C# vs VB.NET books and the such

Don mentioned the fact that the C# version of the books have been doing much better sales wise than their VB.NET brother (or little sister depending on who you ask).  I happen to have been collecting some data on the training worldwide in a side project from our corporate headquarters, www.newhorizons.com.  Now based solely on the dates on the website as of two weeks ago, here's the breakdown in scheduling of the classes.  I should mention that I don't speak for New Horizons or even my individual center.  I just went to their website and grabbed data.  Break it down:

2609 Introduction to C# Programming with Microsoft .NET: 5 courses schedule
2559 Introduction to Microsoft Visual Basic .NET Programming with Microsoft.NET: 47

Both of these classes are designed for someone who's been programming windows or web for about 3 months.  Beginning type stuff.  Well, I've had 20yr vets of COBOL or other mainframers who've loved the classes as they escape COBOL.  It seems to me that for beginners, VB.NET seems to be the way most are going. 

A little more advanced.  These next two classes are high paced classes.  They do not follow the same outline at all, in fact the C# course is 5 days on the language alone.  The VB.NET one covers the changes since VB6.  In fact, while the VB.NET course has Web Services, ASP.NET, COM+, WinForms, and components all covered, the C# course never leaves the console.  Still a little comparision because I ran the query:

2124C Programming with C#: 15
2373B Programming with Microsoft Visual Basic .NET: 79

Perhaps the most interesting one would be course 2565 vs 2555.  Same exact class (on Windows apps), but one has the examples in VB .NET and the other in C#:

2565 Developing Microsoft .NET Applications for Windows (Visual Basic.NET): 35
2555 Developing Microsoft .NET Applications for Windows (Visual C# .NET): 10

Perhaps this tells more of a story about language preference for developers whose company sends them to training vs the developers who get excited about an ASP.NET book and run out and buy it. 

3 Comments

  • for what it's worth, I only buy C# books now and have never taken a class. Back when I would have taken a class, I would have taken VB. Not that I speak for everyone, but I really am a strong believer in "those that can, do, those that can't, take a course".

  • I think it also speaks to the type of developer that takes MOC courses.

  • No comment about the MOC, but my classes I'm told are good.





    Of course, I've been known to rewrite entire courses lab files so they are actually useful...

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