The Old Joel on Software Forum: Part 3 (of 5)

Upcoming VS.NET

http://msdn.microsoft.com/vcsharp/default.aspx?pull=/library/en-us/dv_vstechart/html/vs2004_intro.asp

Go down to the feature called "Code Snippets". Is it just me, or is this feature absolutely begging for abuse. I can picture the code already, makes me shiver.

Andy
Saturday, January 24, 2004

slowly, but surely we will be moving to what MS calls *powerpoint* programming, till that day....:-)

Prakash S
Saturday, January 24, 2004

I think it is a Visual Basic only feature.

There will also be lots of wizards and other helpful doo-dads for Visual Basic programmers.

Kentasy
Saturday, January 24, 2004

I am sure it beats this though:-)

http://www16.brinkster.com/messydesk/db/refactvb.asp

Prakash S
Saturday, January 24, 2004

>> "Terminology and structure of available features will be simplified to cater for the less rigorous intellect of the VB developer."

The stereotype that will never go away. There is no correlation between a person who codes in Visual Basic and how intelligent that person may or may not be.

If an accomplished programmer chooses VB as the language to write code in, it is because they know from experience that it is the fastest, easiest way to accomplish what needs to be done. If the program they create is useful, it will be used. This is the nature of business. If it needs modification, it will probably be easily accomplished. This can be traced back to experience.

If an inexperienced/weekend programmer chooses VB as the language to write code in, it is because they know that VB is intuitive, forgiving and easily learned. If the program they create is useful, it will be used. This is the nature of business. If it needs modification, it may take a lot of refactoring. This can be traced back to inexperience.

Hat
Saturday, January 24, 2004

I think that VB's accessibility (because, it IS so productive) lowers the bar (barrier to entry) so that you get more casual programmers.

Something like C++ has such a barrier to entry that only the strong(er) survive.

The extra neophytes that use VB dilute the average IQ of a VB developers as a whole.

That being said, using VB does not MEAN that you're a bad programmer. Your' just in a group that has statistically more "poor" programmers.

All that being said: I use VB and I'm largely self taught. And I have a very successful company. "VB been berry gud to me"

The real Entrepreneur
Saturday, January 24, 2004

DUH!!!, its meant to be a joke!

Prakash S
Saturday, January 24, 2004

I have been using Textpad's version of code snippets (called clip libraries) in Textpad for years. It's such a cool time saving feature you'll wonder how you did without it.

In Textpad you can create your own ones, like creating and querying database connections, opening a file and running through the contents, etc.

Saves looking it up in a book, or the online help each time.

Matthew Lock
Saturday, January 24, 2004

OK, well, I guess there should be a feature that limits the code snippet to 1 line. That will prevent you from having to memorize a lot of function names and parameter lists, and such.

If it's more than one or two lines, that's what scares me. Copy and paste is evil.

Andy
Saturday, January 24, 2004

"The stereotype that will never go away. There is no correlation between a person who codes in Visual Basic and how intelligent that person may or may not be."

I most certainly would disagree with this sentiment based upon industry observation -- while there are some extremely intelligent VB programmers, they are definitely the exception. On the flip side I've met few professional C or C++ programmers who weren't highly intelligent, and the same can be said of Delphi programmers.

Anonymizer
Saturday, January 24, 2004

There's a variation of this for C#:

"A Sneak Preview of Visual C# Whidbey"
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dv_vstechart/html/whidbey_csharp_preview.asp

("Expansions," which are "fill in the blank snippets of code.") Just to keep you C# partisans from getting too smug. <g>

Robert Jacobson
Sunday, January 25, 2004

Heh. That link is funny. :)

"Run to Blinky thing."

I use VB and I love it. I also hope all the current "poor" VB types migrate to C# so they can be "cool". :)

I think I will start calling it B# so I can be "cool" too... :)

Kentasy
Sunday, January 25, 2004

One nice thing about coding in VB: less coding snobs.

Kyralessa
Sunday, January 25, 2004

When is the new VS.NET expected? I'm on the relatively ancient 2002 and was going to upgrade to 2003, but not if the new one will be out shortly (< 6 mos.).

MR
Monday, January 26, 2004

I've been doing something similar for years with Visual Notepad. We used to call them "code libraries" and we all had our own set of useful functions that we kept on hand for when it was useful to re-use them.

Properly commented and modularized so their inputs and outputs could be easily managed in the context of the new code, it's an invaluable time saver. But that does mean you need to think about things like this in advance, and I don't see a lot of that out there.

Colleen Hannon
Monday, January 26, 2004