A dimple in the chin, a devil within - Irish proverb
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Visual Basic comes to Windows Phone 7
APPARENTLY SOME MASOCHISTS have asked for it, and Microsoft has delivered. Visual Basic is now available for Windows Phone 7 developers.
The release was announced in a blog post just seven days after the Vole released its Windows Phone 7 Developer Tools, to which the firm said there had been 'incredible' response. No, we don't believe that many people downloaded it either.
This release of Visual Basic for Windows Phone 7 should elicit a similar response, according to Microsoft's Brandon Watson. "Ever since we first announced the application platform for WP7, there was a loud chorus of Visual Basic developers asking if and when they would be able to build apps for Windows Phone. That wait is over."
So, from now, anyone that doesn't think that Visual Basic is buggy, or bloated, difficult to use, or just morally offensive can download a community technology preview for developing apps with it for Windows Phone 7.
Included in this potential Pandora's box of developer conundrums are various tools including templates, designer support, emulator support, phone support, and presumably stonewalling Microsoft technical support support.
Watson provided no clue as to when the Vole's Visual Basic will be fully supported on Windows Phone 7, so perhaps the firm is hedging its bets before launching it wholesale.
Not content with stressing that this was just a community technology preview release, Watson threw out a couple of more caveats, including the fact that this release is designed to solicit feedback.
Other stipulations include the fact that there is no XNA support and no Go-Live license, meaning that developers should only release any working applications if they fancy doing a number of rounds with Redmond's finest lawyers, the necessity to own Visual Studio 2010 Professional or higher, and the fact that they are strictly limited to building Silverlight applications only.
Sounds enticing. µ
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bloatware? C# and VB.NET compile to the same MSIL. How is VB.NET inherently more "bloated" than C#? VB.NET versus C#, it's really a matter of personal preference. The author of this article is really opinionated for someone so clueless.
He does have a point... VB is syntaxically retarded.
come on guys this is funny!
sure the author is mixing this up, but as usual this is the funny stuff that makes us check the inquirer regularly, plus checking out the enraged comments is also sweet ;P
vb6, vb.net, nvidia or ati.. it's all good funny reading here ;)
i love how they bait and fish for comments :P
The WHOLE reason for C# existence is platform lock-in, but it least technically C# is relatively decent. VB, on the other hand, in addition to platform lock-in problem, cannot be called a programming language at all by anyone who has any idea of what a programming language is.
Please don't mix VB (aka 6) with VB.NET.
VB10 (on VS2010) looks more like the C# even on syntax!
I can even write robotics programs on MRDS using VB.NET. And because of requirements, all my apps (mainly WCF/Silverlight based) at work are on VB.NET
Who's going to translate thousands of pages of code to C# so they can run on phones?
I don't get it, if the compilation target is the same CLI, why not release C# at the same time? - this would really make it a difference.
It's been years since I developed any apps in VB (last version I really used was VB6, had a look at VB.NET but didn't get on so well, guess I was very rusty at my VB). I can see the point of this though. Some companies who have in-house applications might have those applications written in VB.NET (my employer for instance).
Being able to port their VB.NET apps to a Windows Phone 7 could well be a good thing for them and could even become the company standard over iPhone, Blackberry, Nokia, Android etc.
Still not overly convinced about Windows Phone 7 myself though, guess I'll have a look when my contract is up for renewal.
Rob
Next time please do yourself a favor and talk about subjects you know at least remotely. That introduction with "masochists" tells everything about your knowledge of the field. Regards!
Apparently the INQ did read.
System Requirements
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=a808a69d-6119-47b7-b858-262be5c49915&displaylang=en
* Supported Operating Systems:Windows 7;Windows Vista
* Windows® Vista® (x86 and x64) ENU with Service Pack 2 – all editions except Starter Edition
* Windows 7 (x86 and x64) ENU – all editions except Starter Edition
* Windows Phone Developer Tools (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=04704acf-a63a-4f97-952c-8b51b34b00ce&displaylang=en)
* Visual Studio 2010 Professional, Premium or Ultimate
* 960 KB of free disk space on the system drive.
Please install the final version of the Windows Phone Developer Tools on a machine with Visual Studio 2010 Professional or higher.
Im happy as I have Visual Studio 2010 Pro. If you dont find a student and get it for free. Or take a class and get a major discount.
That just added what another million developers to the Mobile 7 platform!
Yes there should be funeral for iPhone now.
There's no Visual Studio 2010 Pro requirement, the dev tools are free. Research b4 posting = good.
VB.NET generates Common Intermediate Language (CIL) output, just as the C# compiler does; since Silverlight cripples C# a bit, there are very few features in C# for Silverlight that VB omits. It's really a question of which syntax you prefer.
By default, VB does permit the developer to use virtually any type anywhere, with VB implying which conversion is necessary. This can sometimes lead to surprising behaviour. The worst that's likely to happen is that the program crashes, but since apps appear to be totally sandboxed on WP7, this should have no affect at all on the phone's behaviour.
The real question is, why not permit C++ compiled with /clr:pure? I don't know, but it's never been on option for .NET Compact Framework (e.g. for Windows Mobile) either.
You are embarrassing me by writting something like this.
"Visual Basic is buggy, or bloated, difficult to use, or just morally offensive"
Do you know what is Visual Basic? Eye exam, right?