Rockford Lhotka's Blog

A customer asked me for a list of things VB can do that C# can't. "Can't" isn't meaningful of course, since C# can technically do anything, just like VB can technically do anything. Neither language can really do anything that the other can't, because both are bound to .NET itself.

But here's a list of things VB does easier or more directly than C#. And yes, I'm fully aware that there's a comparable list of things C# does easier than VB - but that wasn't the question I was asked    I'm also fully aware that this is a partial list.

For the C# product team (if any of you read this), this could also act as my wish list for C#. If C# addressed even the top few issues here I think it would radically improve the language.

Also note that this is for .NET 1.x - things change in .NET 2.0 when VB gets edit-and-continue and the My functionality, and C# gets iterators and anonymous delegates.

Finally, on to the list:

I just got my author copies of the book, so it has been printed and is in distribution! This should mean that, any day now, bookstores will get copies and Amazon should start shipping them.

CSLA .NET">Click here for more information on both the VB .NET and C# editions of the book, as well as links to the code, the online discussion forum and other related information.

I rarely read magazines or articles - I just skim them to see if there's anything I actually do want to invest the time to read. This is useful, because it means I can get the gist of a lot of content and only dive into the bits that I find actually interesting. It also means that I can (and do) read a lot of Java related stuff as well as .NET related material.

If you've followed my blog or my books, you know that I have a keen interest in distributed object-oriented systems - which naturally has spilled over into this whole SOA/service fad that's going on at the moment. So I do tend to actually read stuff dealing with these topic areas in both the .NET and Java space.

Interestingly enough, there's no difference between the two spaces. Both the .NET and Java communities are entirely confused and both have lots of vendors trying to convince us that their definitions are correct, so we'll buy the “right” products to solve our theoretical problems. What a mess.

Ted Neward has been engaged in some interesting discussions about the message-based or object-based nature of services. Now Daniel F. Savarese has joined the fray as well. And all this in the Java space, where they claim to be more mature and advanced than us lowly .NET guys... I guess not, since their discussions are identical to those happening in the .NET space.

I think the key point here is that the distributed OO and SOA issues and confusion totally transcend any technical differences between .NET and Java. What I find unfortunate is that most of the discussions on these topics are occuring within artificial technology silos. Too few discussions occur across the .NET/Java boundary.

When it comes to SOA and distributed object-oriented systems (which are two different things!), every single concept, issue, problem and solution that applies to .NET applies equally to Java and visa versa. Sure, the vendor implementations vary, but that's not where the problem (or the solution) is found. The problems and solutions are more abstract and are common across platforms.

What's needed is an intelligent, honest and productive discussion of these issues that is inclusive of people from all the key technology backgrounds. I imagine that will happen about the same time that we have any sort of intelligent, honest or productive discussion between Republicans and Democrats in the US government...