VB Futures section up on MSDN...

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Information: 9/19/2005; 3 Comments

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Tags: .NET; Visual Basic

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Posted on September 19th

Now, to me, VB 2005 is the "future", and anything beyond that is really just coffee-break information to read briefly.... but I guess I wouldn't be a very good Microsoft person if I didn't start pushing the version-after-next version of our development tools before the next version has even shipped.

So, with that in mind, check out http://msdn.microsoft.com/vbasic/future/ which, despite my comments, is quite a good pile of info on post-Whidbey VB features and even includes a download to bring LINQ features in VB 2005. Hmm... ok, I guess with that download it seems a bit more 'current' to me ... hmph...

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Comment:: 1
Written by:: Geoff Appleby
Posted on:: 9/19/2005 11:01:00 PM

Well, you're a cranky pants tonight aren't you? :)

Me, I only have one problem with all this futures stuff being talked about now. While it's cool to see what's coming, and sure, there's a beta (alpha maybe?) download of the linq stuff all ready to go, I want to use it in production code NOW!

Comment:: 2
Written by:: Duncan Mackenzie
Posted on:: 9/20/2005 12:02:00 AM

Geoff, I feel the same way... I always want to start using the new toys right away... but on the other hand I think that we could (and we will) put out articles and information about Whidbey for another year and still not have provided every bit of useful information that people might need. These things go on in parallel though, so I don't really mind seeing info on the next version, because I know that many other people (especially the folks at MSDN) will focus their efforts on the version that people can actually use to do their jobs. Personally, I'm going to try and ignore talk of post-Whidbey things, so that I can appreciate the enormous set of features that I have available now.

Comment:: 3
Written by:: Geoff Appleby
Posted on:: 9/20/2005 3:36:00 AM

Well, it's also a way to keep the buzz going.

It's fantastic that MS are giving us all these early previews - the CTPs, the blogs where people can talk about upcoming stuff, all that. I'm sure it's been of mutual benefit - probably even moreso for MS, with all the extra free testing ;) But along with that comes a problem with hype. I've been tracking whidbey for about 12 months now. In fact, my first whidbey preview was a talk by Ari Bixhorn at TechEd Oz 2003, and I've been impatient for it since then.

That's primarily 12 months of watching the language changes, the IDE changes, the last minute changes (nullables, for example), writing test code...when it ships, I think all they're going to get from me is a 'well finally!', and a feeling of contentment that I can really start working on upgrading all my apps to the next framework.

But I know a very large portion of the upcoming VB changes (hell, I've sat and read the VB8 spec from cover to cover), I'm pretty clear on what's new in C#2.0, I've played around with a lot of the BCL changes.

Sure, I don't know it all, but I know a lot. Where's my excitement gone?

And hence, here comes LINQ and some early specs on VB9 and C#3.0 to save the day. My mouth is watering again.

But I don't think I can stand the wait again. I almost wish they'd all go silent again, because this large span of time where it's a 'look but don't really touch' policy is painful :)