Is it JAVA or VB.net?

[Nick Akabude]

Hello there

I have been working with VB6 and SQL Server for the past 3 and a half years
and am really fed up as VB6 is pretty old. Morever, I hold MCSD. Please can
you advise me whether to go into JAVA or VB.net. My problem is knowing which
one is currently in request..

What is your advice ? I am very very confused
Thank you.

 

[Liz]

Hello there

I have been working with VB6 and SQL Server for the past 3 and a half years
and am really fed up as VB6 is pretty old. Morever, I hold MCSD. Please can
you advise me whether to go into JAVA or VB.net. My problem is knowing which
one is currently in request..

What is your advice ? I am very very confused
Thank you.

This is a java group so of course we recommend VB.NET

 

[Steven J Sobol]

Hello there

I have been working with VB6 and SQL Server for the past 3 and a half years
and am really fed up as VB6 is pretty old. Morever, I hold MCSD. Please can
you advise me whether to go into JAVA or VB.net. My problem is knowing which
one is currently in request..

I'm looking for contract work and/or employment to supplement what I'm
already doing, and I see a lot of requests for both. Perhaps slightly more .NET
than Java - but only slightly.

 

[Roedy Green]

I'm looking for contract work and/or employment to supplement what I'm
already doing, and I see a lot of requests for both. Perhaps slightly more .NET
than Java - but only slightly.

Java is more generic. You are not hitching yourself to one company as
much. VB is a closed universe. With Java, it is like a passport to
let you into many other worlds, such as serverside, embedded,
handheld, supercomputing, parallel processing, banking ...

It helps you keep your options open in a world hard to predict.

 

[Shane Mingins]

Please can you advise me whether to go into JAVA or VB.net. My problem is knowing which
one is currently in request..

That may depend on country/location.

One thing I would probably be considering if I went down the .Net path is
possibly to learn C# instead of VB

Shane

 

[Ike]

Does .NET run on ANYTHING other than Windows yet????

 

[Bob Jackson]

Mono and dotGNU do - they partially implement the net framework and have c#
compilers.

Bob

 

[Hal Rosser]

Lets see, if you learn VB.NET, you have to use Visual Studio ($$$)
MS then comes out with a new version (more $$$)
then MS decides to make a radical change in the language (Like from VB6.0 to
VB.NET)
Learn new VB.NewVersion ($$$tart over)
vs
Java (free)
New upgrades (free)
new version (no radical changes)

Java tries to stay backward compatible.

 

[Superdude]

Hello there

I have been working with VB6 and SQL Server for the past 3 and a half years
and am really fed up as VB6 is pretty old. Morever, I hold MCSD. Please can
you advise me whether to go into JAVA or VB.net. My problem is knowing which
one is currently in request..

What is your advice ? I am very very confused
Thank you.

Have you looked into a career in COBOL?

 

[Superdude]

new version (no radical changes) except for 1.5

 

[Steven J Sobol]

Java is more generic. You are not hitching yourself to one company as
much.

I know, but the question is which skillset is more marketable, unless I
misread the original post. IMHO .NET and Java are just about tied in that
respect.

 

[Chris]

Although this is a java based group - from where I am .NET is likely to
offer you more work. Java world I think would be a tad more difficult to
get the kind of work you are after. They are fairly balanced just at
this moment but the .NET stuff is on a rising curve. Also C# is very
similar and is a very close paradigm to Java.

Of course, unquestionably, you will need to work on C# as well as VB.NET.

But put some effort into learning the Java. I would spend time becoming
conversant with it so that you can stand your ground when trying to
convince people it would be a better option for their project.

Chris

 

[Michael N. Christoff]

Hello there

I have been working with VB6 and SQL Server for the past 3 and a half years
and am really fed up as VB6 is pretty old. Morever, I hold MCSD. Please can
you advise me whether to go into JAVA or VB.net. My problem is knowing which
one is currently in request..

What is your advice ? I am very very confused
Thank you.

Java is, in most cases, a substantially more marketable skill than vb.net.
For example, in Canada at least, the number of vb.net jobs in the last few
months was about 41, the number of Java jobs was 500+ (according to
workopolis.ca). Maybe its different where you are. The problem is that
vb.net (and .NET in general) are still very new and even many MS-oriented
companies have not decided to make the switch yet, if ever. For example, if
you choose vb.net and learn WinForms for user interfaces, you will have to
scrap that knowledge in 2 years when Longhorn (the next version of Windows)
comes out and makes Avalon the new method of writing GUIs. Also, as others
have mentioned, many companies using vb have not switched to .net since
vb.net is not backwards compatible with vb6.

Also, you may want to check out the following site:

http://mshiltonj.com/sm/categories/languages/

By the way, the top-ranked language in the graph (the one in orange-yellow)
is NOT C# - it is actually SQL. In fact, C# is about 1/5 as popular as java
according to this site. Check out the table below the graph for exact
numbers. Unfortunately vb.net is not even mentioned as a popular language.
However, Java is about twice as popular as what I believe is vb6.

Again, the best thing would be to check local job sites for jobs in your
area. Although one technology/language may be most popular over all, it may
not be the most popular where you live.



l8r, Mike N. Christoff

 

[David Segall]

Have you looked into a career in COBOL?

The fact is that he _could_ have made a career in COBOL and it might
be the only language he ever needed to learn. There are still several
commercial and free compilers available for a variety of platforms
(http://www.infogoal.com/cbd/cbdcmp.htm). The language has survived
for over forty years and the latest standard was released only two
years ago. Contrast that with VB "Classic" (VB6 and it's
predecessors). There are no competing compilers and Microsoft
mainstream support for the product expires next year. Not only is VB
restricted to MS Windows, it is likely that a future Microsoft
operating system will not support it.

That's why I moved from VB to Java. The next time I learn a new
language I want it to be my choice; not because Microsoft say I must.

 

[Robert B.]

Have you looked into a career in COBOL?

Don't laugh. Cobol programmers are getting scarce. I just saw a job
posting for one with a 100k salary! Just because it's old, doesn't mean it
isn't still useful.

 

[Roedy Green]

Don't laugh. Cobol programmers are getting scarce. I just saw a job
posting for one with a 100k salary! Just because it's old, doesn't mean it
isn't still useful.

My friend makes his living that way and he is making a heck of a lot
more money than I am. I, however, enjoy my work.

 

[Dejan Lazic]

Java is, in most cases, a substantially more marketable skill than vb.net.
For example, in Canada at least, the number of vb.net jobs in the last few
months was about 41, the number of Java jobs was 500+ (according to
workopolis.ca).

It really makes me happy because this summer I'm planning to try to find
some job in Canada with Java .

Is it posibble to get a job in Canada without having a faculty?
What is the maximum salary I should say if I'm asked for entry level
position?

Maybe I pass Java certificate at least to decrease my disadvantage.

Also, you may want to check out the following site:

http://mshiltonj.com/sm/categories/languages/

Very good site.
There are only two rivals in server side programming, Java and C#. I think
that nobody,
being an expert in any of the two, wouldn't have a trouble finding a job
today.

 

[Sudsy]

Dejan Lazic wrote:

There are only two rivals in server side programming, Java and C#. I think
that nobody,
being an expert in any of the two, wouldn't have a trouble finding a job
today.

Ha! I've been unable to secure full-time employment in Canada for the
last two years. I run my own webservers, run Apache/Tomcat with Struts
and Tiles, use DB/2 and Oracle, develop with Eclipse and JBoss. I've
developed session and entity EJBs and have a quarter century of industry
experience to boot.
Applications seem to fall into a black hole. You often don't even get
the courtesy of a receipt acknowledgement. It's barren up here!

 

[Dejan Lazic]

Ha! I've been unable to secure full-time employment in Canada for the
last two years. I run my own webservers, run Apache/Tomcat with Struts
and Tiles, use DB/2 and Oracle, develop with Eclipse and JBoss. I've
developed session and entity EJBs and have a quarter century of industry
experience to boot.
Applications seem to fall into a black hole. You often don't even get
the courtesy of a receipt acknowledgement. It's barren up here!

Where does this world go???
If one can't get a job in the US or Canada, where to find some!? India???

 

[Michael N. Christoff]

Dejan Lazic wrote:


Ha! I've been unable to secure full-time employment in Canada for the
last two years. I run my own webservers, run Apache/Tomcat with Struts
and Tiles, use DB/2 and Oracle, develop with Eclipse and JBoss. I've
developed session and entity EJBs and have a quarter century of industry
experience to boot.
Applications seem to fall into a black hole. You often don't even get
the courtesy of a receipt acknowledgement. It's barren up here!

Where in Canada are you? I can only say that things are reasonably good in
Toronto (ie: lots of banks, financial institutions, etc... here). I still
get calls from people looking for Ariba developers (Ariba is a B2B
platform). However, if they don't want you, you're right that almost no
company will send you even an automated email letting you know you didn't
get it.



l8r, Mike N. Christoff