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Hey all,

It’s November already. I’m still plugging away at the ModVB Language/Runtime/Compiler backlog reveal. I’m currently working on the section on “Null and Nothing”. This was the last section to be added explicitly and is the least or second least developed. After this I just need to pump out a few pages on performance and interoperability and I think I’m on track to drop the massive collection of posts this month.

In the meantime, a community member over on the VB Discord server asked for a quick reminder of the highlights of what’s planned for ModVB. I paired down my documents to something … highlight-y and I thought others would benefit from the summary. The exact order of sections is subject to change but the spirit and highlights of each are below.

Remember, ModVB is not one feature or a few features but a focal point for the continued evolution of the VB.NET language, based on the Roslyn codebase. With regard to actual capabilities/features/fixes, there are currently over 100 distinct work items on the backlog in the language, compiler, and runtime library, broadly organized into a dozen or so buckets (subject to change). Please understand these highlights are nothing approaching exhaustive.

UI, XML, and XAML

Enhancing VB’s existing XML capabilities for modern front-end development targeting the web and mobile.

Highlight:

• XAML literals
• + at least 5 more!

JSON

Replicating VB’s amazing XML story with the JSON data format.

Highlight:

• JSON literals and JSON pattern matching.
• + at least 4 more!

Smart Casting and Pattern Matching

Features for testing types and shapes of data and inspecting complex data structures.

Highlights:

• Checking a local variable/parameter with TypeOf will cause its type to change where the compiler can infer it is safe.
• The top-requested VB feature: Select Case TypeOf
• General pattern matching against types, tuples, wildcards, strings, and other user-defined named patterns.

Streamlining and Boilerplate Reduction

Does what it says on the tin.

Highlights:

• Key Fields & Properties, and Auto-Constructors
• Top-Level Code
• Type-Inference improvements
• + at least 10 more!

General Modernization and Evolution

Revisiting almost every statement in the language and a few other constructs to improve them in some way, long requested features, consistency fixes, etc.

Highlights:

• Tuple deconstruction in several places in the language such as local variables, For Each loops, queries, etc.
• Select Case on object identity.
• “Closed”, Generic, and Nestable Module declarations.
• + at least 15 more!

Declarative Programming and Code Generation

Features which make it easier to reuse functionality across repetitive tasks both with and without source generators.

Highlight:

• Source Generator support features
• + at least 2 more

Asynchronous Programming Enhancements

Deeper integration of asynchrony with the language.

Highlights:

• Await Each blocks
• Async Iterator Functions
• + at least 4 more!

LINQ Enhancements

Revisiting LINQ after 15 years with new features and fixes to make working with data even more productive.

Highlights:

• Queries in For Each (and Await Each) blocks.
• New operators
• + at least 7 more!

Dynamic Programming  Enhancements

Revisiting VB late-binding to make it work better and work in more places.

• At least 11 topics!

Interfaces, Inheritance, Extensions, & Delegates

Making OO fundamentals more productive.

Highlight:

• Implicit Interface Implementations
• + at least 6 more!

Null and Nothing

Making working with the reality of nulls in code safer, more elegant, and more consistent.

Highlight:

• Nullable reference types
• + at least 3 more!

Performance and Interoperability

Improvements to let VB developers write faster code for performance-critical components as well as interoperating with modern features of the .NET platform.

Highlight:

• ByRef Structure story
• + at least 4 more!

Versioning

Better features for dealing with or initiating change between library versions.

Runtime Library Enhancements

Revisiting the VB runtime library so that it’s more portable, more performant, and more useful.

Highlights:

• Runtime helper optimization
• My namespace modernization
• + more.

Summary

If you were keeping count that’s over 100 separate topics! After I finish writing I’ll move things around some to make things flow better and I’m trying to combine certain very similar topics where it makes sense and each topic may be anywhere from half a page to 10 pages for the largest topics so it’s not an exact page count but as promised, this “post” will be massive. My next update should be that the artifact is “text complete”. See you back here soon-ish.

Regards,

-ADG

Special Thanks to ANYONE who is donating or has ever donated to me via Patreon! I could not pursue my dream of producing modern VB features and content without their support.

Dr. Donna M., Alex T., Kirill O., Neal G., Govert D., Dr. Anne J., Taiwo A., Jonathon M., Peter B., Kevin R., and Paul C.