Visual Basic cannot disappear

Reprint vbgood
Prepared by Tao gang

Visual Basic has been predicted to die for nearly a decade, but even after Visual Basic. Net appeared, everything remains unchanged. According to recent reports, the future of VB. NET is challenged by its brother Language C. Even after so many years, people still cannot understand VB -- and today's VB. Net -- is still the most popular in the world.Programming Language. Indeed, some VBProgramDevelopers will switch to C #, Java, or Delphi, but the changing factors taken into account in these languages highlight the fact that they are all evolving towards ease of use and rapid development, these features are developed and advocated by Visual Basic. Whatever happens, the language VB and its soul conquer the programming world and will continue to exist. In fact, the idea advocated by VB has never been as active as it is now.

Significant success

Earlier versions of Visual Basic did not have a huge response, but this language was innovative and attracted a lot of attention as a new programming example (paradigm, because it allows programmers to visually create forms ). For the first time, people can drag and drop controls to the design interface, without having to go through the lengthy edit-compile-test cycle required by other languages to see the appearance of the program.

Visual Basic further reduces the edit-compile-test cycle by executing end-run. Traditional VB is similar to many early basic implementations. It is an interpreted language. You Can Edit VB at runtime.Code. Even if the program is still running, the VB integrated development environment (IDE) will immediately apply most code changes, this allows you to gradually execute some code, locate errors, correct errors, and re-test the code in the debugging program, without stopping the program to re-compile. This feature, called "edit and continue", greatly improves the production efficiency of VB, surpassing the development mode of editing, compilation, and testing.

Programmers like the ability to drag and drop controls, but they are not satisfied with the built-in (built-in) controls. Fortunately, Microsoft has developed an architecture that programmers can use to create controls. Soon, enterprise developers built hundreds of "vbx" controls (and later ActiveX Controls) that cover the entire industrial field and reusable) to a new level.

Visual Basic is also the first popular programming language for general purposes. It provides truly integrated database access. Using Microsoft's Data Access Object (DAO) technology, it is very easy to process relational databases in VB, so that in many cases developers do not need to understand any information about the working methods of underlying relational databases, they can drag and drop the database-aware control on the form. Even for more advanced developers, Dao (and its successors, such as rdo, ADO, and today's ADO. Net) greatly improves production efficiency.

In the third edition, VB became stable and fast. It has the best ide that can be used at the time, and millions of part-time programmers can understand it. VB has quickly become the world's most popular application programming language, and it maintains its position no matter whether it's a passing prediction or a real change in the language itself.

The reason why Visual Basic remains popular is that it provides six elements that developers are most concerned about:

1. case-insensitive syntax similar to basic

2. visualization design capability

3. A great integrated development environment with integrated debugging programs

4. Edit and continue running (edit-and-continue)

5. A variety of cheap and strong subsequent controls

6. Simple and integrated database support

Other languages also provide a subset of these features, but none of them have successfully occupied the huge market occupied by VB.

Other vendors have long coveted the foundation of VB developers and have made great efforts to lure VB developers into migrating to other platforms. For example, Borland's Delphi language provides everything that VB provides, except for basic-like syntax and editing to continue running. In fact, Delphi provides more capabilities than VB. For example, it is faster. The speed of Delphi code execution is essentially the same as that of C ++. Delphi also provides local database awareness controls for dbase and InterBase desktop databases. Future versions of Delphi even provide ADO packaging.

But Delphi uses the basic language of the Object Pascal instead of the basic core, and the change in this feature hinders its widespread adoption. Whether the speed is faster or provides True Object-oriented Programming (OOP) capabilities-in short, it is based on the com package's VB. all the features of net-Delphi has never been an important competitor in the popularization of VB.
C # Can I replace Visual Basic?

Microsoft realized that some features made VB popular and included these features in VB. NET. However, C # has never been designed as a "VB Killer. In fact, C # is more like a developer who is used to attract C ++ and Java. C # provides a syntax similar to C, which is similar to C ++ and Java. However, it loses the first of the six features-similar to the basic syntax. Although syntax is not important for some developers, it is too important for others.

In addition, both VB and current VB. NET are not case sensitive languages. For example, "email" and "email" are the same variables. In C, C ++, Java, JScript, and other languages similar to C, it is wrong to change the upper case. Email and email are not the same variables.

C # It does have visual design and simple and integrated database support, and will eventually have a huge subsequent control library to choose from-but this control library and VB. NET developers have the same control library.

C # ide also needs more things. Even if C # shares the IDE with VB. NET, the IDE corresponds to each language. For example, the intelliisense in VB. NET is much better than that in C #. You may have guessed that the intelliisense in C # Is case sensitive. I cannot understand why case sensitivity is implemented in the search feature that helps people find unknown information and do not remember information. Worse, the Case sensitivity is inconsistent.

No one denies that the C # syntax is more concise. If you hate input and do not use the code Filling Capability of intelliisense, or you are already using the C language syntax, you should use C #. However, this does not mean that C # will eventually replace VB. NET.

The bigger question is whether VB. NET will replace VB. One problem is that VB. NET does not contain all the features of VB. In particular, VB. NET has lost the Edit feature of continuing to run, long-term promise, and continuous delivery, which will become a key factor for VB programmers to migrate to. net.

Code incompatibility is another obstacle to migration. Microsoft has not yet made it easy to migrate code from VB to VB. NET. Although the VB. NET syntax is very similar to the traditional VB syntax, it is not the same. It not only changes the syntax, but also adds to the framework. The Upgrade Wizard from VB to VB. NET is not only available now, but may never seamlessly migrate all applications intelligently in the future.

At the same time, most VB programmers do not need to migrate Large Vertical applications. They either write small applications and re-write them, which is not expensive, or plan to use VB to maintain existing applications, use both.. Net to create a new application. For most programmers of this type, different languages are welcome, making VB. NET the only real threat to traditional VB.

Does VB. NET surpass Windows platforms?

Interestingly, some advances in the Java camp seem to have an impact on Visual Basic programming. Microsoft has failed to make full use of the cross-platform version of the language. This means that Sun's Java will lead the cross-platform field because of its ability to run on any platform, which will bring practical commercial benefits-in the server field. However, Sun also failed. It ignored providing GUI development environments similar to VB, so it could not use Java's popularity, the result is that Java becomes the king of the server-side, non-GUI application market, while VB, C ++, and. net dominates the desktop platform.

However, the situation will not change forever. Thanks to IBM's Eclipse project, Java developers can now build Windows applications that are easy to respond, it is comparable to applications written in Microsoft programming language. Sun has declared that rave will provide Java developers with simplified rad features.

This trend is challenged by the openness and sharing of. NET Framework components to Linux and UNIX.Source codeProject. If these projects achieve results,. NET developers will eventually obtain cross-platform capabilities similar to those of Java. These trends will lead to some interesting transformations and changes, but they do not directly threaten Visual Basic.

Multiple options

Visual Basic. NET is the true successor of Visual Basic, because currently no language can match the VB feature set like VB. NET. But there are still those who complain-once you decide to leave the traditional VB, you don't have to worry about learning that language. If you decide to migrate to VB. NET, you will find that it is completely feasible. If you think it is not appropriate, you can also use C # Or J # programming.

Even if you decide to completely disconnect from Microsoft and switch to Java or Delphi, you will find it not very difficult to switch to. Net after learning these languages and frameworks. Except for a few, the ideas behind all these programming languages are the same. The difference in syntax and IDE between them is far greater than that between concepts and capabilities.

Conclusion

There is no uncertainty in the future of VB. VB is a set of features. All popular languages are changing to adapt to these features. The advocates of these features are traditional Visual Basic, which has been further developed in Visual Basic. net. No matter whether the syntax, platform, and framework are the same, the spirit of Visual Basic will continue to exist.