{"id":1843,"date":"2009-07-06T03:59:00","date_gmt":"2009-07-06T03:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.msdn.microsoft.com\/vbteam\/2009\/07\/06\/im-a-vb-blake-pell\/"},"modified":"2024-07-05T12:49:04","modified_gmt":"2024-07-05T19:49:04","slug":"im-a-vb-blake-pell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/vbteam\/im-a-vb-blake-pell\/","title":{"rendered":"I'm A VB: Blake Pell"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Blog: <\/font><\/span>http:\/\/www.blakepell.com\/Main\/Blog.aspx<\/font><\/a><\/p>\n

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

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Since VB1 for DOS (yeah, it still works too, I just fired it up on Windows 7).  <\/span>After starting Basic on my Commodore 64 and TSR-80 (GWBasic), I found I loved that I could make forms applications easily (even in DOS).  <\/span>When VB3 came out, I begged my mom to drive me to the nearest Best Buy to get a copy.  <\/span>I’m not sure if she realizes that set me on my career path.<\/span><\/p>\n

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

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Non-profit \/ Higher Education<\/p>\n

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

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5 developers in an IT department of about 15.<\/span><\/p>\n

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

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ASP.Net front ends for any number of database operations (data mining, general reporting, data entry, work flow, etc.).  <\/span>Also rivaling in time spent are interface programs between our various core systems, which range from custom systems to vendor purchased proprietary systems.<\/span><\/p>\n

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

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A sync application that will sync files between multiple computers and a host in “the cloud”.  <\/span>The host can either be a server running an ASP.Net site with the applications web services or a traditional FTP\/SFTP server that can be provided and\/or changed by the user.<\/span><\/p>\n

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

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I’m currently rewriting and enhancing a legacy PowerBuilder application from the mid 90’s in ASP.Net with VB code behinds.  <\/span>The Ajax features in the .Net Framework have helped to bridge the gap in making web applications that feel more like client applications.<\/span><\/p>\n

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

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SQL (SQL Server\/MySql\/Oracle), ASP.NET, C#, Silverlight, VBA & VbScript, JavaScript, Crystal Reports, Access & C (and whatever else is needed depending on the day).<\/span><\/p>\n

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

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XML Literals, Error checking before compilation, case insensitivity (which Visual Studio will then format accordingly) and the many included commands that are huge time savers.<\/span><\/p>\n

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

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Readability, the fact that well written VB can be read and understood by business associates who are not programmers & the amount of time I save with the additional functions VB provides.<\/p>\n

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For other interviews in this series, please visit <\/font><\/span><\/b>http:\/\/imavb.net<\/font><\/span><\/b><\/a>. <\/p>\n

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Are you a VB, too? Submit your story <\/font><\/span><\/b>here<\/font><\/span><\/b><\/a>!<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

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    Blog: http:\/\/www.blakepell.com\/Main\/Blog.aspx   ·        How long have you been using VB? Since VB1 for DOS (yeah, it still works too, I just fired it up on Windows 7).  After starting Basic on my Commodore 64 and TSR-80 (GWBasic), I found I loved that I could make forms applications easily (even in DOS).  When VB3 […]<\/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-1843","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":"

    Blog: http:\/\/www.blakepell.com\/Main\/Blog.aspx   ·        How long have you been using VB? Since VB1 for DOS (yeah, it still works too, I just fired it up on Windows 7).  After starting Basic on my Commodore 64 and TSR-80 (GWBasic), I found I loved that I could make forms applications easily (even in DOS).  When VB3 […]<\/p>\n","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/vbteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1843","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=1843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/vbteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1843\/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=1843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/vbteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/vbteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}