Perhaps next-generation Web development environments like Popfly and Silverlight will fill the gap left by VB. The result is an expected drop in market share. NET programming languages, especially the superior and more popular C#. As such, there’s little to positively distinguish VB from the other. The problem is simply that when Visual Basic became VB.NET, it became a “real” programming language for trained developers, no longer the layman’s “Application Construction Kit” of its original vision. Much has been written lately about the fall of Visual Basic, triggered by an Evans Data survey indicating that VB use has dropped 35% in the past year, and other language surveys show VB falling behind its brother C# and market leader Java. Developers expressed emotions ranging from frustration to anger. That caused rumblings that continue today. Back in 2002, Microsoft announced that the language was to be replaced by something new, different and incompatible. Yet Microsoft took this asset of incalculable value and apparently tossed it aside. Microsoft had perhaps the largest number of developers in the world hooked on a language which in turn was hooked to Windows. The death knell for Visual Basic is premature, but it’s true that VB has deviated from its original vision as an “Application Construction Kit” for the masses and has lost significant market share as a result.

Vb programming language