Truevision3D - Community Forums - My own impression of XNA with VB.NET

NOTE: This is not going to be a comprehensive XNA thing... I barely skimmed the surface of rendering 2D with it.

Here's what I found out...

I wanted to see if I could open up new markets for EEGUI, and seeing as how XNA doesn't come with a GUI system (like most engines), I figured why not try there, eh?

So I get XNA 2.0 (because I still have VS 2005), and I dive in. I copy my EEGUI code base (so I don't mess with the TV3D version), and start working on making it work.

I knew going in that XNA is a C# only platform, but I had read a few sites and forum posts saying that you could use VB.NET with it... so why not, eh?

PRACTICAL PROBLEMS:
1) VB.NET can certainly be used. The XNA framework is nothing more than a bunch of imported DLLs, really. Or so I thought... to truly get the most out of XNA, you have to install the XNA Game Studio that hooks in to your Visual Studio installation. You don't have access to the content pipeline unless you make an XNA Game project, which you can't do unless you're using C#.

You CAN use a Windows.Forms project and make XNA work just fine, but without the content pipeline, much of the benefit of XNA over TV3D goes out the window.

2) Understandably, most of the code samples are C#... in fact, all of them are with the exception of a blog by a VB.NET programmer who is using XNA.

THE REAL PROBLEM:
You can't even hope to get any help from anyone in the community. Forum posts and IRC rooms are virulently opposed to VB.NET in the most elitist of ways. They are willing and helpful UNTIL they find out you're using VB. At that point, the entire place erupts in to an anti-VB hate fest. You can't get your simplest questions answered without some snarky comment about VB, if you can get an answer at all.

The reality of it is VB is hated by C# people for really stupid reasons. It used to be C# and VB.NET developers were unified in how outcast they were, because the C++ developers hated on anything .NET... "it's not as fast", "it's not as efficient", etc...

Now it seems there is a schism within the .NET community as well, with C# people thinking they're all wonderful because XNA only supports their language... oh, and because "real programming languages use semicolons and curly braces".

It's ridiculous.

I tried to point out to these fools that in any other app, the code compiles down to the very same IL in the CLR, which is virtually indistinguishable... but unfortunately the problem with XNA is not the CLR or IL... it's the support for the IDE you use. If you want to use XNA to the fullest, you simply MUST use their XNA Game Studio... which forces you to use C#.

So, for VB programmers out there... XNA is not the way to go.

One last note: MS has said they will add support for VB (I heard it was supposed to have been done already... by 2007 in fact... and here it is late 2009, and still no...) I fear that even when they do it, guess what will happen...

VB developers will flock to XNA, only to be shunned and shut out, even though they will have official support from MS. As it is right now, the lack of support is only an excuse for these asshats to fall back on in their hate for VB. Lacking that excuse, they will STILL shun us and make us feel unwelcome... which is sad, because that attitude alone will unnecessarily block good developers from making their games and enriching the game development industry as a whole.

END THE HATE!