Frans has a very interesting reply to
an entry by Roy.
A lot of it is about particular design aspects of one language versus the other, which
I think people can argue about forever and ever, but what caught my eye was:
I personally think Microsoft has made a mistake by introducing VB.NET.
The reason for this is that VB.NET creates a serious positioning problem: what's the
real difference between C# and VB.NET besides some language definitions? Is one the
real RAD tool and the other for the keyboard-lovers who like to do everything the
hard way? Why does one have XYZ and the other does not and vice versa? I don't see
it why they've created these problems in the first place. [...] I therefor won't be
surprised when Microsoft phases out VB.NET in the long run over C# [...]
My first reaction to the question "Why did Microsoft create VB.NET?" is always to
think of Louis Armstrong's response when he was asked to explain jazz: "Man, if you
gotta ask, you'll never know." And then my second reaction is: if you use VB.NET and
VC#.NET for a while, you'll quickly realize that they are not just the same
language with different syntax. To use a phrase that will date me, they each have
a very distinct "look and feel" that goes beyond which features each language supports,
and this look and feel is has significance. (To riff off my Louis Armstrong reference,
to me VB feels a lot like jazz, while VC# feels a lot like classical music.)
But I realize all this touchy-feely stuff doesn't really answer the question. It's
definitely something I'm working on nailing down because I think it's vital that we
be able to articulate it in a better way than we have in the past. And out of that
explanation should flow the reality that VB.NET isn't going anywhere in the short
term or the long run. The free market, of course, gets the final word (as
always), but we're going to continue to bang away hard on new versions of VB.NET as
long as there are people who are going to use them...