Must use VB.NET (no C#) :( 2

[dragonwell]

Well, I was about to take a job when, just at the last minute, they throw in a provision stating that all programming will be done using VB6 or VB.NET, and that at some point in the future the team will experiment with C# and then decide what language will be used.

Now, being a C# programmer, this is bothering me. I've made a considerable "investment" in learning C# and I think that it will be much better for my career to concentrate on mastering it, rather than fooling with VB.NET. Sometimes I even think that VB.NET will be obscure in the not-so-distant future- with C# work really taking off.

My way of thinkig is that if you're using .NET, what difference does it make if one programmer is using VB and the other C#, since almost always if yuou know one you know the other.

I think this odd provision is based on the fact that these people are old-school VB guys, just getting into VB.NET and they think that C# is going to be really foreign.

I want to take the job but I'm afread that I will HATE having to use VB.NET!

Confused...

 

[Golom]

Putting on my manager hat for a moment ... companies usually make decisions like "VB or C#" based more on resourcing issues than technology ones. It certainly may be that C# is the wave of the future and VB is "old stuff" or, conversely, that VB is the one true faith and C# is just C++ with brain damage.

As an IT manager, I need to make a decision about today's projects and the resources that are going to be available to support them. If I have a dozen VB programmers and many thousands of lines of VB code in production then, short term at least, VB wins. That doesn't mean that C# is forever banned but it does mean that its adoption is going to be a carefully planned activity that's accompanied by training, new resources, migration planning, etc. In short, all the life-preservers that we may need before we jump into the deep end of the pool. (Sorry about the mixed metaphors.)