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Good news from the VB.NET product team

As a VB.NET MVP, I love seeing stuff like this from the VB.NET product team:
(I can't share most of the email, since it's NDA, but here is what I can share.)

Also, here are some data points that make us confident in VB’s momentum. This is the kind of thing I share with other teams when I engage them about “speaking vb”. We’ve made the decision that you can freely talk about these data points in public (not under NDA) :

---non-NDA---

Visual Basic is the #1 .NET language (as reported by Forrester Research)
Visual Basic is most downloaded and registered Express Edition
- Visual Basic Express is ranked #1
- Visual C++ Express is ranked #2, by a difference of 20% from #1
Visual Basic has the most trafficked MSDN language dev center and blog
VB Team blog is in the top 1% in readership of all MS bloggers

---non-NDA---

Face it folks, VB.NET isn't going to be "going away" for a VERY long time. Sorry Georgie...

(BTW, that's not a typo... C++ is number TWO, not C#. Apparently Visual Web Developer is #3... *snicker* I wonder where C# is... )

posted on Wednesday, October 31, 2007 3:01 PM

Feedback

# re: Good news from the VB.NET product team 10/31/2007 3:59 PM Jason Olson

You know, those are some _great_ stats. I've wondered as of late whether the Developer and Platform Evangelism team here at Microsoft (which I am a part of) doesn't give VB the love it deserves.

To me, it becomes almost a self-fulfilling prophecy when all the "cutting edge" demos we give are written in C# and not VB.

# re: Good news from the VB.NET product team 10/31/2007 6:25 PM Bill

Well well well. Seems to me General McCarthy and his loyal minions and/or fellow travellers owe the C# folks a big fat apology ;-) Just kidding.

That's an interesting couple of points though , especially the C++ thing. I'd love to see the survey data b/c It doesn't surprise me a bit that VB is number one, but I know exactly 3 people that have used VC++ with .NET and can count the number of VC++ dotnet books on my hands - I'm still having a little trouble with that one.

Anyway homie, great post - definitely some interesting info.

# re: Good news from the VB.NET product team 10/31/2007 6:58 PM Chris G. Williams

Yeah, turns out C# Express is a close number 4... well, close to number 3 anyway. There's a bit of distance between 1 and 2.

# re: Good news from the VB.NET product team 11/1/2007 4:39 AM Markk

Obviously, C# isnt being downloaded by amateurs who need to learn how to program in Basic first, before moving onto something with abit more respectability.

Of course VB ranks highly. because its a Basic language. And easy to implement. A great language for learning.

But time after time, VB literature will always talk about binding datasets to datagrids, or change listbox colours. Whereas C#/Java literature will always talk about design patterns, object orientated behaviour.

Its a mind set.

Remind me exactly where anonymous delegates are in VB again please? Oh yeh, and the Yield keyword?

I forget....!

# re: Good news from the VB.NET product team 11/1/2007 5:43 AM Lorin Thwaits

Very surprising indeed. I made the 4 "feature tour" videos that are up on Microsoft's Express site, and expected that Visual Web Developer would be the most popular one by far. Also thought that C++ would be a way distant #4. Guess I was way wrong on both counts!

# re: Good news from the VB.NET product team 11/14/2007 11:19 AM Jason Olson

Markk, that is utter hogwash. VB in orcas has lambda expressions, nullable types, all the good stuff. But wait, where are XML literals in C#? Oh yeah...

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