VB vs. C

**billholm** · 07-02-2002

I am an avid fan C and C++ but I don't see why people hate VB so much. I haven't programmed in VB before (but I do know a little of QBasic) but for producing useful non-technical applications VB is more sensible than either C or C++.

One year ago I hated VB too, but after looking at the program made by my Numerical Methods professor, I realized VB wasn't so bad after all. The electrical power company in my area has used VB programs to track down the breakdowns of power transmission lines, and for controlling electrical turbines too. Guess what, those VB programs even made Fortran look puny.

TK · 07-02-2002

It's history and the only thing that survived is some of the syntax, not all of it. Most of it was not expressive enough.

**ober** · 07-02-2002

Look, the point remains that VB is just as entrenched in a lot of businesses the same way that C or Java is. You really can't beat the speed that you can make an App with in VB. I've only been programming with VB for about 4 months total and I've already turned out over 8 decent (some quite complicated) applications that have saved time, money, and manpower.

You just can't compete with the results. Granted, I could do somethings more easily in C, but the ease and speed at which I can create apps in VB is tremendous.

TK · 07-02-2002

Sure, the same is true with Microsofts prefabricated and convoluted C++. You can also churn out windows apps quickly with MFC or even strait Win32 GDI.

You should learn .net however because it is more powerful than VB (it has more advanced language features), and you can use VB.net which has similar syntax with VB6. It seems that Microsoft who owns VB has invested their future in .net. The only unmanaged language that survived VS7 (also known as Visual Studio.net) is standard C++, ofcourse you can also use managed C++ (C++.net). That right there should tell you something about VB6. It's gone as soon as you get the new visual studio, in other words, VB was C.

**Govtcheez** · 07-02-2002

> It's gone as soon as you get the new visual studio, in other words, VB was C.

Come again?

**ober** · 07-02-2002

>It's gone as soon as you get the new visual studio, in other words, VB was C.

Do you know what you're talking about or are you just spewing forth pure **** for our amusement?

**nvoigt** · 07-02-2002

borko, once you are in the business of programming for money, you will see that sometimes VB is inevitable as time is money and VB shortens the development time for GUI intensive programs by more than half.

I like VB as much as I like dentists appointments, but both are a neccessary evil in the real world.

**~~borko_b~~** · 07-02-2002

Originally posted by nvoigt
borko, once you are in the business of programming for money, you will see that sometimes VB is inevitable as time is money and VB shortens the development time for GUI intensive programs by more than half.

I like VB as much as I like dentists appointments, but both are a neccessary evil in the real world.

>>...programming for money...
Look, I don't say that VB has no place in the world ... the fact that it stays on the shelves shows that there are peolpe that use it (bussinessmen).
BUT again I ASK... IS there in the world a succesfull comercial project that IS made WITH VB?? (comercial programs are programming for money right?)

>>...neccessary evil in the real world...
there is no *neccessary* evil... there is just Evil
(dentists are not devils by the way

afterall they help people )

I think that Java and MFC beat the VB in terms of RAD...
the only think that you all say is that GUI is made faster in VB ,

Well Prove it please...
choose:

1. a text Editor like Notepad and post it here to see how fast is made in VB

2. a Browser ....

3. a Window + menu + "Hello World" string in front of it...

4. a dialog with 2 buttons "OK" and "CANCEL"

**ober** · 07-02-2002

>>BUT again I ASK... IS there in the world a succesfull comercial project that IS made WITH VB?? (comercial programs are programming for money right?)

You're joking right? allow me to start with my own company.. our entire dispatch center is running software built with VB and embedded SQL.

Your statement/question doesn't really make any sense.

**DavidP** · 07-02-2002

>VB is interpreted language

no...

first of all its not a language at all....BASIC is the language...come on people, get it right...VB is just the compiler..

second of all, Visual Basic CAN make executables...i do it all the time. so dont say it cant. and yes, they are standalone. if u cant then somethin is wrong with your Visual Basic compiler.

**moemen ahmed** · 07-02-2002

hey guys ur overloading this topic..........

in fact I can tell(as I was programming basic since 12 years ) that Current VB language is great as a RAPID PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE !!!!!! u can use it to establish you GUI very easy and very quick......it supports u with many many nice and effective tools to make an application that support database and internet beside many desktop functions and its great for commercial programming (with some bad points in fact).......
so dont put over it more than it could carry.its great just for what was it made for............

on the counter c++ is A GENERAL PURPOSE LANGUAGE and its totally different thing ,so it can handle low level programming and give high accessebility to hardware beside performming non-windows related programming...and thats why it was made for

so I know VB and C++.......if I can Make it in VB ill not make it in C++ as VB is much easier and much more maintainable than C++

**nvoigt** · 07-02-2002

1. a text Editor like Notepad and post it here to see how fast is made in VB
2. a Browser ....
3. a Window + menu + "Hello World" string in front of it...
4. a dialog with 2 buttons "OK" and "CANCEL"

Probably as fast as in MFC. But that's not what I call GUI intensive programs. Take TabControls, a pain in the #ss in MFC. Take a simple textbox... changing the font and color of it in VB is as difficult as selecting the font from a combobox and the color from a list. In MFC it isn't even possible without coding.

Lets see how fast you can do this in MFC:

Create a Tab-Control that shows a textbox each, one green on blue in Times new Roman, the other white on red in Arial.

Not a single line of code in VB, all by selecting properties in a property editor in the IDE. Probably two dozen clicks compared to at least a dozen clicks and 25 lines of code ( 10 if it's ugly ) in MFC.
That is if you know what do do in MFC, because it's all but intuitive to people without inside knowledge. And you shouldn't need profound coding knowledge to change a textbox to pink.

You are right, there are few programs on the shelves that use VB. But that doesn't mean professional programs aren't developed in VB... it's just that 90% of these are inhouse products.

I don't like VB, and with the advent of C#, it will hopefully die, but it did have a use and is still used by those that don't have C# yet.

**ober** · 07-02-2002

one simple fact will prove my point that VB is widely used:

members here: ~4265
members at vbforums.com: 31,940

posts on the general vb board: ~108,000
posts on the c/c++ board there: ~3930

hell... posts between here and there involving c: ~17,000

Still doesn't come close to the VB board...

**moemen ahmed** · 07-02-2002

on the counter of the idea which u said, that VB ll be omitted because of C#.........VB ll stay alive for a long time coming, not because of anything , just because its really the most popular programming language(this doesnt mean its the best of course)
the wide range of ppl using VB ll protect it from getting dead

and if we imagine that microsoft ll not support it once( such thing isnt even an idea for the future for micosoft right now ) they ll keep support it for long years as a step to get it away

**~~borko_b~~** · 07-02-2002

Originally posted by ober5861

You're joking right? allow me to start with my own company.. our entire dispatch center is running software built with VB and embedded SQL.

by *comercial project* i mean a comercial PROGRAM.
like :

InternetExplorer
Abode PhotoShop
AbsoluteFTP

And so on.
is your "dispatch center" such a "program" ?
or is it some service program
Do you sell it for money? or you're selling the services WITH this program...
Anyways..
(Your company should benefit from Java, Java2 much more, than VB and so on..)

>>first of all its not a language at all....BASIC is the
>>language...come
>>on people, get it right...VB is just the
>>compiler..

I and many others allready understood that...
don't repeat it again please...

>>members here: ~4265
>>members at vbforums.com: 31,940

Yeah ... too many *bussinessmen* and kiddies asking how to find a substring in a string... Give me a break!

>>...VB ll stay alive for a long time coming...
Yes. because there is Microsoft to proclamate it...
Cut the Daddy's fundings and the Son will die in a minute...

And stop talking about RAD please
the RAD is the worst thing that could a programmer rely on..
RAD applications are buggy and over-bloated...

the good design of software rely much more on money invested in , good communications between teams
and ofcource the programming teams themselves
time is relative thing ...
Large scale projects do not come out quickly ...
people are wasting much more time designing the features,marketing ,customer support, etc,etc. than the program itself.

Lets debate on the language syntax
1. How is the modularity supported in VB?
2. How is the data-hiding mechanism implemented in VB ?
(statics, local, global variables)

3. How is the OOP model supported ?
3.1 How Does it support classes ?
3.2 Are there interfaces in VB ? (virtual func's and etc)
3.3 Does it support multiple inheritance?

and Is it easier to make OO design in VB than Java or C++