Visual Basic .NET

from Microsoft's Visual Basic (VB), Visual Basic .NET (VB.NET) is an improvement from classic VB. The enhancements of the computer language are targeted to use the Microsoft's .NET framework and to bridge the gap towards the C#. All the new languages tend to have the same set of core syntactic features while varying in the form so people can move with more ease from the old version. Visual Basic .NET is a complex system compared to other variants of BASIC.

Like C#, VB.NET compiles to MSIL which needs to be JITtedted as it is executed. The MSIL produced by VB.NET is identical to that produced by C#, which is why C# and VB.NET (and Managed C++ for that matter) can communicate directly with one another. Though the MSIL is identical between languages, C# has some features that VB.NET lacks, and vice versa.

Table of contents
1 Changes
2 Controversy concerning VB.NET
3 External Links

Changes

Visual Basic starting from version 1 through version 6 and now in the version called .NET got more complex with each revision. The following simple example gives an idea

Classic VB example:

Private Sub Command1_Click()

  MsgBox "Hello, World"
End Sub

A VB.NET example:

Private Sub button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles button1.Click

       MessageBox.Show("Hello, World")
End Sub

The documentation says that the rules of the language have partly changed, the way applications are debugged is different, deploying has changed and a part of the terminology has been changed as well.

Controversy concerning VB.NET

VisualBasic .NET could be said to represent a bold and aggressive business move by Microsoft Corporation, because it discontinues a large number of capacities that were present in earlier versions of Visual Basic (which are now no longer sold). Indeed, some experts in VisualBasic .NET have characterized it as an entirely new programming language. Old Visual Basic programs will not, in general, run in VB.NET.

It is estimated that as a result, a great deal of time and effort is being expended rewriting (and newly debugging) old Visual Basic code. In addition, where the debugging process is not carried out perfectly, the updated code will cause program users to experience errors not present in earlier versions of the same programs. The total cost to the world economy of these problems is unknown.