About VB.NET
VB.NET, which is also known as Visual Basic.NET, is an object oriented programming language that is based off the older Visual Basic system. A number of major changes have been made with VB.NET, and this has be a source of debate within the programming community. One of the controversial changes which was made with VB.NET is the lack of support for backwards compatibility. When it comes to the IDE, most developers work with Visual Studio .NET. There are a number of things that VB.NET has in common with other programming systems that are based off the .NET framework. It is simple to learn, and this is a common feature in Visual Basic.
Like ASP.NET, VB.NET was first released in 2002. Microsoft designed it to compete with the likes of Java, and while ASP.NET was widely publicized, VB.NET was not. It was for this reason that most people not familiar with Visual Basic didn't pay attention to it. This object oriented programming language has a number of powerful advantages, but there are some disadvantages which must be noted as well. One of the advantages of VB.NET is the VB upgrade wizard, which was introduced in 2003. In addition this, a number of enhancements have been made to both the runtime and the compiler.
In 2005, Microsoft made another update to VB.NET, and it added a number of functions that would make it easier to use. This was very important for novice programmers that didn't have years of experience. Some of these functions were edit and continue, design time expression, and my pseudo-namespace. The "my pseudo-namespace would give access to specific regions within the .NET structure without a lot of complexity. In the past, gaining this access was much more difficult. In addition to this, classes could be created dynamically.
Many of the new features that were introduced to VB.NET in 2005 were designed to make it more RAD friendly, and would separate it from C#. In addition to this, Microsoft attempted to make VB.NET more powerful, and this would allow it to compete with similar .NET languages. An example of elements which have made VB.NET more powerful are the introduction of partial classes and generics. The partial class is a system of recognizing specific portions of a class within a single file. Once this has been done, more definitions would be added at a later date.
The support for XML comments have also be added to recent update of VB.NET. The support for unsigned integers was also introduced, and all of these enhancements have allowed the language to have a level of power that is similar to the other .NET languages. Many people have debated about whether or not VB.NET should be separate from Visual Basic or seen as being a different programming language altogether. While the debate will probably rage on, it should be noted that no major changes have been made in the syntax of the system. However, a number of new features such as structured exceptions have been added. The main issue of contention is extended data types, as well as integers.