Last week I mentioned that I enjoy programming in Visual Basic and suggested that people shouldn’t act so superior and look down at dweebs like me who program in dweeby languages. Today let’s talk about why Visual Basic is an awful programming language and anyone using it should run kicking-and-screaming away. (I’ll admit that kicking and running may be difficult to do at the same time.) Run away, not because it’s lame, but because it’s so horribly unfree.

Who owns this thing?

In my first post here at Free Software Magazine, I mentioned that I actually like using Microsoft Windows. People seemed to let this go or find it not worth commenting on, maybe because my goal is to move away from it. Not that I expected rabid opposition. Not at all. GNU/Linux users are well-known for being quite mild and reserved in their opinions. If we must go back to my drug use analogy, it could also be that readers here were supportive of my desire to seek treatment and rehabilitation and didn’t see the need to condemn me for past transgressions. (But really now, the drug metaphor has to go.)

Perhaps just as egregious a violation of the principles of free software has been my use of Visual Basic over the past ten years. And similarly, I’m going to tell you that I like programming in Visual Basic. (Version 6, specifically. Not VB.NET/Visual Fred.)