to VB or not to VB
Last update: Dec 5, 2001
Microsoft splits C# and Visual Basic
roadmaps
As soon as Visual Studio.Net launches this
autumn, Microsoft will make C# more like Java, while dumbing down Visual
Basic.
ZDNet UK, August 23, 2001
Microsoft
scales back VB changes
The company heeds developer
concerns and focuses Visual Basic.Net on backward consistency
By Roberta Holland,
eWEEK April 9, 2001 12:00 AM ET
What VB Gurus Say About Visual Basic
Why I really
like Delphi
(Null Writer)
We are VB people, but first and foremost we are solution designers. While we may be most comfortable with Visual Basic and in spite of the Microsoft Marketing team saying we can do anything with VB, the fact is that VB has limits.
Saying Goodbye
to Hardcore Visual Basic
(Bruce McKinney)
Bruce McKinney says farewell to Visual Basic, but not before he has one last fling with a few flames, apologies, bug fixes, advice, and some bits of technical information, ..and tells his audience why he and Visual Basic must part company.
See also: The End of Hardcore Visual Basic
Hardcore Visual Basic
(Bruce McKinney)
With the release of Visual Basic 6, I must terminate my relationship with Visual Basic and, unfortunately, my commitment to the loyal readers of the first and second editions of my book, Hardcore Visual Basic.
Thirteen ways to loathe VB
(Verity Stob)
Verity Stob has recently been press-ganged into a Visual Basic project. For the benefit of other programmers who may be brought down in this way, she has prepared an executive summary of her experience.
Why Delphi ? Why not ?!!??
I’ve
been using Delphi exclusively for 4 years now. I’m an ex-VB guy that did
VB for 3.5 years and loved every minute of it….until I came across Delphi.
When you look at the innards of Delphi (and you can, since Delphi is
written in Delphi) you can see the beautiful design of the tool.
More on Moving from VB to Delphi
(Michael
Cone)
Like many Delphi users, I am a total convert from Visual Basic. I had wasted too much time attempting to coax VB to run large projects. Delphi needs no such coaxing.
What VB Gurus Say About Visual Basic.Net
VB.Net for the VB6
Developer
(Bob Butler)
The largest concern I have regarding adopting VB.Net is the projected stability of the language. The complete gutting and rewrite that Microsoft feels is justified leaves me wondering what will happen in a few years when some new set of priorities dictates another set of sweeping changes. I view VB.Net largely as evidence that Microsoft has no understanding of or concern for the investment of their customers. Rather than "Where do you want to go today" the slogan is more appropriately "Where are you going to be dragged to next". In that light the C# language is also suspect although at this point I expect Microsoft to start using C# for their own development efforts and if they do that then they will value stability in the product. The C++ support in Visual Studio .Net amply demonstrates their commitment to backward compatibility with languages they value.
Moving to
VB.Net
(Bob Butler)
Porting applications from
"Classic VB" to C# might be easier than porting them to VB.Net since it
may be confusing to work in languages with such similar syntax but such
different behaviors
Visual Basic.NET
Revealed
(Bruce McKinney)
- And when they finished building a new language that had all the features to match Delphi and Java, strangely enough the new language looked and worked a lot like Delphi and Java.
- They assigned low-level C-oriented designers to redesign the high-level Basic language. The results are, well, alien. The new language is filled with gratuitous insults and ignorant stupidities. VB.NET just doesn’t have the Basic spirit. It’s hard enough for Basic programmers to swallow the necessary changes without imposing ridiculous and silly ones for no reason.
- If you've got to learn a new language, why not start with a really new language rather one with just enough similarities to be confusing. You could probably write a VB to C# translator that would be more accurate and less confusing than the VB to VB.NET translator
- Microsoft’s heart (if it has one) is in C#, not in VB.NET.
Are VB
developers ready to jump ship
-Visual Basic On The
Decline? New
(Charles Babcock)
05/14/01
The 3 million programmers using Microsoft's Visual Basic language make up one of the largest and most cohesive developer communities in existence, but some of them now are up for grabs.
The New Visual
Basic
(Mike James)
The new Visual Basic .NET is going to be a shock to many longstanding VB programmers we find out why…
This is not the first time that major changes have produced problems for VB upgraders but this is the first time you will not be able to take an existing VB 6 program and simply run it under VB 7 - you can be sure it will not work!
Developers cry foul over new Microsoft
language
(Mary Jo Foley)
The 3 million software developers using Microsoft's Visual Basic language will face some tough choices when the company ships the new version of its programming suite later this year.
Get Your
Designs in Gear for VB.NET
(Paul R.
Reed Jr)
As
tempting as the new VB.NET objects features might be, you must make a
commitment not to use them to create applications until you learn what
object-oriented design means in the first place.
Design quality will become a more important
consideration in implementing future projects than the language you choose
to write projects in.
.NET Changes Can't Be Ignored
VB has long been optimized for 100-line
apps. An enterprise-level tool such as VB should be optimized for
enterprise-sized apps of 50,000 lines or more—something he feels VB.NET
comes close to.
C#,
the natural progression
(Michael L. Perry)
- The result is a language that draws from Java and Delphi as much as, if not more than, it draws from C and C++.
- C# is a powerful programming language, designed around Java- and Delphi-like features.
A Symphony in C#
(Eric Binary Anderson )
- When I discovered that the maestro behind C# was Anders Hejlsberg, the same man who conducted Borland’s Delphi and C++ Builder and Microsoft’s VJ++’s WFC extensions, it all made sense.
- The language has many of the same simplifications to the object model as Object Pascal and Java
Do We
Need Another Programming Language?
(David Intersimone
)
- C# has many influences from Anders' work at Borland on Turbo Pascal and Delphi.
Delphi
.Net?
(Bill Hatfield, October 2000)
The Case for Delphi
(Alan C. Moore, Ph.D.)
It amazes me to have to write hundreds of lines of VB code to do something that could be done [with] drag and drop in Delphi.
The cult
of Delphi
(Marco Cantù)
I took a gamble on a new programming language called Delphi five years ago. At that time, I was betting on a technology that might not survive. Here we are five years later, and much of Borland's success these days (maybe even its survival) is due to the product's popularity.
Stand up and be counted
(Marco Cantù)
I learned that a major Formula 1 car-racing team uses Delphi for collecting and monitoring data about vehicles during races. I also learned that NASA uses Delphi.
Delphi 4 and VB6 take aim
(Peter
Coffee)
Delphi collaborates with COM (and actually gave us more convenient access to Microsoft Transaction Server options than did the 6.0 updates to Visual Basic, Visual FoxPro and Visual J++).
Delphi Leaves Visual Basic In the
Dust...Again
(Paul Bonner)
It has always been impossible to write more than a few hundred words about Delphi without expounding on how astonishingly little code it takes to get anything done.
Delphi. Reasons
why.
Delphi combines much of the
power of C++ with the ease that one expects (and doesn't get) of VB. Here
is why.
Ten Things
I Love about Delphi
(Charlie Calvert)
We all know that Delphi is a better product than VB. But sometimes it's fun to enumerate exactly what it is we feel about this subject.
Benchmarks, Prepared for Microsoft
by NSTL
This report was prepared by NSTL, Inc. under contract for Microsoft, Inc. (Microsoft). NSTL does not guarantee the accuracy, adequacy or completeness of the services provided in connection with Microsoft's product. NSTL MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, AS TO RESULTS TO BE OBTAINED BY ANY PERSON OR ENTITY FROM USE OF THE CONTENTS OF THIS REPORT. NSTL MAKES NO EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OF ANY PRODUCT MENTIONED IN THIS REPORT.
See how Microsoft misleading the world.
Linux or not Linux?
Delphi Under Linux?(Alex Simonetti Abreu)
I do not think there will be Delphi for Linux. At least not in the next 5-8 years.
Repsonse to "Delphi Under Linux?"
(Derek Benner)
No, we will never see a Delphi for Linux.
The Final Answer
Borland Kylix
The only Linux development tool that
combines the world's fastest compiler with the most productive visual
design environment for GUI, web and database programming.
Kylix
is the answer!
Borland Kylix is just
around the corner. Get a head start on developing RAD business
applications for Linux.
Kylix for
Visual Basic Developers
The VB
programming model for Linux
- Allaire HomeSite (HTML Editor)
- Cold Fusion 4
- GetWrite
- Net2Phone
- Hotdog Professional (HTML Editor)
- Search & Replace98 (Search & Replace tool)
- Server7 (Web Server)
- K-Chess Elite (Chess Game)
See also:
- Scientific, mathematical, and engineering APPLICATIONS written in Pascal
BORLAND PRODUCTS AT WORK FOR NASA
The recent, successful landing of the
U.S. Space Shuttle Atlantis concluded an exceptional week for NASA and
Borland International, a leading provider of software development tools. A
computerized map, built with Borland's Delphi tool, was used on both
Atlantis and the Russian space station Mir while in orbit to help identify
and capture photographs of the Earth. The same week, a separate NASA
computer program developed with Delphi was named one of the nation's top
client/server applications by InfoWorld magazine, a leading computer
industry journal.
Inquire Within
With over 97,000 apartments in nearly
200 cities, Lincoln Property Company (LPC) is one of the largest property
management companies in the United States.
Several development environments were available for
creating interactive applications, but only Delphi offered both the
multimedia aspects and the solid database functionality needed for a
project of this nature.
ASSESS
Delphi Helps American Skandia
Compete
We ran into numerous problems with the Visual
Basic deployment, including the usual trips into DLL hell, with occasional
detours into VBX purgatory. It was an experience we were anxious not to
repeat. ..
It didn't take long to see that Delphi
was the only tool available that would meet all of our needs.
California's CalJOBS Project
The State of California Employment
Development Department (EDD) turned to Borland's Delphi, HREF Tools'
WebHub, Informix databases, and O'Reilly's WebSite Professional, to create
an interactive, database-driven Web site, known as CalJOBS (California Job
Openings Browse System).
