Vb.net

Hi all, I have my Panda and it should be probrammed in C#. I use VB.NET for PC and C for Arduino only up to now. C# is .NET as well, is it posible to program FEZ Panda using VB.NET?
Thanks fo reply, Peter

Big discussion here…

Gus has included a comment
[url]http://www.netmf.com/Discussion/Forums/SingleForum/SingleThread.aspx?mode=singleThread&thread=abf594c7-f7e4-4e9e-a5a3-9dc2b4d3e77c[/url]

From this… It doesn’t look like it…

Cheers Ian

The Netduino guys are working on VB. Dunno if it will make it over to the FEZ, but I think it should be compatible.

If you know C then C# is a dodle to learn.

It’s also a pretty nice language.

BASIC was the first language I learned back in the late 70’s (I have been coding for a while) and I have used Visual Basic professionally a few times. Even so, I think the community would be better served with standardizing on a single language for .NetMF. Having all examples in a single language will save a lot of headaches for people in the long run. More than once I have had to help new .Net developers translate a VB.NET code fragment they found on the Web to the equivalent C# code and it just added to their confusion while trying to learn the full framework.

Programming is programming … learn one language and you can learn most other procedural languages without too much difficulty.

Just my opinion.

-Eric

I personally would love to se FEZ being programmed from a Visual Basic Express. That would probably open up a whole new marked with millions of users currently programming in VB.
I see that the people over at Secret Labs are trying to get something going
[url]http://forums.netduino.com/index.php?/topic/250-visual-basic-project-details-read-first/[/url]
I also find VB code much easier to read and follow then C# code.

It is a pity its not possible now. I’ll look forward for some micro Framework updates fo VB .net.

I also use VB on a professional basis…

However ! I think you will benefit by knowing several languages. Once you learn C#
(its exactly the same syntax as c, and the same class level structure as VB and Java)

You’ll be a better programmer…

I think C# is an excellent tool for this type of development… The automation seems seamless ( for those who want to know about automation try c++ , you’ll soon be glad that C# exists )

Cheers Ian

Ian,

You got that right … C# is a vast improvement over C++. I’m very happy that nearly 100% percent of my job is C# programming and when I have to go back and mod one of my old C++ programs I’m not a happy guy.

-Eric

I had vb working with fez about 6 months ago :slight_smile: thanks to the help from one professional customer who loves vb and hates c# lol

I was going to make a write up for this but never got to it. It was actually better, I had both c# and vb in one project :slight_smile:

I started learning .NET programming about a year ago and I picked C# as a starting point. When I got a programming job back in March of 2010, my employer required everything to be in VB.NET. It took me about a week to get comfortable with the changes in syntax, but as of .NET 4.0, you can do just about anything equally as well in both C# and VB.NET. VB.NET and C# both fulfill the same role within the .NET framework and while many programmers get comfortable with one versus the other, there’s little to inhibit a developer from easily switching between the two. I’ve found that knowing both languages has made me a much better .NET programmer overall.

One thing that you can use to help you get started learning C# is a free utility called Reflector that’s available from Redgate: [url]http://www.red-gate.com/products/reflector/[/url]. Reflector will allow you to write code in one .NET language and then view the disassembled code in a different .NET language. You could write some logic code in VB.NET, look at the code in C# via reflector, and copy that code into your .NET MF project. It’s a very straightforward process that should help you to ease into learning C# from your existing knowledge of VB.NET.

I won’t bash VB.NET, but I will say if VB was the only option for FEZ development, I wouldn’t be here :slight_smile: So perhaps the likewise is true - expanding .NETMF to VB would open a lot of doors for bringing new people in. What’s great about .NET is all of the existing libraries/etc would work out of the box, more or less.

C# is the language of the 21st century though. A great object model like Java, with an awesome syntax (C). It’s what C++ should have been. From a selfish standpoint, I would rather see support for generics first.

Well I have to stick up for C++ here, I don’t see how the designers of C++ could have come up with C#. It was different times back then you know! C++ was designed for high performance at a time when even the arm7 processors would gave been seen as insanely powerful.

C++ is also still “better” than C# for certain application areas. For instance simulation software running on HPC systems, or infact anywhere you need performant code especially for heavy processing systems.

Don’t get me wrong, I think C# is a quality language for certain tasks, I was involved with the initial C# alpha and fell in love with it then, but to say that it is the language that C++ should have been is a bit over the top :wink:

Cheers

Andy

I agree. Each language was designed with certain goals and is more powerful than the other for certain things.
[url]http://www.tiobe.com/index.php/content/paperinfo/tpci/index.html[/url]

Cheers,
Valentin

Don’t confuse C# the [italic]programming language[/italic] with .NET, .NETMF, the CLR, etc. C#'s excellent object model and syntax is what C++ should have been.

You can add runtime dynamicness without an interpreted language or loosing the speed and performance of C - look at Objective-C.

Have you VB guys tried this:
[url]http://www.christec.co.nz/blog/archives/317[/url]

MF takes IL and compiles MF image with MetaProcessor instead of using JIT as normal DotNet. Technically, it should be possible to use any .Net language eventually (maybe even Cobol). Think the meta processor just needs changes. Before c#, there was darkness :slight_smile:

I tried that link before and I couldn’t get it to work at all :wall: I had to go a different route to make it work.

You can do that now. I said I used VB along with an important GHI customer.

You can compile ANY language correctly and it will run on FEZ. Use JAVA, VB or whatever!

But why C#, no not because it is the best as there is no “best” language. English is not better than Chinese. It is what you are used to work with on daily bases is what is best for you. C# is best suited for FEZ over any other language for one reason only, 99.999% of professional embedded developers use C. So moving from C to C# is much easier move than, let us say, C to VB or JAVA for example.

Will VB be good for FEZ? Hell yeah it would and we would support that in any possible way. Will this be completed by anyone without Microsoft’s help? I doubt it since we have looked into it and getting Microsoft evolved is a must. This is not a “weekend project”! The good news is that Microsoft is convinced of the benefit of adding VB and they will do it as soon as they have time for it I believe.

:o I hope this will help this long thread over language wars :slight_smile:

Microsoft has already announced that they were going to support VB.Net for Windows Phone 7 development. So your probably right it will be coming to .NetMF soon.

-Eric

“I hope this will help this long thread over language wars”

Not sure any lang war here, but I totally agree. Think we have been over lang wars years ago. Now if we can just get the *nix croud to get over it and go back to their kshell. (just kidding, I loved ksh) .Net made language not matter some 7.5 years ago. Man, has it been that long already?

Now, can the first person to port PowerShell to fez get 42 points?

Really there is no best language, just what you prefer the syntax of. For me, VB/VB.net looks like alphabet soup, and i’m sure C# is just as unintelligible for VB.Net developers with all the braces and semicolons.

A lot of hobbyists started using things like the BASIC Stamp and such. BASIC is a lot less intimidating than C for some guy who doesn’t know what “IDE” stands for, never mind what a compiler does :wink:

Microsoft adding VB.Net support can only be good for .netMF. More people using NetMF = more customers for our favourite hardware vendors, and more people using NetMF for their project. More people using netMF means more companies using netmf… which means more microsoft resources, more resources at companies like GHI, etc.