WHY only in VB:( - - - ASP.NET 3.5 Website Programming: Problem - Design - Solution

jminatel · March 30th, 2009, 10:20 AM

I think there's something to be said for the "original language" argument. One of the (many) reasons I wasn't accepted to an "elite" physics PhD program was my total inability to learn German (beyond bier). But, there were plenty of good US physics programs without that original language requirement and I went to a good but not elite big school. So while there are "must be C#" shops I see evidence that there are still many more that are are C#/VB agnostic.

Lee Dumond · March 30th, 2009, 10:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jminatel

So while there are "must be C#" shops I see evidence that there are still many more that are are C#/VB agnostic.

Oh, I don't know about that... I see many advetisements that say "must know C#", and some that say "must know VB". I can't remember the last time I saw one that said "must know one or the other, we don't care which."

The seemingly-never-ending consulting project I am finishing up right now is for an insurance company, and all their stuff is in VB. This is apparently because the project leader feels more comfortable in that language, and as he told me, "it's easier to find VB devs who will work for cheap." Which I guess is why the project now requires the hiring of outside consultants to fix it...

Steve S · March 30th, 2009, 02:03 PM

I try to read Jeff Atwood's Coding Horror blog as fast as he posts them (3-5 times a week).

I also agree with Lee about VB and the switch to C#; and did so myself after many years for much the same reason. For many years Microsoft touted VB as the most used language with some 5 million users world wide, of course this included hobbyists and probably VBA as well; and was prior to the release of .NET 1.1, since then I've never heard them mention VB in this manner.

Yes, there is still projects being done in VB and VB.NET, but they are becoming fewer and fewer all the time, while those done in C# are becoming the standard. When I first got into database programming it was with Foxbase on a Macintosh 20 years ago. I quickly realized that Windows was becoming the standard so made the switch from Mac to Windows. Now that C# is becoming the standard I've made that switch too. It isn't religious fervor, it's economic reality.

Which I think leads back to the original question of this thread, why bring out the TBH MVC book in VB rather than C#. While it's been stated that the author is "more comfortable" in VB Wrox also has many good C# authors available and could have made C# a requirement. That this did not happen, I think, is more a business decsion than anything else; and only they, and maybe Amazon, know the sales numbers of their VB vs C# books.

I will more than likely buy the MVC book when it comes out, but I will also be buying Pro ASP.NET MVC 1.0 too, which is in C#. If you want you can download the first chapter by Scott Guthrie as a PDF and work through a simple step by step MVC project (code also available on line). That's what I started late last night.

Good Luck

Steve

Lee Dumond · March 30th, 2009, 02:19 PM

Steve, just to clarify... there are TWO books coming out that are being considered "sequels" to Marco's book.

The MVC one you refer to is being written by Nick Berardi and Al Katawazi, and is indeed being written in C# as far as I know.

The 3.5 WebForms/EF one is being written by Chris Love in VB.NET. That's actually the book that we're talking about in this thread.

Hope that clears things up a little.

dparsons · March 30th, 2009, 02:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lee Dumond

The MVC one you refer to is being written by Nick Berardi and Al Katawazi, and is indeed being written in C# as far as I know.

Yes it is. =]

Steve S · March 30th, 2009, 02:29 PM

Lee,
Yes, I did cross my wires a bit on that one; I'll blame it on staying up last night working my way through the MVC stuff so have MVC on the brain. I think my basic points about Wrox, or should we now say Wiley; and the decision to have VB instead of C# are still valid. Possibly a hail mary pa$$ to appeal to those millions of VB holdouts at the expense of the hundreds of thousands of C#ers.

I wonder, getting back to your Coding Horror reference, How many of the Wrox/Wiley books do get translated and published into non English languages; and what those other languages are?

Steve

Lee Dumond · March 30th, 2009, 02:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steve S

Possibly a hail mary pa$$ to appeal to those millions of VB holdouts at the expense of the hundreds of thousands of C#ers.

I may be whistling in the dark here, but based on my knowledge of the project, I honestly do not think this was a monetary ($$) decision. I think it was a "you're the author, do it the best way you know how" decision. Chris's strong preference for Basic (and disdain of C#) is well known; he's written about it on his blog more than once. I just think they figured they'd get a better book out of him if they let him write the book the way he wanted.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steve S

I wonder, getting back to your Coding Horror reference, How many of the Wrox/Wiley books do get translated and published into non English languages; and what those other languages are?

I don't know, but I believe the Polish gentleman in the blog post was referring to Microsoft documentation in particular. The MSDN is already published in many languages, including Polish, but many of the localization efforts have been somewhat spotty, and in many cases important things have been lost in translation. I think this is why this person, and many like him, prefer to bypass those pitfalls and read the MSDN in its original language.

Avraham Nahir · March 30th, 2009, 03:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lee Dumond

I don't know, but I believe the Polish gentleman in the blog post was referring to Microsoft documentation in particular. The MSDN is already published in many languages, including Polish, but many of the localization efforts have been somewhat spotty, and in many cases important things have been lost in translation. I think this is why this person, and many like him, prefer to bypass those pitfalls and read the MSDN in its original language.

The main problem is that the MSDN folks insist on using reverse Polish notation...

Lee Dumond · April 9th, 2009, 11:21 AM

Hey, speaking of this book... is it just me, or is anyone else having trouble accessing the author's blog?

http://www.professionalaspnet.com/

The feed has been throwing errors for days, and the actual site has been down since Monday as far as I can tell.

(Either that, or he's blocking my IP?

)

dparsons · April 9th, 2009, 11:36 AM

The site loads for me (albeit very slowly) but the UI is blown out. The last post he made was on 04/06 it looks like.