Path: csiph.com!usenet.pasdenom.info!news.albasani.net!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Lew Newsgroups: comp.lang.java.programmer Subject: Re: eerie Java-BASIC (partially OT) Date: Sat, 02 Jun 2012 09:41:00 -0700 Organization: albasani.net Lines: 52 Message-ID: References: <4fca25a2$0$284$14726298@news.sunsite.dk> <4fca25f6$0$284$14726298@news.sunsite.dk> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Trace: news.albasani.net GEAXGZjWQ+1LoK4vAY8wH9CvyV8eBeB7fo196TNtVn9t3TODu7ZhIlF2MBzavzsyKWPPK6PdP8JLELaib1/a5SGCZpPAIid7sSfQpKvWs4qUJTv4oXUajF511dtIHLvg NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 2 Jun 2012 16:40:50 +0000 (UTC) Injection-Info: news.albasani.net; logging-data="CFIzp7BSQeU0/JDy0kRzCLoE5aypxtMXprJ+AIo/WGwqzIOO1QCPU0S/mHm8QoQW/M6d2KElNQBwq1Tl9aX6uP2ld6dqAL1aMaHrUfN+1QsFZ4aFcibm+Mu+5Xfly8+s"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@albasani.net" User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:12.0) Gecko/20120430 Thunderbird/12.0.1 In-Reply-To: <4fca25f6$0$284$14726298@news.sunsite.dk> Cancel-Lock: sha1:LHORFBN8/lil+X8VdUIeM4eQq8k= Xref: csiph.com comp.lang.java.programmer:15007 Arne Vajhøj wrote: > Arne Vajhøj wrote: >> Stefan Ram wrote: >>> BASIC was the first programming language I learned and the >>> second programming language I was giving classes for (the >>> first one being Pascal). >>> >>> In the next week, I will give my first VB class. So - for >>> preparation - I did have a look at some VB source code. >>> And I had an eerie feeling when reading the following part, >>> thinking: This is actually Java, just with a BASIC syntax! >>> >>> If ret.StartsWith("-") Or ret.StartsWith("/") Then Throw New >>> Exception(...) >>> >>> I mean, »String#startsWith« and »throw new Exception ...« are >>> not part of the classic BASIC, but surely are part of Java! >>> >>> (But then, one can also dispute that VB actually /has/ a BASIC >>> syntax: There are no line numbers, it does not understand >>> LET, GOSUB nor »PRINT 1,2;3«. And of course, there is no >>> »MAT«, »DEF FN...« or READ/DATA. So it's Java with a made-up >>> syntax, which possibly partially resembles BASIC.) >>> >>> Well, Java surely is influential. Maybe the >>> programming-language landscape will slowly converge to some >>> set of common features/classes and syntax. >> >> If you with VB means VB.NET then you are absolutely correct. >> >> VB.NET is C# with VB syntax and C# is close to a superset of Java. >> >> And the .NET library is also rather close to the Java library. >> >> Anders Hejlsberg worked on MS Java before he started working >> on .NET and C#. > > Note that this also somewhat imply that you should not > expect a general convergence in languages/libraries as > these similarities have a very specific explanation. Yes, like that library designers tend to see a need for the same functionality, e.g., eliciting String prefixes, and they tend to use the obvious English-like names, e.g., "starts with". But the designer and ecosystem stemming from C# does go a long way to explain such close similarities. -- Lew Honi soit qui mal y pense. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cf/Friz.jpg