Tell me more ×
Programmers Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for professional programmers interested in conceptual questions about software development. It's 100% free, no registration required.
up vote 2 down vote favorite

In my work the language used to write applications is Visual Basic .NET.

I read on internet and almost all the examples and questions are about C#.

Is there any comercial application written in Visual Basic .NET? Is there any field for a VB Net developer?

share|improve this question
As mentioned in the posts, C# may have a bigger market. Also, lots of books and tutorials use C#. C# is not very difficult to learn, at least the basics are not hard. – Emmad Kareem Oct 17 '11 at 16:04
2  
This is really just a survey question. – JeffO Oct 17 '11 at 16:18
The Mono VB.NET Compiler was written in VB.NET, interestingly. mono-project.com/VisualBasic.NET_support – vcsjones Oct 17 '11 at 18:24
Another VB.NET vs C# question. Due to C# bias, this question still open. Let's see if someone put it in reverse position. I expect ... – user774411 Oct 17 '11 at 20:17
An important point to remember is that most of the base class libraries of .NET are written in C# so that even if your app itself is written in VB.NET, the libraries that it sits on are actually mostly written with C#.NET, and all of which compiles down to the same CLR bytecode format anyway, regardless of which .NET language was used. – dodgy_coder Oct 18 '11 at 3:52
show 2 more comments

closed as not constructive by JeffO, Walter, ChrisF♦ Oct 17 '11 at 20:18

As it currently stands, this question is not a good fit for our Q&A format. We expect answers to be supported by facts, references, or specific expertise, but this question will likely solicit debate, arguments, polling, or extended discussion. If you feel that this question can be improved and possibly reopened, see the FAQ for guidance.

5 Answers

up vote 8 down vote accepted

I think your question is related to whether you can get a job as a VB.NET developer.

You can get VB.NET jobs, they do exist - but don't restrict yourself by something as unimportant as a language. Learn C# and then you can choose from a much bigger range of jobs. All of your understanding of the .NET framework is immediately useful if you switch to C#, so it becomes a simple exercise of learning the syntactical differences.

share|improve this answer
Great answer, excelent recommendation. – jmjpo Oct 17 '11 at 15:56
up vote 5 down vote

There are plenty actually. I don't know why, but some companies chose VB.net over C#, probably because they used to be VB shops, possibly because they feel VB.net is a better language (!)

I know of a very large design suite that is used for oil platform and ship building that has a large part written in vb.net. I know nearly all the health system software for the UK NHS is written in VB.NET now.

The difference between C# and VB is tiny, VB has a few really cool features in there that makes it a better language that C# all in all, it's just that most people don't like its syntax.

share|improve this answer
2  
Out of curiosity: what cool feature makes you believe that VB.NET is a better language than C#? – Vitor Braga Oct 17 '11 at 14:49
3  
XMLliterals, checked exceptions (my favourite), and aggregate linq keyword (infoq.com/news/2007/09/LINQ-Aggregates). It's also better at COM interop. – gbjbaanb Oct 17 '11 at 14:55
5  
@gbjbaanb: I'd say as of C# 4 they are comparable in terms of COM interop. – R0MANARMY Oct 17 '11 at 15:00
up vote 5 down vote

VB.net and C# compile to the same CLR so the difference between them is quite small (some data structures etc)

For commercial applications as gbjbaanb mentioned, the NHS uses a lot of VB applications and this is also true across most of the UK public sector.

share|improve this answer
up vote 3 down vote

There certainly are jobs out there for VB.NET developers. I interviewed with two companies just last year that use VB in their commercial applications. One is a major healthcare IT provider that uses it almost exclusively although they are slowly migrating to C#. The other is a company that develops software for nonprofits, using VB in some of their web applications.

So it's not as popular as C#, and it may be a shrinking field, but you can still find jobs out there.

share|improve this answer
up vote 3 down vote

I've worked on two vertical market desktop applications that were written in VB.NET. They had a user base of between 2000-3000 users each. One of these was in the healthcare filed and, from what I've seen, VB.NET remains a popular choice in this area.

I've also worked on a number of internal corporate VB.NET applications, both desktop and ASP.NET based. Jobs are out there but C# is more popular.

share|improve this answer

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.