Eric Wise

Business & .NET

.NET Reflector Rocks!

Where have I been? I've been working like a madman on the local install version of Easy Assets .NET!

Have you ever really gone back and reviewed code you've wrtten long ago? I've been working on Easy Assets .NET for quite some time and the hosted version works great! I'm happy with the performance etc. When I started working on the local install/open source version though I realized just how far my skill with .NET has come along in the last year+ and so I've decided to refactor the entire project so that the local install / open source versions will be even easier to work with.

Good news for my future customers, bad news for my time and sanity. I must give great thanks for .NET Reflector though, it allows me to quickly and easily run through my hosted .dll and pull out the bits I want in VB .NET. The hosted version is in C# but my gut feeling tells me that a VB .NET local install / open source version will be more universally easy to work with.

Published Feb 27 2005, 07:06 AM by Eric Wise

Filed under: Business / IT, Easy Web Applications

Comments

Gareth said:

"my gut feeling tells me that a VB .NET local install / open source version will be more universally easy to work with."

Out of interest what made you come to this conclusion? A larger percentage of Open Soucre projects I come across are C#. Surely a C# application would have more legs!

# February 27, 2005 10:58 AM

Eric Wise said:

I wish I could find the link for the statistics I found, but I have read that VB .NET vs C# adoption is approximately 60:40 in favor of VB .NET. If anyone can find these statistics please feel free to post them. I just know that a large chunk of the favor for VB is attributed to the government which seems to favor VB development.

In addition, VB reads more like english and I believe it is easier for the novice programmer to pick up and understand. I know in my experience with mentoring new graduates I've found that they tend to pick up VB .NET a lot faster than C#.

Think of it this way, in C# you have a class definition that uses a : to inherit another class. That's great because it's less verbose and faster for me to code. VB .NET I actually have to use the keyword inherits which to a new developer draws more attention to the fact that something is being inherited.

Please don't start a flame war over the merits of one language over the other. They both have their advantages and drawbacks and I'm fluent in both. My decision to go to VB sourcecode is based mostly on my experience with novice .NET developers.

# February 27, 2005 11:41 AM

Geoff Appleby said:

Can't...help....it.....

Of course, VB is just better :)

# February 27, 2005 2:31 PM

Brendan Tompkins said:

Geoff, get that mousepad ready for a good floggin!

# February 27, 2005 5:49 PM

Brendan Tompkins said:

Eric, are you going to post a downloadable version? I'd like to try it out.

# February 27, 2005 5:50 PM

Eric Wise said:

There will be a downloadable "Evaluation Version" when the code is ready. I anticipate this to be in April. You'll see a formal announcement then!

I could have it done sooner but I'm holding back a little bit in anticipation of .NET 2.0 so I can port the UI over to master pages.

In the meantime if anyone is dying to see the program in action I can provide access to the free trial hosted version, just shoot me an email and I can hook you up with a test account.

# February 27, 2005 6:17 PM

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