In defense of the VB Programmer

> ––-Original Message––-
> From: Russ Huffman [mailto:russ@DEVAUTHORITY.COM]
> Sent: Thursday, January 20, 2000 8:39 AM
> To: ATL@DISCUSS.MICROSOFT.COM
>
> Don’t we already have a “bunch of programmers who have no
> idea about how the underlying systems work”? I think they
> are called VB programmers… ;)

I hate to break this to you, but I’ve met a lot of VB programmers trapped in the body of a C++ programmer. Unfortunately, many development shops place a lot of peer pressure on people to reject their yearnings to stop using semicolons and memory allocators. It’s sad, but VB programmers today are where US Blacks were in the 30′s and gays were in the 50′s. We have yet to see the “Rosa Parks” or “Stonewall Riots” for VB programmers.

BTW, I have been preparing a keynote address in case I am ever asked to keynote a VB-friendly conference. If you want to look at a draft, go to http://www.develop.com/dbox/dream.htm [ed: MLK’s “I have a dream” set to VB music]

…I have been to VB7. I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you…

DB

PS: Last time I checked, all programmers have selective ignorance. I know nothing about 3D graphics. I know a lot about COM. VB gets under people’s skin because one can be ignorant of computer architecture and ASM and still
get a lot done.

Don Box
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