[dba-VB] C# vs VB - was RE: Renaming DBA-VB

William, 

I programmed for a couple of years completely and only in C for a
uController project back in 96/97.  I went there from Access 2.0 and
returned to Access 97 (VBA).  I know that the syntax for C# is quite close
to VB.Net in a lot of ways and I also know that there are gotchas that have
to be understood, remembered and handled.  I think that going from VB.Net to
C#.Net is a LOT easier than going from VBA to C#.Net for the simple reason
that if you are fluent in VB.Net then you are no longer banging your head
over the IDE, the plethora of .Net classes, the intricacies of inheritance,
partial classes and so forth and so on.  That is all handled and understood
and NOW you can concentrate on syntax differences.

I have been a programmer full time since 1996, with long stints in variances
of basic as well as Pascal and "short" stints in C and I just found it
irritating moving directly from VBA to C#.  I made an educated decision to
postpone the move to C# until I was up to speed on VB.Net.  I have done
translations of code segments between C# back to VB.Net and I can tell you
that sometimes it is easy, sometimes it is not.  There are things possible
in C# that simply are not possible in VB.Net and, believe it or not, Vice
Versa.  Some of those differences are quite deep conceptually and can throw
a major wrench in any conversion.

I have not tried it lately, but I know that My. syntax (My.Computer) exists
in VB but not in C#, at least in the past.  Thus taking any code with My.
constructs and porting them to C# requires quite in-depth knowledge of what
the equivalent is.  The My. construct is just a wrapper, but a wrapper of
WHAT.  That is just one quick example.

So yes, in GENERAL the programming constructs all pretty much match one for
one, { = Begin, } = End, For exists in both etc.  Once you get past the
basics however there are things which are not so quickly and easily
translated.

John W. Colby
Colby Consulting
www.ColbyConsulting.com 
-----Original Message-----
From: dba-vb-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:dba-vb-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of William Hindman
Sent: Tuesday, October 23, 2007 11:39 AM
To: dba-vb at databaseadvisors.com
Subject: Re: [dba-VB] Renaming DBA-VB

...what many here apparently don't yet understand Gustav, is just how easy
and rewarding the transition from vb.net (even vba) to c# really is in the
dot.net environment ...I was a long time vba developer who got pushed into
asp.net work by a client and automatically defaulted to using vb.net ...but
so many of the samples and tutorials were posted in both vb.net and C# that
it became quickly evident that it was mostly just syntax differences ...and
minor ones at that ...and more and more of the samples/tutorials I was
really interested in were available only in c#  because vb.net simply could
not do it as well if at all.

...my vote goes to dba.net on the simple basis that most questions posed in
either .net language can be readily addressed by any one experienced in
either ...besides which the free translators available have become quite
adept at going to from either language.

...imnsho, dba.programming will suffer the same fate as dba.vb has but for
exactly the opposite reason.

...my 2 cents, worth exactly what it cost you.

William