Re: VBScript to VB.NET transition

----- Original Message -----
From: "Rob Taylor - TConsult, Inc." <rob(at)tconsult.com>
To: "Mike Taylor" <lonewolf(at)one.net>; <hwg-languages(at)hwg.org>
Sent: Wednesday, February 27, 2002 11:02 PM
Subject: RE: VBScript to VB.NET transition


> What will you do when your company starts requiring ASP.NET?
> Are you familiar with any compiled hard typed languages
> (C++, Fortran, VB?)

I think our company is too small to start requiring .NET.....no one but the
technical people in our 57-employee company knows anything about web
development or what .NET is other than a Microsoft marketing buzzword.

But what if it came time for me to know complied languages and ASP.NET?  I
would be at a crossroads.  The advantage of simpler server-side scripting
languages like VBScript is that they allow non-hardcore programmers to
develop dynamic pages...they are easier-to-learn languages geared at those
with a lighter programming background, who understand programming concepts
but don't write extremely hardcore software-type programs using compiled
languages like C++ or C#.

I would venture to guess that the core group of users now using ASP 3.0 and
below are not hardcore programmers --they are people with strong HTML,
JavaScript, CSS and possibly graphical design backgrounds.  I would go
further to guess that many of them work for smaller companies that can't
afford a five-member Internet team (someone to write code, another to design
sites, another to handle the database, etc).   As a result, I think forcing
a transition to .NET alienates a great deal of Microsoft's core audience
base.

.NET is marketed as being easy, but only if you are willing to abandon
VBScript or a similar language in favor of  hardcore languages like C#...I
understand even VB.NET is vastly different from VB 6, which I at least have
written a small amount in.

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