Let’s talk about .NET for a bit, shall we?
I’ve downloaded the .NET “express edition” programs for VB.NET and C#, and they’re very interesting and cool – the .NET framework is very handy and there are definately some cool and much-needed improvements to the languages in there.
But the IDE (that’s “integrated development environment” for those of you that aren’t familiar with the term) that is used has some plusses and some minuses.
On the plus side, the IDE does cool things – like auto-indenting loops and other control structures. And of course there’s auto-complete (which I love and wouldn’t be able to live without). The built-in help is also very nice as you’re learning the finer points of the language.
However, on the minus side, the new IDE is a BEAR on system resources. My new computer here at home handles it well, but it bogs down my work computer like you wouldn’t believe. Compared to the previous IDE (Visual Studio 6), it’s SO SLOW… compiling, saving files, opening forms… it just seems to bog down. It’s a shame, too, because there’s some neat features in there I’d really love to try – like publishing a program to a web URL and having that be the system for updating the program in the future.
Ah well, perhaps this’ll be the kick in the pants I need to upgrade my work computer. Until then, however, it looks like I’m sticking with VB6 for work-related programming. Such a shame…
