---
title: "What's missing in today's hottest languages?"
url: "https://osherove.com/blog/2003/7/5/whats-missing-in-todays-hottest-languages.md"
canonical: "https://osherove.com/blog/2003/7/5/whats-missing-in-todays-hottest-languages.html"
published: "2003-07-05T04:29:00"
updated: "2003-07-05T04:29:00"
tags: [".Net Original"]
author: "Roy Osherove"
description: "Some of these changes refeer to stuff that is simply missing as an IDE feature rather than a language construct, but you get the drift.. Things VB.NET should have had out of the box: Multiple lines code (i.e. no \"_\"…"
usage: "Licensed under CC BY 4.0 — reuse, quote and adapt with attribution (Roy Osherove, link to the original page)."
license: "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"
---

# What's missing in today's hottest languages?

By Roy Osherove July 5, 2003 In [.Net Original](https://osherove.com/blog/category/net-original)

**Historical article** · Originally published July 5, 2003; technical details may be outdated.

Some of these changes refeer to stuff that is simply missing as an IDE feature rather than a language construct, but you get the drift..

**Things VB.NET should have had out of the box:**

- Multiple lines code (i.e. no "\_" needed to break a line into smaller ones - much more readable code (Especially when declaring attributes - yuck!)
- Multiple lined comments
- XML help tags like C#(Why do we need VBCommenter for such a basic thing?)
- "Debug" and "Release" build folders by default. Why the hell is that missing?
- Indexed properties and arrays accessed like C#'s arrays - using "\[\]" and not "()"
- The same for attributes - using "<>" is \*ugly\*

**Things C# should have had out of the box:**

- Background compile
- Case-insensitivity
- VB.NET-like Intellisense for enums and namespaces writing
- Automatic creation of "()" braces on method calls -  meaning that writing the following: _MyMethod myParameter_ Turns into: _MyMethod(myParameter)_ automatically.(VB.NET does this very nicely - saving lots of typing time)
- **With** like functionality VB.NET - jeez - this is the part I miss the most....

I'd say that any languages that adopts these changes automatically becomes my "perfect" language - for the time being... :)

Update:

I \*knew\* I'd forget some stuff:

- Edit &  continue in both languages
- VB.NET - properties - public getters with private/friend setters making your property read only for the  public but writable for internal or friend classes

(thnks to [Jan](http://weblogs.asp.net/jan/posts/9727.aspx) for reminding me...)

## More in .Net Original

[All posts in .Net Original](https://osherove.com/blog/category/net-original)

- Jul 7, 2003

    ### [Advanced debugging tips and stuff you never knew about the "Find" combo box](https://osherove.com/blog/2003/7/7/advanced-debugging-tips-and-stuff-you-never-knew-about-the-q.html)

- Jul 5, 2003

    ### [Settings Add-in ver. 1.0 released on GotDotNet](https://osherove.com/blog/2003/7/5/settings-add-in-ver-10-released-on-gotdotnet.html)

- Jul 4, 2003

    ### [Export and import VS.NET's text editor's color and font settings](https://osherove.com/blog/2003/7/4/export-and-import-vsnets-text-editors-color-and-font-setting.html)

- Jul 3, 2003

    ### [A much needed SchemaHelper class](https://osherove.com/blog/2003/7/3/a-much-needed-schemahelper-class-1.html)


---

## About the author

**Roy Osherove**: Senior Solutions Architect at AWS working on AI for production and AI-driven development; author of The Art of Unit Testing and Elastic Leadership, with about 20 years of consulting and training on unit testing, TDD, team leadership and continuous delivery.

### Sites

- [RobotPaper](https://robotpaper.ai/): This blog: AI patterns and anti-patterns, AI and coding agents, and engineering leadership.
- [osherove.com](https://osherove.com): Roy's personal site. Author of The Art of Unit Testing and Elastic Leadership; consulting and training on unit testing, TDD, team leadership and continuous delivery, plus about 20 years of blog posts.
- [The Art of Unit Testing](https://www.artofunittesting.com): The Art of Unit Testing, 3rd Edition (Manning): readable, maintainable, trustworthy unit tests, plus TDD workshops in C#, JavaScript, Java and Kotlin.
- [5whys.com](https://www.5whys.com): Roy's writing on software team leadership: self-organizing teams, surviving chaos, learning mode and the Elastic Leadership model.
- [Pipeline Driven](https://pipelinedriven.org): Continuous delivery and DevOps practices: build patterns, pipeline-friendly testing, DevOps metrics and enterprise DevOps.
- [Elastic Leadership](https://www.elasticleadership.com): Elastic Leadership, Roy's framework for software team leaders (survival, learning and self-organizing modes).

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### License

Licensed under CC BY 4.0 — reuse, quote and adapt with attribution (Roy Osherove, link to the original page). License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/