Year
2012 has been a busy year for Microsoft developers. Too much to digest and too
much to learn. Windows 8 will be available to public on this coming week. Microsoft
just published a special MSDN Magazine issue focusing on just Windows 8 and
Windows Store apps.
So
what is different in this issue?
I
remember a few years back, C# developers used to complain how MSDN magazine and
early code samples used to be in VB.NET. The trend changed slowly and today,
when I am reading this MSDN magazine, I do not see any sample in VB.NET.
All Oct month MSDN Magazine code samples are in C#.
What
does that mean?
Is
Microsoft is moving away from VB.NET? I can argue that why does it matter? Does
it matter if it is C# or VB.NET? Not really. Not really for experienced
developers but for students and beginners who can't learn two different
languages, it does matter. I wrote a blog, C# vs. VB.NET in 2006 that shows C# developers always get paid more than VB.NET but Bashar Lulu also had his point of view that VB.NET was more popular than C#.
Here is an interesting article that shows C, Java, Objective-C, and C++ are most used programming language followed by C# at #5.
- C : 19.822%
- Java : 17.193%
- Objective-C : 9.477%
- C++ : 9.260%
- C# : 6,530%
Based on these numbers, C# still has a long way to go and I suspect if it will ever become as popular as C, C++ and Java but surely, it is way ahead of VB.NET and some others.
C# Programmers make more than VB.NET Programmers.
I am not sure how correct this is but here is another good and detailed list of programming languages and their market share. http://langpop.com/
Today, I searched Monster for keywords C# and VB.NET. For C#, there were about 700 jobs but for VB.NET, less than 70. I know it is not an accurate measurement but it gives you an idea about the job market demand of C# vs VB.NET.