Visual Basic Roadmap

Visual Basic (VB) 10, the latest release of the .NET Framework—based programming language, was released with Visual Studio (VS) 2010 in Apr. 2010. The new version addresses a Microsoft goal to bring VB closer to parity with the C# language and delivers new features that arrived simultaneously in C# 4.0, which could make it easier for development teams to choose between VB and C# for new projects. The improvements could help teams write simpler, more maintainable code than was possible with earlier versions of VB. However, absolute feature and support parity between VB and C# is yet to be achieved.

VB’s Long History

VB has a long history that traces its roots to the beginning of Microsoft itself, when the BASIC programming language was offered as one of Microsoft’s first products. VB underwent a major rewrite with the VB 7 release in 2002, when it transitioned into a true object-oriented programming language based on the .NET Framework (releases prior to VB 7 are sometimes called VB Classic; VB 7 and later releases are sometimes called VB.NET). VB 7 offered limited backward compatibility with prior versions and mostly carried forward the original syntax style.