[Update 11/01/03: Thanks to reader Mikel Berger for a new link that supplies both the audio and the video of the commercial.]
So I was thinking about the whole discussion around refactoring, and parts of it reminded me of this Molson commercial. Unfortunately, most people outside of Canada will never have seen the commercial although it was reported on some around the world after it became something of a phenomenon. In it, a nondescript guy walks up to a microphone in front of a big screen displaying a maple leaf and starts talking. You can check out the commercial here. Which made me idly think of a slightly different commmercial...
(Paul looks thoughful as wavy lines cross the screen and we fade out to the same stage, only this time with a picture of VB being projected on the screen. A nondescript guy comes out and starts to speak, using the same music.)
Hey.
I'm not a newbie or a script kiddie.
And I don’t get paid less than other programmers, or only work on UIs, or write email viruses.
And I don't know BillG, SteveB or EricR from Microsoft, although I'm certain they're really, really nice.
I have a Handles clause, not a += expression.
I speak VB and VBA, not C#.
And I write it 'For Each,' not 'foreach.'
I can proudly type names using any capitalization I like.
I believe in line continuations, not curly braces; colons, not semicolons.
And that ‘With’ is a truly proud and noble statement.
CType is a cast, ReDim IS a statement.
And it IS written ‘Mod’. Not ‘%’. ‘Mod’.
BASIC is the oldest Microsoft language, the most popular programming tool in the world and the best part of Visual Studio.
My name is Mort, and I AM A VB PROGRAMMER!
(Wavy lines fade back to Paul who's nodding his head as if to say, “Yeah, that'd be cool...“)
Take it for what it's worth, eh?