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Since their introduction in 2002, Microsoft's pair of .NET programming languages, C# and Visual Basic.NET, have been close siblings. Although they look very different—one uses C-style braces, brackets, and lots of symbols, whereas the other looks a great deal more like English—their features have, for the most part, been very similar. This strategy was formalized in 2010, with Microsoft planning coevolution, to keep them if not identical then at least very similar in capability.
But the two languages have rather different audiences, and Microsoft has decided to change its development approach. The company has made two key findings. First, drawing on the annual Stack Overflow developer survey, it's clear that C# is popular among developers, whereas Visual Basic is not. This may not be indicative of a particular dislike for Visual Basic per se—there's likely to be a good proportion within that group who'd simply like to consolidate on a single language at their workplace—but is clearly a concern for the language's development.
Second, however, Microsoft has seen that Visual Basic has twice the share of new developers in Visual Studio as it does of all developers. This could indicate that Visual Basic is seen or promoted as an ideal beginners' language; it might also mean that programmers graduating from Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) macros in programs such as Word, Access, and Excel are picking the option that is superficially most comfortable for them. Visual Basic developers are generally creating business applications using WinForms, or occasionally ASP.NET Web Forms; the use of WinForms in particular again suggests that developers are seeking something similar to Office macros.
Accordingly, the development of the two languages is set to diverge. C# is going to continue to pick up more complex features. C# 7.0, for example, is adding integrated support for tuples and pattern matching syntax, the latest language features showing significant influence from functional programming languages like ML and Haskell. Visual Basic 15 is adding some of these, such as tuples, but it isn't going to match every new feature in C# 7.0. Going forward, it will be maintaining readability and keeping the number of different concepts manageable.
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(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 05 2017, @10:55AM
What we really need is another language, preferably locked to a vendor and a proprietary environment that users of the software will have to rent indefinitely to use our software.
Ideally we would rent the development tools and compiler and need Internet access always on to allow checking/revoking of licences,
Last wish would be a sprinkle of incompatibility between updates to keep life interesting.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 05 2017, @07:38PM
So you just described a not too distant future version of visual studio.
(Score: 2) by tibman on Monday February 06 2017, @01:47AM
I hate to defend Microsoft but you're wrong. Compiler is open source and more and more of .Net is being opened. However the ide, visual studio, already has a paid subscription that requires an internet connection.
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(Score: 2) by Wootery on Monday February 06 2017, @03:25PM
However the ide, visual studio, already has a paid subscription that requires an internet connection.
Stop being misleading. VS has the option of a paid subscription.
The Community Edition is freely available "for students, open-source and individual developers". [visualstudio.com]
Traditional non-subscription licences are still an option. [visualstudio.com]
(Score: 2) by tibman on Monday February 06 2017, @07:17PM
Sure, if you aren't making any money then Community Edition is perfect. But if you want to make money then you'll have to pay for the privilege and upgrade to Professional.
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(Score: 2) by Wootery on Tuesday February 07 2017, @09:07AM
Wrong.
For small companies, up to 5 developers can use the Community Edition, free of charge. [visualstudio.com]
Microsoft are guilty of plenty of shady bullshit. There's no need to lie to make them look bad. [eff.org]
(Score: 2) by tibman on Wednesday February 08 2017, @02:26PM
Okay, if your company has 5 or less developers and makes less than $1mil in revenue then you can use community edition. This was time well spent, thank you for dragging me through it.
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(Score: 2) by Wootery on Thursday February 09 2017, @10:08AM
Small companies are a thing. I don't know why you're trying to pretend this doesn't matter.
(Score: 2) by tibman on Thursday February 09 2017, @02:22PM
I'm not trying to pretend it doesn't matter. I was wrong and you called me a liar for that. Guess i am grumpy.
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(Score: 2) by Wootery on Monday February 13 2017, @09:51AM
Guess that makes two of us. Sorry about that.