"zedd" <
XXXX@XXXXX.COM>writes
Quote
>They need to get with the program though, and pronto.
Too late for that, they already scared all potential VB(Visual Basic) devs
that didn't cheer for .Net by posting their .Net first and
foremost message all over the Delphi stuff.
Nope, that is not right. Maybe the situation is not clear.
What VB(Visual Basic) folks are really torqued about is the change in the *language*, not
.Net.
That change in fundamental language syntax and behavior just happened to
occur (this time, again) when they released their .Net product. The MS
Marketeers claimed (incorrectly) that the changes were due to .Net
requirements, so some folks have been confused about that and think it has
something to do with Dotnet. First, very few of the language changes have
anything to do with .Net (and those that do are understandable as valid).
What happened was that some folks in that dev group decided to "clean up the
language". MS themselves later admitted this, but the misconception lingers
that the changes were related to the .Net platform requirements. In
addition, the moniker VB.Not seems to point to anti .net... it simply means
that the product is .Not VB! Thinking more logically, if VB(Visual Basic) folks didn't
want to get to .Net do you think they would give a hoot about VB.Net one way
or the other?
Now, that is not to say that I am really a big fan of .Net. DotNet is either
the next Windows... or the next OS/2. So, I am not yet a .Net cheerleader,
but I would at least like to know that my app, written in a language proprietary
to a company launching a new strategic platform, would at least let me go in
the direction that this company is going. Think about that just a minute.
This isn't MS not taking their developers to Sun or Linux, this is MS not
taking their developers to MS! The tail is wagging the dog. Rather than a
developer tool being created for the developer customers, it is being created
to move other company products forward.
Now, back to the point: What VB(Visual Basic) devs want is a good home for their apps.
That includes a good development language that is stable enough that you
don't have to completely rewrite your apps every few years. It *also* means
a development environment that provides options to move forward to new
strategic platforms, including .Net (and WinXX and Linux, and as many others
as are commercially reasonable).
The problem right now is *not* that VB(Visual Basic) developers are pixxed at Borland over
Delphi, it is that they simply don't have a reasonable way to get here. (OK,
they're not pixxed at Borland but I will admit some of the idiotic trolls that
show up in the VB(Visual Basic) groups from time to time might get slapped)
Unfortunately for me (and maybe 6million others of us), we don't have a
reasonable way to get to VB.Net either. I am certain that MS does not have
a resolution to this up their sleeve... because they simply do not have
anybody in that group that understand VB(Visual Basic) developers (on this I have personal
knowledge, it is not speculation).
Seems to me this *could* be an opportunity for Borland. Work the numbers.
Even very low percentage success rate on developer conversion is fairly
"intere$ting".
What we're doing in our shop is trying to work a migration to Delphi...
initially D7, but with almost all of the code capable of working in Delphi 8 and
possibly Kylix. For the forseable future we will probably be Win32 as
released products, but we sure would like to think there is a future beyond
that.
Dan
MS VB(Visual Basic) MVP 1997-2001
(in the first group of 8 MVP's when the program was started)
That is, I know a little about VB(Visual Basic) devs.