Jay Schmelzer - Working on the VB Core Team

Wow, lots of great tips!  And not just stuff for VB-ers, there's some nuggets about the new devenv.exe that are equally applicable for C# and C++ folk, too.

BTW, the interviews with code are always the best.

-Lorin

Good video.

That expression evaluation is great. How helpful. To be able to test your code without having to create a tester class is genius!

Is it just me or does the image quality of the video differ from the other videos?

Most of the Channel 9 videos use the same resolution, 320x240 pixels, although a few short ones have used higher resolutions.

hi guys,

i must admit that somehow the noise about vb.net and c# in the 2005 generation of visual studio (congratulations to RTM btw ) hurts me a bit and i don't mean "noise" in a negative way.. it's good to see progress with these two languages and the clr itself, of course.

[ caution... i'm wild ]

the thing is.... I'm into C++... a lot. native or CLI. i always can't help it but think that innovation and focus of the whole .net wave is the fancy "simple" (syntaxwise) languages.

just compare the number of vb/c# videos on channel9 to the number of c++ videos. yes i realize that C++ is muuuch older and established.. but that also means we're the majority.

maybe it's the not so clear direction; what role native c++ and c++/cli (and the interaction of both) will play in the future. I've seen Herb Sutter's talk highlighting the (shared) future of C++0x and the c++/cli... most of it is stuff that's already integrated into linq for C# etc and downloadable via msdn. the dreams of a c++ guy are downloadable in a C# flavor. to a degree i jump to the ceiling and enjoy what C# brings us in every iteration. to a (sometimes larger) degree i 'm like the guy who isn't allowed to play with the other children in the byte sand. left behind. even forced to stay in his corner (a beautiful and large corner) by the standards.

standards have been one of c++'s strenth ever since. but i feel chained to the wall by them. maybe a more open compiler architecture (phoenix, available to research community, but otherwise restricted access) will change a lot for us. maybe by now we would 've been able to see what the new languages features can bring to the c++ table.

c++ is not flashy. never meant to be. C#/vb is new (relatively) so i understand that the majority of evangelism is centered around these two (don't take that as an offence charles and robert. in  no way i'm here to critisize your work! on the contrary..). it's just what bothers me during the last few years.  like the slow giant with little insects moving around it very quickly so he can't defend himself against them.
is it a problem caused by ms marketing? forgetting to cheer up the c++ giant?  is it the c++ standards moving too slow because they have to be extremely careful for obvious reasons? is it that people buy vs2005 because of the new langauges and stick with their older IDE and older c++ compilers out of pure fear? or are the expectations that .net will save the IT world too high and plain old native c++ (and its native colleagues) will dominate as it always has?

don't know. i'll stop here

to my defence i bring forward that i'm sick. so don't blame me too much for somehow ripping this post. i just feel that i had to tell you guys what i think about the current issue with c++ "hype" or the lack thereof.

i love C# (not so much vb ) but that's really biased an opinion). But We're More.  don't forget that.

i know i know standards, comittees, compatibility, etc etc etc. i don't want to accuse someone. maybe myself for maybe not being as open minded as i shoud be.

anyways. i'll shut up. excuse my quite random interjection here (and using more pathos than necessary).

-- martin.

that was actually a great video....very cool tips and tricks!!

Thanks!

I remember Jay from his days of presenting at VBLive! a few years back.  He was with Clarity Consulting (I think?) back then, doing a presentation with Andrew Brust, MS NY Regional Director.  I'm a little surprised that Scoble didn't do this interview considering that he used to be involved in VBLive! but maybe they worked there at different times (plus scheduling conflicts of the here and now).

Anyway, it's good to see someone with actual experience doing what most professional software developers do with VB working on the VB.NET team, rather than some CompSci PhD who might understand compilers and programming languages but whose experience with applications is limited to sample code and proofs of concept.

Great video, great tips, great product!

Jay is good at speaking slowly and very easy to understand. Great when the listener's native language isn't English. Slang and people that swollow their words and when two or more people speak at the same time, can be a challange. Not a problem, just a challange.

Good video! I had not actually started using snippets but now I see them going - holy cow!

I have a gazillion ideas for snippets I want to write - but the snippet editor home page on gotdotnet is down it seems

http://workspaces.gotdotnet.com/vbsnippeteditor

Why can't I just have SOME of the productivity enhancements of VB (like optional parameters and easy event handling) without feeling like an idiot everytime I type "MyBase" or "My Project", etc....?

You'd think that MS would want VBers to feel like real programmers instead of children!!!

As if VB programmers didn't get made fun of enough, you have to dumb it down like this.

Thanks for nothing.

WayneB wrote:

Why can't I just have SOME of the productivity enhancements of VB (like optional parameters and easy event handling) without feeling like an idiot everytime I type "MyBase" or "My Project", etc....?

You'd think that MS would want VBers to feel like real programmers instead of children!!!

As if VB programmers didn't get made fun of enough, you have to dumb it down like this.

Thanks for nothing.

Is it just me or does MS seems to advertise there products with the use of sterotypes?

The Goofy and Confused VB Programmer:
http://lab.msdn.microsoft.com/express/art/Beta2/VB_boxesL.jpg" alt="" border="0" height="12" width="16">
http://lab.msdn.microsoft.com/express/art/Beta2/VB_Hero2.jpg" alt="" border="0" height="162" width="197">













The Elitest Snobby C++ Programmer:
http://lab.msdn.microsoft.com/express/art/Beta2/VC_boxesL.jpg" alt="" border="0" height="12" width="16">
http://lab.msdn.microsoft.com/express/art/Beta2/VC_Hero2.jpg" alt="" border="0" height="162" width="197">












The Happy Productive C# Programmer:
http://lab.msdn.microsoft.com/express/art/Beta2/VCS_boxesL.jpg" alt="" border="0" height="12" width="16"> http://lab.msdn.microsoft.com/express/art/Beta2/VCS_Hero2.jpg" alt="" border="0" height="162" width="197">














All images where gotten from here:
http://lab.msdn.microsoft.com/express/

Those pics are really funny. If I ever get really big on c++, I'll get a beard like that guy's. It's really cool.

edit:

Or the older Java Developer:
 

And the really smart database guy (like the kind that designs the relations to be perfectly balanced):
 

Although I don't get the web developer:
 

somehow this "my" thing reflects what i 've been saying in my post above... i don't know if forcing programmers into these different categories (the flashy hip vb.net/c# types... the brilliant data base designing type..etc) is the best thing to do.

this might be part of the reason why there's so much buzz around the newer languages and so little excitement is being spread around c++ (both native and managed). the flashy stylin' c#/vb.net guys are maybe protrayed as being open to evangelism...  the c++ guys.. (yes i am one of these, and yes i have that kind of beard ) they won't get knocked out of their chairs by evanglism fueled excitement. [ the wev developer image looks nice, though ]

i honestly think microsoft is not going in the right direction with this polarization of programming types ( my wording is a bit over the top but you get the idea ). lets down the vb.net guys (see post with the complaint about "my" infront of everything.. which i fully understand).... lets the c++ people stand unrecognized in their corner watching as c# dudes experiment with language features the c++ people dream of.

but then... having multiple .net languages being developed in parallel all being able to utilize the clr etc... that's something no other company than microsoft is able to accomplish.. and they're doing the best they can. maybe forcing people into categories is just part of the deal... the negative  outcome of persona driven design and marketing? i don't know.

this all sounds negative and pessimistic.. but rest assured that i'm enjoying the framework a lot, working with different languages all on top of the clr and think the overall direction is the best we can get. different groups feeling let down is a temporary effect, i 'm sure. not so nice, though.

regards,

martin

I found out how to stop that stupid "My Project" folder from coming back. All you have to do is create a file called "My Project" (no extension) in the project directory and then manually edit your vbproj file to remove the include.

How can I get rid of the My namespace though?

Great Video indeed.

Using tags to gain more functionality like that was demonstrated is very innovative way to customize the code implementation. I only wonder how to get to know the functionality of the tags demonstrated?:O

Nice topic indeed, but how to get to know the atrributes and their behaviors?

Hi Jay

In this video you have mentioned that by typing 3 single quotes in the editor it will generate <Summary> tag which can be used for API documentation.

Is there anyway to add a new feature (if it does not exist) which will generate:

1. <Summary> skeleton tag for every method in the file for the ones
where there are no <Summary> tag defined

2. If this TAG is already defined, then it will verify/update the parameters if they are in-correctly defined

3. If this TAG is already defined, then it will not touch the existing comments written but will only edits the bare minimums

More like code re-factoring.

In short, insted of developers typing 3 single quotes (3 /// in c#) for every method, there will be an option (with enable / disable option in Tools-->Option for sure ) that will generate <Summary> tag across the application or atleast current file for sure.

This will defenitely be a great value add