Writing

Beta VB 9.0 language specification released...

Paul Vick — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 19:25:00 GMT

While I was visiting MSR Cambridge this week with some other people from Redmond, Beth put up the Beta 2 version of the Visual Basic Language specification on our developer center--so she got to beat me to the announcement! This updated language specification corresponds to Visual Studio 2008 and covers the following major new features:

Friend assemblies (InternalsVisibleTo)
Relaxed delegates
Local type inferencing
Anonymous types
Extension methods
Nullable types
Ternary operator
Query expressions
Object initializers
Expression trees
Lambda expressions
Generic type inferencing
Partial methods

The following features are not covered but should be shortly:

XML Members
XML Literals
XML Namespaces

The XML features are a little more difficult because I'm debating how much I should just refer to the XML 1.0 spec, versus how much I should specify explicitly. I'll probably err a little more on the side of the latter, since it'll be necessary for understandability...

Language Specification: Useful? Not?

Paul Vick — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 14:41:00 GMT

Random question for people: how many people out there actually ever look at the VB language specification? The original purpose of writing the language specification was purely for internal use, done so we'd have a reasonably authoritative explanation of the language aside from "whatever the compiler does" and "whatever MSDN happens to say." And to have a place where historical thinking could be preserved for future generations of VB team members, so there'd be some chance in hell that we could avoid making the same mistakes twice. But how useful is it for the public? Not that much, I would imagine, but I'm curious.

There should be a second edition of the 8.0 spec coming out in the next few months. Besides a bunch of corrections, it also cleans up the formatting and also--surprise, surprise--actually ensures that all the examples work and do what the spec says they will do. Up until now, language specifications have been published in Word, but with the new PDF tools that are available for Word, that's an option too. Do people like the Word format? Would you prefer PDF? Or both?

And finally, how tied are people to the structure of the specification? The Everett and Whidbey specifications only added on but didn't change the ordering of existing sections. Orcas will likely do the same. But beyond that, I've been toying with the idea of restructuring the spec a bit to make it a little clearer and put topics that should go together, together. I'm wondering if that would really throw people, or whether people wouldn't mind adapting. Not really a short-term issue, but...

Very nice review of the book on About.com...

Paul Vick — Mon, 24 Oct 2005 21:01:00 GMT

Dan Mabbutt has some very nice things to say about The Visual Basic .NET Programming Language. Keep it up and maybe there'll be a new edition sooner rather than later!

The Visual Basic Language, 2nd Edition?

Paul Vick — Mon, 03 Oct 2005 10:52:00 GMT

Over the past several months, I’ve been getting questions as to whether I’m going to be updating my book, The Visual Basic .NET Language, for VB 2005. The unfortunate answer is: not at the moment.

The first problem is that the VB .NET book market has been quite soft over the past year or two. This is not entirely surprising — although uptake on VB .NET has been very good considering the fact that the shift from VB6 to VB 2002 or VB 2003 was significant, it’s been (as I’ve always said it would be) a long-term process. We’re seeing continuously growing momentum behind VB .NET, and VB 2005 is shaping up to be a very big release for VB, but the fact is that the gradual transition has temporarily weakened the market for VB .NET books. It probably also doesn’t help that a so much of people’s VB6 experience transfers into VB .NET, thus lessening the need for a whole new shelf of books. The end result is that Addison-Wesley is taking a wait-and-see attitude towards a new edition of the book. I expect that with the release of VB 2005, the market realities are going to shift, but we’ll just have to see.

The other problem is that even if AW was breaking down my door to get me to write a second edition, I’ve been so consumed by LINQ planning that I’m not really sure when I’d have the time. Just getting the language specification updated for VB 2005 has been difficult enough… But I’m sure that I could squeeze it in there somewhere…

The end result is that what’s out there in my book is all there’s going to be for a little while. I still think that the book holds up very well in the face of our VB 2005 updates — most of the things that need to be added to the book are pretty advanced features like generics and operator overloading, things that many people aren’t going to miss. And all the fundamental stuff still is extremely applicable to VB 2005. So I still think it’s a good buy. However, as time goes on, it’s inevitable that those holes will become more glaring, so I’ll continue to work with AW to see if we can’t get an update out there in the reasonably near future!

Vote for Me!

Paul Vick — Wed, 19 Jan 2005 10:19:00 GMT

Now I know that you're all saying to yourselves: "Paul, I read your blog religiously, I've bought your book, I've gone to all the talks you've given, I've listened to the .NET Rocks show you were on, I'm even considering getting your name tattooed across my... What else can I possibly do to show my love for you?"

I'm glad you asked!

My friends at Addison-Wesley let me know that my book, The Visual Basic .NET Programming Language, has been nominated for a Sys-Con Reader's Choice award! I'm up against some pretty stiff competition, so I urge everyone who liked my book and who subscribes (or wants to subscribe) to go to their voting page and vote for the book! And, as an added incentive, every person who votes for me will earn a free gift: my personal and undying gratitude! (Offer void where prohibited. No monetary value. Not available in WA, VA, CT, TX, IA, OK, ND, WV or Puerto Rico. See stores for more details.)

I'm rich, I'm rich!

Paul Vick — Sun, 10 Oct 2004 23:28:00 GMT

Well, not really. However, I did get my first royalty check for The Visual Basic .NET Programming Language this week, which was exciting. Since this was my first book, I had no idea at all: a) how many books I might sell and b) how much that might mean in royalties. I was just hoping that it might bring in enough to, you know, go to McDonalds for a dinner or two.

I still have no idea if the book is selling "well," since I have no idea what to compare the numbers to, but the royalties were quite a bit more than I had imagined. (Which may be more of a testament to my pessimistic expectations than to the size of the check.) I mean, it's not like it's a huge amount of money and I'm certainly not quitting my day job yet to write full time - I'll leave that to the Petzolds of the world - but it ain't nothin'. I still haven't done the calculation yet, though, to figure out what the current "per hour" rate would have been for writing the book. That might still be a bit depressing...

Now just go out there and buy, buy, buy the book! Buy a second, third, fourth copy! Perish the thought that sales should fall off and I'd have to go back to buying lottery tickets to fuel my dreams of vast wealth...

Sample chapter is available

Paul Vick — Mon, 05 Apr 2004 15:27:00 GMT

For those of you who've been considering buying my book but just want to make sure that it's worth whatever they're charging for it these days, Addison-Wesley (my publishers) has provided a sample chapter online in PDF format. The chapter is about inheritance, so it should give you a good idea of what the rest of the book is going to be like.

As always, you can buy the book here.

My God, they're right!

Paul Vick — Fri, 19 Mar 2004 11:20:00 GMT

Someone - I forget who - told me that "once you get a copy of your book, it never fails that the first page that you open it to is going to have a glaring error on it, so be prepared." I thought, "yeah, right."

So I just opened the book for maybe the second or third time to look something up, and sure enough - right there on the page was a massive, glaring, obvious, how-could-I-and-all-the-other-reviewers-miss-it error.

Ug. I need an aspirin.

The cat's out of the bag...

Paul Vick — Fri, 05 Mar 2004 16:44:00 GMT

Oh, and yeah, my book is finally available! I've actually got a real, printed copy of it sitting here on my desk and Amazon claims that they're shipping it within 24 hours! (It may not be on the shelves of your local Barnes and Noble for a little while longer, though.)

Overall, I have to admit that I find this kind of frightening, somewhat akin to what it must be like taking your child off to their first day at school. Here's something that's been a part of you for quite some time, and now it's out there at the mercy of the big, bad world. Will it make friends? Will it get beaten up and come home crying? I guess now only time is going to tell....

So, everyone, go out and buy a copy and tell me (and everyone else on Amazon) how wonderful it is! Here's a handy link to help you get started:

Hope you all like it....

P.S. - There's already someone selling a used copy of the book on Amazon. I've had my own copy something like 48 hours... how does that happen?

One step closer...

Paul Vick — Fri, 12 Dec 2003 17:25:00 GMT

Well, another step towards getting in print - it appears that Amazon now has my book in their database!

There it is, in all it's glory. Amazon seems to be a little confused, though. For some reason they don't seem to know that it won't be published until March. And you can't find my book by searching on my author name.

Also, when the book is actually published, there'll be a cool quote on the front cover but you'll just have to wait to see that one...