What are the pros of VB.NET?

Question

Can anyone help me understand some of the pros (and some of the cons if they are constructive) of using VB.NET over say, C#?

Answer 1

Syntax can be a bit more concise, but harder to follow.

Really, for most of us, there's not a whole lot of difference...

Answer 2

Pros:

• there are a lot of VB.NET developers on the planet
• VB.NET developers tend to charge less than C# developers

Cons:

• VB.NET syntax is verbose
• VB.NET cannot do unsafe (i.e. pointer-based) operations, which are rarely necessary but do occur in special circumstances

since they both rely on the .NET framework, they're theoretically equivalent; otherwise, it's really a matter of comfort and style after that

in general, people from a VB background tend to prefer VB.NET, people from a C++/Java background tend to prefer C#

personally, i find VB.NET syntax to be overly complicated, and much prefer C#

BTW, it doesn't hurt to be fluent in both

Answer 3

COM interop is much better in VB.NET (compared to C#), partly because VB.NET supports optional named parameters.

http://www.publicvoid.dk/NamedParametersInVBNET.aspx

The most obvious place you run into this is in Office automation.

Answer 4

XML Literal

http://blogs.msdn.com/wriju/archive/2008/02/07/vb-net-9-0-xml-literal.aspx

Answer 5

There is a pretty comprehensive Codeproject article covering the technical differences.

Answer 6

There's no real disadvantage or advantage in either, though there's a few minor feature differences.

They both compile down to the CLR, though, and can easily be translated between.

The only major difference is an advantage for C#: C# developers make more money.

Evidence (and further discussion) can be found here.

Answer 7

Here are a couple of web posts that are pretty comprehensive, and come at VB.Net from a C# perspective:

• What a C# coder should know before they write VB.Net

• What a C# coder should know before they write VB.Net - Updated

Even as a VB.Net developer (as I am) there's some very interesting stuff in there!

Answer 8

Having worked in both languages I can tell you this:

VB.NET:

• The lack of anonymous delegates is annoying at best.
• The event handling syntax is kick arse.
• The lack of unsafe has been somewhat of a hitch
• Attribute syntax is annoying
• Using the Excel Interop is painless
• Casting tends to be tedious

C#:

• The event syntax for me is annoying.
• Anonymous delegates are a life saver.
• Attribute syntax cleaner then VB
• The LINQ syntax is cleaner
• Better addins to VS available.
  • R#: more addins available
  • R#: more features available
• ==
• The Excel Interop is PAINFUL
• Casting is easier

Lastly, even in the my language is better then your language argument, there are zealots on both sides. I find that for UI, I program better in VB then I do in C# most of the time. If doing back end, or complex UI, or unit testing VB tends to slow me down where if I do it in C#, it takes less time.

Answer 9

• VB.Net support static members inside functions, C# does not (I ran into this just today)
• I don't know the name of the feature, but when you import a namespace in VB.Net the namespace is "in scope". It can really come in handy. For example, if I'm going to use exactly one regex in an app in C# I'd either have to add a using statement for System.Text.RegularExpressions that's only going to be used by one class instance or type out System.Text.RegularExpressions.RegEX in the variable declaration (and I might even need to do it twice for one declaration). Now let's say I also have a StringBuilder or two and have already imported System.Text. In C#, nothing changes. In VB.Net I have the additional option of just saying RegularExpressions.RegEx in the declaration. Also, you get a very nice intellisense prompt after entering the period in VB.

I think VB.Net takes a lot of flak from C/C++/C# developers who (rightly) remember the travesty that was VB6/VBScript, and the effect is amplifed via group-think. We need to put it to rest: VB.Net is not VB6.

I wonder how many C# programmers spend any significant amount of time with VB.Net code? I mean, more than say one week of solid production work? I'm sure there are a few who came in initially from the Classic ASP world, but all in all not that many. I came originally from a C++ backgound, I have spent significant time with both VB.Net and C#, and I can tell you that after a while the VB.Net syntax really has a lot to recommend it over the curly-braced languages.

You probably also want to see this question:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/102084/hidden-features-of-vbnet

Answer 10

This is very similar to a question I asked and got negative votes for...

As far as I can tell, more people use VB.NET Its closer to VB6 syntax wise Some people look down on VB developers but I like it as much as C#!

Answer 11

I haven't done much VB.NET programming but I saw a difference in how to handle LINQ to XML in VB.NET, where you can use an interesting syntax to refer to XML elements. An example is shown here: LINQ to XML in VB.NET and Using the Right Language for the Job

Secondly I have heard that multi-line lambdas are not possible in VB.NET in the current version. Further pointers here: No multi-line lambdas in VB 2008