectrum and BBC BASIC and later QBASIC, but VB3 not only allowed easy development of a GUI application, it allowed you to distribute an EXE -- a real grownup program, not a ".bas" file. I wrote my first commercial program in VB3 or VB4, to look after book orders, had an access database behind it, and all sorts of oddness to do printing if I recall rightly. Used VB4 as well, and I guess I used VB5 as well.

I moved on, to the web, to things like TCL/TK, Java, and Perl. Some things never change, I have a full screen vim window with a brand new perl script on my right-hand monitor as I type this.

Despite having dumped windows 20 years ago, I've still got a place in my heart for visual basic.

Re: Microsoft plots the end of Visual Basic

#79

Post by stcredzero »

rkagerer wrote: post #6

I loved VB6. Of all the languages and IDE's I've ever used, I've never been more efficient in any other one. As long as MS doesn't break my workarounds to run that old IDE or its EXE's, I'm happy. VB.NET was a great stepping stone, but after switching to C# I never looked back. The only thing I miss is global functions that don't need a class qualifier in front of them. And I still find the Edit-and-Continue debuggin…

> I loved VB6. Of all the languages and IDE's I've ever used, I've never been more efficient in any other one.

Other than the amount of work it would take, what's to keep someone from taking all of the specs and docs, and implementing a language compatible with VB6 and VB.NET?

Re: Microsoft plots the end of Visual Basic

#80

Post by snypox »

lostmsu wrote: post #21
kjaftaedi wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to think this too, but everything you can do in VB6 you can do in powershell, and do it better. Try/Catch, windows forms.. literally anything you can think of. You can even mix powershell and C# together in the same script. Once I realized I had a better version of everything I wanted, it became my new favorite.

> You can even mix powershell and C# together in the same script. What feature are you referring to?

You can load a .NET dll in a Powershell script and invoke it. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/microsoft...
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