{"id":1193,"date":"2009-10-17T16:28:00","date_gmt":"2009-10-17T16:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.msdn.microsoft.com\/vbteam\/2009\/10\/17\/im-a-vb-greg-rothlander\/"},"modified":"2024-07-05T12:43:52","modified_gmt":"2024-07-05T19:43:52","slug":"im-a-vb-greg-rothlander","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/vbteam\/im-a-vb-greg-rothlander\/","title":{"rendered":"I'm A VB: Greg Rothlander"},"content":{"rendered":"

Website: http:\/\/<\/a><\/span>www.pbsilink.com <\/p>\n

<\/span><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

·<\/span>        <\/span>How long have you been using VB?<\/p>\n

<\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

Since around 1998.  <\/span>I think I started with VB3.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

·<\/span>        <\/span>What industry do you work in?<\/p>\n

<\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

Consulting<\/p>\n

<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

 <\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

·<\/span>        <\/span>How big is your development team?<\/p>\n

<\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

We are an R&D team with 3 core software developers and an additional 3 to 5 developers that are involved part time and as needed.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

·<\/span>        <\/span>What kind of apps do you most commonly build?<\/p>\n

<\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

R&D applications are what I work on.  <\/span>however, the R&D applications actually generate VB.Net applications.  <\/span>So we are building a migration compiler that compiles legacy RPG applications into VB.Net applications.  <\/span>The compiler uses VB.Net on the front end and C# on the backend.  <\/span>All of the UI is built in .Net, as well as the code parsers, tokenizers, and code generators.  <\/span>The backend db classes, meta-data classes, and many others are built in C#.    <\/span>There is no real pattern to what type of programs we are running through the migration process.  <\/span>We are looking systems for shipping, retial, wholesale, state and local government, and others.   <\/span>But they are all old legacy AS\/400 (iSeries) applications that we are bringing forward into .Net and so far we have been bringing them all into VB.Net.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

·<\/span>        <\/span>What’s the most interesting app you’ve ever built?<\/p>\n

<\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

Probably the compiler we are working on now is the most technologically interesting.  <\/span>The most interesting app that I have worked on in regards to the industry, has to be one for the Mexican government’s equivalent to the FBI. That app was written in VB6.  <\/span>I have also worked on some top secret military apps for planning and estimating cost of deployments, which was also interesting.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

·<\/span>        <\/span>Please tell us about an app that you’re working on at the moment.<\/p>\n

<\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

I am building a migration compiler that compiles legacy RPG applications into VB.Net applications.  <\/span>The compiler uses VB.Net on the front end and C# on the backend.  <\/span>All of the UI is built in .Net, as well as the code parsers, tokenizers, and code generators.  <\/span>The backend db classes, meta-data classes, and many others are built in C#.  <\/span>But the whole front-end and compiler processes are written in VB.Net.    <\/span>There is no real pattern to what type of programs we are running through the migration process.  <\/span>We are looking systems for shipping, retial, wholesale, state and local government, and others.   <\/span>But they are all old legacy AS\/400 (iSeries) applications that we are bringing forward into .Net and so far we have been bringing them all into VB.Net.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

·<\/span>        <\/span>What other technologies do you most commonly use?<\/p>\n

<\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

C#, ASP.Net, SQL Server, XML, moving into Silverlight now.  <\/span>We do equal work for in web and windows for the apps that we migrate using our compiler.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

·<\/span>        <\/span>What are some of your favorite VB features?<\/p>\n

<\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

That’s hard to say.  <\/span>I think after using a language for so long, you start to forget what features you really like, as it becomes commonplace.  <\/span>I think I would have to jump to another language a bit to remind myself what it is about VB that I like so much.  <\/span>In general, it is easy to learn new technologies, 3rd party tools, etc. using VB.  <\/span>I also like the auto-case correction compared with other languages where you can get stuck on case issues.  <\/span>I also like not having to end everything with semi-colons.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

·<\/span>        <\/span>What do you like most about VB as a programming language?<\/p>\n

<\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

Ease of use of the lanugage is probably the #1 thing I like most.  <\/span>It is easy to teach new developers and most people can come up to speed and be productive quickly. Compared to some of the other languages, VB is easy to pick-up for legacy developers that have not been exposed to OO development.  <\/span>When compared to longuages such as Java, VB is a hundred-fold easier for a legacy developer to pick up and become productive.  <\/span>After experiance this dozens of times, where legacy developers fail to pick up on Java and\/or C#, you start to understand the real advantages of VB for many real-world clients out there.  <\/span>We have also seen where legacy developers move to VB, then later to C#, where they were unable to make the move from legacy to C# directly.  <\/span>For most of us .Net developers, this seems strange, but it’s a common pattern when working with people that have not upgraded these skills in the past decade or more.<\/p>\n

<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

 <\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

For other interviews in this series, please visit <\/span><\/b>http:\/\/imavb.net<\/span><\/b><\/a><\/span>. <\/span><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Website: http:\/\/www.pbsilink.com    ·        How long have you been using VB? Since around 1998.  I think I started with VB3.   ·        What industry do you work in? Consulting   ·        How big is your development team? We are an R&D team with 3 core software developers and an additional 3 to 5 developers that are involved part […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":260,"featured_media":8818,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,195],"tags":[73,119],"class_list":["post-1193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-im-a-vb","category-visual-basic","tag-im-a-vb","tag-pages"],"acf":[],"blog_post_summary":"

Website: http:\/\/www.pbsilink.com    ·        How long have you been using VB? Since around 1998.  I think I started with VB3.   ·        What industry do you work in? Consulting   ·        How big is your development team? We are an R&D team with 3 core software developers and an additional 3 to 5 developers that are involved part […]<\/p>\n","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/vbteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/vbteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/vbteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/vbteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/260"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/vbteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/vbteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1193\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/vbteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/vbteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/vbteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/vbteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}