--- title: "Am I the stereotypical VB programmer?" url: "https://osherove.com/blog/2003/7/8/am-i-the-stereotypical-vb-programmer.md" canonical: "https://osherove.com/blog/2003/7/8/am-i-the-stereotypical-vb-programmer.html" published: "2003-07-08T10:03:00" updated: "2003-07-08T10:03:00" tags: ["Off Topic"] author: "Roy Osherove" description: "Oisin responds to my requests regarding VS.Net IDE enhancements : \"Roy, if there ever was a stereotypical VB programmer to be singled out as an example, it would be you. Absolutely no understanding of why things aren't…" 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/" --- # Am I the stereotypical VB programmer? By Roy Osherove July 8, 2003 In [Off Topic](https://osherove.com/blog/category/off-topic) **Historical article** · Originally published July 8, 2003; technical details may be outdated. Oisin responds to my [requests regarding VS.Net IDE enhancements](http://weblogs.asp.net/rosherove/posts/9726.aspx): "Roy, if there ever was a stereotypical VB programmer to be singled out as an example, it would be you. Absolutely no understanding of why things aren't all like VB. This post was enough to put me off reading your blog for good. Unsubscribed."   It seems I have succumbed to the stereotype of the VB programmer: " Absolutely no understanding of why things aren't all like VB. "   m\_readers-1. I fail to see how you could have figured that out from my post. As a long time programmer I've used more than one language, and am involved in C# and VB.NET development for quite some time now.  It is not uncommon for a programmer who is versatile in more than one language to compare between the two, and even ask questions that might seem obvious to someone who is looking from deep down inside the trenches, or that has only "done" one language for most of his life, or is set on a particular style. Want an example? How many C and C++ programmers, after learning the intricacies of C#, would take the trouble to learn VB.NET? Does that question seem irrelevant? Funny? Stupid?   Why? VB6/VB.NET developers will most likely do this in regards to C#. This will mostly be due to job constraints, though, and they'll have a hard time adjusting, but a lot of VB.NET programmers realize that they **need** to learn it or they will be left behind in the job market(and I'm saying this as a guy who loved VB.Net). C# folks feel less of that pressure, and so feel less obliged to do the opposite, but because they won't try this new "thing", they'll only have the point of view from "their" side of the street. That VB.Net to C# move will likely yield tons of questions that might seem irrelevant/stupid/unknowing, but those are \*exactly\* the kinds of questions that C-syntaxers should watch out for. Their bringing a whole new way of thinking, a RAD way, into what was once the fort of the hardcore programmers. C# is more RAD than hardcore in its current incarnation, but many C#'ers don’t see it that way.   Now, the issues I've raised were mostly productivity issues, that could benefit \*any\* of .net's language's IDE.  If you're a hardcore C# fanatic who will have it no other way than "this is how it should be" – you've been warned – there's no real place in this profession for old,stale and unmovable thinking. If you can’t take a few questions that ponder "why" everything couldn’t be different, you're not open minded. Hey, at least if you're gonna defend why some of these things cannot be changed, you might as well give out some good reasons, or explain why things are irrelevant to ponder on.   You know what? I **know** that I have a lot to learn. I **know** that there are lots of things with which you could 'enlighten' me about these subjects. Why not do the more sensible thing and instead of signing off with anger and fury – you could help the world out by helping one misguided stereotypical VB programmer "get" it. I promise to listen carefully. But hey, you have to promise to listen carefully as well. Going through what I suggested to be added to the C# IDE: - Background compile  - **Should there be no background compile in C#? Why?** - Case-insensitivity  - **Why is Case sensitivty important? If its so needed, how could other languages do without it?** - VB.NET-like Intellisense for enums and namespaces writing  - **Why should this not be?** - 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)  **\- OK - how is this productivity enhancement "not meant" to be in C#?** - **With** like functionality VB.NET - jeez - this is the part I miss the most.... - **And this is bad beacause?** Can you exaplin to me each item - one by one - and why it's shouldn't be like VB.Net? (I've just noticed that in that list - I wrote far more things that are missing in VB.Net that the C# list - just a thought) ## More in Off Topic [All posts in Off Topic](https://osherove.com/blog/category/off-topic) - Jul 9, 2003 ### [Smile! You're on candid camera!](https://osherove.com/blog/2003/7/9/smile-youre-on-candid-camera.html) - Jul 8, 2003 ### [IDE enhancements - conclusion?](https://osherove.com/blog/2003/7/8/ide-enhancements-conclusion.html) - Jul 7, 2003 ### [Passport identity change](https://osherove.com/blog/2003/7/7/passport-identity-change.html) - Jul 7, 2003 ### [Silly quote of the day](https://osherove.com/blog/2003/7/7/silly-quote-of-the-day.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). ### Social - X: https://x.com/royosherove - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/osherove/ ### Contact - Contact form: https://forms.gle/jQSx5KoXvrVA1JCK7 ### 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/