Microsoft recently released the Visual Studio 2005 Express tools (currently in Beta). This is really a good idea… provide entry-level coding tools to developers who don’t need all of the frills and features. More important is the cost, which is free. The biggest question is… how long will that last? It’s important to provide the tools to get more developers to try them, which allows more exposure to the newest technologies.
I’ll happily relate my experiences in .NET programming to anyone who will listen, but the big point to be made is this: Microsoft IS making it easier and faster to produce code, and the code appears to be more bulletproof that what earlier tools could produce.
Is this something that Java offers? Yes, to a point. Does Java have more market share? Yes, I believe it still does. Does that make it a superior product? I can’t pass judgment based on my limited Java experience. However, I know from experience that for probably 70% of the programmatic challenges I’ve come up against, I can find some kind of code example to set me on my way.
So… how is that different from Java? Simple: Sometimes I find the answer in C#, sometimes in VB.NET, sometimes in VB6 code, sometimes in ADSI or WMI programming examples, sometimes in VBscript.
Did any of this ranting make sense? Possibly. Did all of the points get made successfully? I don’t know… I drank before I wrote this… but I figure that the underlying main point stands.