[ale] OT: Re: posting to Linux mail list

[Greg]

Well, VB is cheap, easy , plenty of developers (I think it is the # 1
language by number of developers) and did I mention it is cheap ?  It
interacts with other VB stuff (all of MS office) and it is object-oriented
(no, not object based).  It can easily access and use C++ and Windows API's
is scalable to probably about 90% of what business's require.  It is not a
scripting language (like HTML) but a full development language.  It
represents RAD at it's best and is only as insecure as the coders make it.
Many apps are not necessarily networkable and many companies are not
connected to the net (or weren't), so the security thing is not a huge thing
in some instances.

Rewriting is many times not an issue, as many clients will point out.
Money, politics, and the what-if-Linux-changes (lib problems anyone ?)
points make re-writing not a choice for many businesses.

Whether facing a choice of changing to Linux or .NET or Java many companies
are doing what the 400 million users of Windows 98 are doing - nothing.  If
it ain't broke don't fix it. A trillion flashy apps, connectivity crap,
stuff that would never be used but is paid for and such that are in the ads
of many OS's are irrelevant to many businesses.  MS has done well by them
and outside of the occasional HD failure they were/are/will continue to be
ok.  They have already paid for their licenses and really don't require much
of anything from any camp (Java/Open Source/Windows).  For these folk there
just simply is no reason to change.

Also, the point that you see little value of a GUI dev tool (which is huge
to me) is the point.  Just because I don't care about OCR or other stuff
does not mean that there are not those that do - and do so to a large
extent.  MS has many apps in these little niches that Linux does not - and
obviously vice-versa.  But to date, there is no VB equivalent in the Linux
community and the choices are really not great for what there is (C++,
tcl/tk, perl, etc etc) that has VB's points.  On the other hand VB is
changing and, from what I read today, will change again 2-3 times in the
next several years as Longhorn comes out.  In that respect the unchanging
*nix based languages start to look appealing to developers who are tired of
chasing a moving target driven by the marketing and AR departments of some
software companies.

Greg

> -----Original Message-----
> From: ale-bounces at ale.org [mailto:ale-bounces at ale.org]On Behalf Of
> Geoffrey
> Sent: Tuesday, December 30, 2003 8:29 PM
> To: Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts
> Subject: Re: [ale] OT: Re: posting to Linux mail list
>
>
> Greg wrote:
> > I was thinking of Visual Studio, however others had their own
> > programs (as I am sure there are many others).  Linux is not the
> > perfect system for everyone and lacks stuff.
>
> I'm not up on Visual Studio, but I believe it's a gui dev. tool, of
> which I'm not fond, thus I see little value in it.
>
> >
> > Another example is VB.  How can Linux run a company's tailored
> > software (mission critical) if it is in VB ??  and I don't think
> > "Export it to Open Source" is a good business reason to put forth.
>
> VB is just another scripting language, worse, it's the cause of many
> security issues.  How can Linux run a company's tailored software if it
> is in VB?  You rewrite it in a safer better language.
>
> --
> Until later, Geoffrey	esoteric at 3times25.net
>
> Building secure systems inspite of Microsoft
>
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