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A comment on If Microsoft is killing Flight Simulator, it's killing its 2nd oldest product (1980-2009).

Re:If Microsoft is killing Flight Simulator, it's killing it... by dotcoma on Friday January 23, 2009 @12:31PM (#446669)
so, windows is next ?
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Re:If Microsoft is killing Flight Simulator, it's killing it... by ObieJazz on Friday January 23, 2009 @01:28PM (#446780)
Maybe not:

Visual Basic, the great-great-great grandchild of Microsoft Basic for the Altair, the company’s first product, is the oldest.

/crosses fingers

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Re:If Microsoft is killing Flight Simulator, it's killing it... by vlad on Friday January 23, 2009 @02:47PM (#446916)
They did kill it. VB.NET is nothing like VB 3-6, their popular offering through the 90's. VB.NET is just C# with VB-like syntax, with the addition of a couple of VB-specific retardations. I truly believe it's entire purpose was to entice VB 3-6 developers to transition to the .NET platform instead of Java, a more open and cross-platform language than Microsoft's .NET offering at the time, as VB would no longer be updated and developers had to find another language.

The other reason is they likely wanted to have lots of developers use their language, so by killing VB off, the most popular language in the world at the time, they thought they would be able to claim a lot of .NET users very quickly. And of course, Java was being used as an alternative to Microsoft's stuff and C++. Both of these show stupid standards.

Python and Ruby, for example, were created with the idea of having a beautiful and useful language, and not by Microsoft for enterprise use, nor become popular as a big company enterprise alternative to Microsoft's offerings. Learning an open-source, beautiful language that isn't run by a big corporation for enterprise use is just refreshing.

See Java's Cover: http://paulgraham.com/javacover.html

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Re:If Microsoft is killing Flight Simulator, it's killing it... by ObieJazz on Friday January 23, 2009 @08:45PM (#447552)
Point taken. VB.NET has come a long way from Altair BASIC.

Still, I'd be happy if they killed off VB so that I wouldn't have to deal with its syntax and retardations. Working in an MS environment I can only ask for so much, but at least with C# my loops get braces.

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