Benefits of NET languages?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Norman Wooten
  • Start date Start date
N

Norman Wooten

Ok, I currently program in visual basic 5.0 (ouch, i know its old),
Classic ASP & VBScript...

I am about to make the jump to Visual Studio 2003, yet I have questions..

C#.NET I hear is quite an interesting language.. I thumbed thru some
books at the book store and saw some interesting stuff.. like jagged
arrays and such (pretty cool)..

But does C# really have any benefits over Visual Basic in the NET
framework? Or is it best to learn both (or for that matter.. all the NET
languages)

Any good book suggestions for migration to the NET framework.. (I
noticed WROX has books "Beginning ASP.NET using ..." in both the VB and
C# flavors..

Ok, any suggestions are helpful :P

-Norman Wooten



-=-=-=-=-=-
I can't wait for Hell to freeze over, because I'm going to have TONS of
dates!
 
Hi Norman,

There isn't any performance differences between VB.NET and C#, so what it
all comes down to in the end is personal preference. Seeing as how you have
a background in VB, I would suggest you continue down that path, by
migrating to VB.NET instead of C#. That is, unless you have the time and the
will to learn a new language...
Personally I develop using C#, but that is because I have a background in C
and C++.

I hope this helped you come to a conclusion.
 
Thomas Johansen wrote:
Ok, well I pretty much have all the time in the world :)
I am disabled.. and this is my hobby..

I had someone tell me that I should go into C# because it is becoming
the standard for ASP.NET programming..

I did have a class called "C programming for Computer Technicians" that
taught me the basics for C.. and am self-taught is visual basic 5.0
(lol, prior to 5.0 I programed in Turbo Pascal - DOS. So I don't update
that often.. ha ha)

I more than likely will use both.. because I always wanted to learn C
anyways.. and C# looks like a good middle ground to C++

-Norman

There isn't any performance differences between VB.NET and C#, so what it
all comes down to in the end is personal preference. Seeing as how you have
a background in VB, I would suggest you continue down that path, by
migrating to VB.NET instead of C#. That is, unless you have the time and the
will to learn a new language...
Personally I develop using C#, but that is because I have a background in C
and C++.

I hope this helped you come to a conclusion.
Click to expand...


-=-=-=-=-=-
Two things in life are certain: death and taxes.
 
Oh my.. and I butched that reply quote.. heh my response starts off
saying "Thomas Johansen wrote:"

ahh well

-Norman Wooten

-=-=-=-=-=-
Do illiterate people get the full effect of Alphabet Soup ?
 
Additionaly note the step forward is that all .NET based language are
sharing the same class library. It makes programs written in C#, VB.NET or
whatever else quite similar (unlike previously where a language could have
its own form package while another would use the Win32 API).

Patrice
 
Sorry this is so long, but maybe sharing my ramblings would be helpful to
some:

VB.NET and C# are so similar, you could easily learn both if you don't mind
a few headaches of going back and forth. They have just minor differences. I
think the biggest difference is VB will let you get away with stuff C# will
not, like assigning two different datatypes. C# usually yells at me a lot
more. :(

My theory is that if you learn both, you'll have a deeper understanding of
the framework. I know a lot of programmers who learn in blocks and chunks.
They memorize chunks of code and know they need to put that there to make
something work, but they couldn't tell you why a keyword "New" is used in
some cases and not for others.

Yes, you can write a class in C# and use it in all your VB.NET projects. It
just takes two seconds to make a reference to any of your DLL's you compiled
in .NET no matter what language. And no the DLL is not COM -- nothing ever
needs to go in your registry. It's so great how I can create a highly
performing web site, FTP it to my remote web host, and it just runs! No more
regsvr32 or rebooting!

But as for languages, I'm also a Flash developer, so I'm always going from
JavaScript to ASP/ASP.NET. Although I don't program in C#, I can read it and
understand it, because it's so similar to Java & JavaScript. Like you, I
learned C in some of my old college courses (around 1995). I'll tell you
nothing in those classes ever helped me in my career. Linked lists were
something cool, but I don't even know if C# uses linked lists. In web
development, you rarely want to access a certain space in memory anyway...

Anyway, I'd start out in VB.NET, but at least look at your C# code samples
to keep up on your skills.

-Max
 
Max said:
Sorry this is so long, but maybe sharing my ramblings would be helpful to
some:
Click to expand...

Yes, that information was very handy..

I agree.. the college courses are good for the basics.. But I think you
get the most out of experience.. :)


-=-=-=-=-=-
Do or do not there is no try - Yoda
 
C# and VB.Net compile to the same Internediate Language, and are
functionally identical, with a few very minor exceptions. If you're used to
VB. start with VB.Net. And turn Option Strict ON! This forces you to type
everything strongly, which not only yields better performance, but makes you
a better programmer by forcing you to know what data type everything you're
working with is.

--
HTH,
Kevin Spencer
..Net Developer
Microsoft MVP
Big things are made up
of lots of little things.
 
Back
Top