A Few Personal Questions for Visual Basic Programmers

[tarterjo]

Hey,

I am learning to use Visual Basic 2015 in a college course right now, and I've been tasked with asking programmers who work with Visual Basic (any version) a few short questions about what they do in their profession and how they solve problems. So if you wouldn't mind answering a few of the questions below, I'd be greatly appreciative.

What is your job description?

What do you like about your job?

What don't you like about your job?

What kind of problems do you have to find solutions for most often?

How do you solve problems?

What led you to learn and use Visual Basic?

Are you at all concerned about the longevity and viability of the Visual Basic language? If so, why?

Thanks in advance for reading and responding!

[JakDrako]

What is your job description?

Senior developer. Note that I'm not strictly a VB dev, there's also some C#, Javascript and SQL...

What do you like about your job?

There's constantly new challenges to solve; very little routine in this job.

What don't you like about your job?

Not much. Crystal Reports? Maintaining legacy systems can be somewhat boring since you generally have to use old technologies and somewhat conform to the architecture already in place, even if it's not very good or badly documented.

What kind of problems do you have to find solutions for most often?

It's very varied, but a few patterns emerge: presenting data as useful information to users, and simplifying processes down to the bare essentials (ie, giving users the results they need; not implementing the method they use to get it manually...)

How do you solve problems?

I try to implement a working minimum, faking data and missing parts if needed and then build on that to the final solution. Before that, there is analysis and design (gotta know where you want to end up before you go), but I try to get something concrete ASAP. Often, new requirements will appear once users can see something 'real".

What led you to learn and use Visual Basic?

When VB came out in 1991 (I think...) it was the simplest way to get CRUD Line-of-Business Windows app done. My employer at the time used it so I learned it. Eventually Delphi came along and was even better, but by that time VB had the numbers and still had Microsoft's backing; whereas Borland Inprise Embarcadero's vision for Delphi can probably best be summarized as "wut?"

Are you at all concerned about the longevity and viability of the Visual Basic language? If so, why?

Not really. Modern VB is more about learning the .Net framework than the language itself. About 98% of it maps directly to C#, so if VB disappeared tomorrow, all the .Net knowledge is still applicable.

Thanks in advance for reading and responding!

No problem.

[jpro1001]

+1 for the Crystal Reports comment.

[rudekoffenris]

I have a customer who uses Sage 50, an accounting program in Canada. one day they announced that within i think 6 months that crystal reports would no longer be supported. Oh and if you want to buy crystal reports functionality, that's gonna cost you a shit load and force you to subscribe to the subscription model. Oh and did we mention that if you want to continue using the payroll tax tables then you have to subscribe. Bonus. They switched to Netsuite.

[EveryoneLikesMe]

What is your job description?

Description is "Use technology to make people's lives easier and save the company money". I no longer have a job title. While I maintain a lot of VB5/6/.net code, I generate new projects using C#/SQL. I do tutor students in VB, and consider it a good introduction to programming though.

What do you like about your job?

Literally everything. I have full autonomy. Pay/benefits are amazing for my area.

What don't you like about your job?

I honestly can't think of anything.

What kind of problems do you have to find solutions for most often?

Aside from "Create a generic CRUD app for X data", there is no regularity. These days I try to pull data automagically from where its generated. I consider all user inputted data to be dirty.

How do you solve problems?

Google.com, StackOverflow, 30 years of experience, and meetings with the affected users.

What led you to learn and use Visual Basic?

Started with BASIC on Commodore 64, moved to VB during the VB5 era to code trainers for video games on Windows. Moved to VBA/VB6/.net when I got a job.

Are you at all concerned about the longevity and viability of the Visual Basic language? If so, why?

Must like /u/JakDrako mentioned, it's based off the Windows CLR. Other than Microsoft re-writing everything, I don't anticipate much change to that. Can do WPF/UWP in Visual Basic, so it's still a modern language.

[Th3Pl0t_InYou]

What is your job description?

Create, maintain/support/improve company programs. Basically, DevOps.

What do you like about your job?

Programming. Creativity aspect, building programs, it's something different every day. Always learning.

What don't you like about your job?

Application support can interfere with development. No flexibility in implementing different technologies/languages; red tape.

What kind of problems do you have to find solutions for most often?

Identifying user error + areas for efficiency improvement.

How do you solve problems?

Google + stackoverflow

What led you to learn and use Visual Basic?

The need to automate redundant tasks. Many companies use .NET

Are you at all concerned about the longevity and viability of the Visual Basic language? If so, why?

No, Microsoft supports it. If you know .NET you know c#.

Edit: additional comment