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Subject:RE: Linux users who like Windows From:"Jonathan West" <jwest -at- mvps -dot- org> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Mon, 30 Sep 2002 13:46:29 +0100
Peter wrote
>
> I
> think the concept MS is trying is portability of code between the dot
> net languages. The logical results are that massive code changes had to
> be made to VB.
I wrote an article a while ago on the future effects of this on VBA
developers (Tech writing tie-in, such as writing Word macros)
If you're interested in it, the article is available online
The short version of it is that Microsoft was not very bright in putting
more emphasis on VB.NET consistency with C# than with VB6, when the
installed base of C# applications was precisely zero, and that Microsoft has
some hard choices ahead of it regarding Office as a result of that decision.
The fact is that only 3 or 4 of the syntax changes Microsoft made to VB were
necessary for compatibility with the dotnet framework. The other 80 or so
changes were made to "clean up" the language. Some changes (like changing
the Wend keyword to End While) had no functional effect other than breaking
old code. I have had extensive discussions with the VB development team at
Microsoft, and that is the conclusion I have reached. A detailed explanation
why is not appropriate to this list.
By the way, in the descriptions of VB.NET in the help files and the MSDN
website, there are some priceless examples of
tech-writing-as-wishful-thinking :-)
Regards
Jonathan West
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