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Visual Basic VS D (Programming Language)

Compare Visual Basic VS D (Programming Language) and see what are their differences

Visual Basic logo Visual Basic

Modern, high-level, multi-paradigm, general-purpose programming language for building apps using Visual Studio and the .NET Framework

D (Programming Language) logo D (Programming Language)

D is a language with C-like syntax and static typing.
  • Visual Basic Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-03-13
  • D (Programming Language) Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-05-09

Visual Basic features and specs

  • Ease of Use
    Visual Basic is known for its simple syntax and readability, making it a good starting point for beginners.
  • Rapid Application Development
    It supports rapid application development through a drag-and-drop interface and integrated IDE, which can speed up the development process.
  • Strong Integration with Microsoft Products
    Visual Basic integrates well with other Microsoft products, such as Excel and Access, making it useful for automating Office applications.
  • Rich Base Class Library
    The .NET framework provides a rich set of libraries that can be utilized within Visual Basic, giving access to a wide range of functionalities.

Possible disadvantages of Visual Basic

  • Diminishing Popularity
    Visual Basic's popularity has been decreasing over the years, which may lead to a smaller community and less modern resources.
  • Limited Cross-Platform Support
    Compared to other languages like C# or Java, Visual Basic has more limited cross-platform capabilities.
  • Performance Limitations
    Applications written in Visual Basic may experience performance issues compared to those written in more modern or lower-level languages.
  • Less Feature-Rich for Advanced Programming
    Visual Basic may not offer as many features for advanced or high-performance programming compared to languages like C++ or Python.

D (Programming Language) features and specs

  • Performance
    D is designed to be a high-performance systems programming language, offering performance comparable to C and C++ through native machine code compilation.
  • Expressiveness
    D features a rich standard library and modern language constructs, such as garbage collection, first-class arrays, and advanced templating, making it easier to write expressive and maintainable code.
  • Memory Safety
    D offers optional garbage collection along with manual memory management. This hybrid approach can help in developing safer applications by reducing memory-related errors.
  • Interoperability
    D can easily interoperate with C API, enabling seamless integration with existing C libraries and systems. It also supports better C++ interoperability compared to other languages.
  • Built-in Unit Testing
    D has built-in support for unit tests, allowing developers to write and run tests as part of the language itself, facilitating test-driven development.
  • Concurrency
    D offers built-in concurrency support with message passing, similar to the actor model found in languages like Erlang, making it easier to write concurrent and parallel programs.

Possible disadvantages of D (Programming Language)

  • Adoption
    D is not as widely adopted as other languages like C, C++, or Java. This limited adoption means fewer libraries, frameworks, and community support.
  • Toolchain Maturity
    While D's compilers and tools have improved over the years, they may still lack the maturity and feature set of more established languages, which can affect developer productivity.
  • Learning Curve
    D's richness and combination of paradigms (such as imperative, object-oriented, and functional programming) can present a steep learning curve for new developers.
  • Garbage Collection
    Although D offers optional garbage collection, its reliance on it for memory safety might be seen as a drawback for real-time system development where deterministic memory management is crucial.
  • Ecosystem
    The ecosystem for D is less vibrant compared to more popular languages, leading to potentially fewer third-party libraries, tools, and resources.
  • Standard Library Documentation
    The standard library documentation can be inconsistent or less comprehensive compared to other languages, making it difficult for developers to fully utilize all features of the language.

Analysis of D (Programming Language)

Overall verdict

  • Overall, D is a solid programming language choice that balances performance with productivity. It may not be as widely adopted as some other languages, but it has a dedicated community and continues to evolve, making it a viable option for various programming tasks.

Why this product is good

  • The D programming language is considered good by many developers for various reasons. It combines the performance and low-level control of C/C++ with the expressive power and ease of use found in modern languages. D offers features like garbage collection, first-class functions, and compile-time function execution, providing both speed and flexibility. Its interoperability with C, the convenience of a powerful standard library (Phobos), and the availability of packages via the DUB package manager make it a practical choice for systems programming, application development, and rapid prototyping.

Recommended for

  • System programming enthusiasts looking for an alternative to C/C++
  • Developers interested in writing high-performance applications
  • Programmers who appreciate modern language features and strong community support
  • Projects requiring seamless C integration
  • Individuals looking for a language that supports easy code maintenance and scalability

Visual Basic videos

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D (Programming Language) videos

D Language Tutorial

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Visual Basic and D (Programming Language))
Programming Language
16 16%
84% 84
OOP
12 12%
88% 88
Generic Programming Language
Development
16 16%
84% 84

User comments

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, D (Programming Language) seems to be a lot more popular than Visual Basic. While we know about 60 links to D (Programming Language), we've tracked only 5 mentions of Visual Basic. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Visual Basic mentions (5)

  • Is there a visual basic tutorial for people people who already know how to program?
    Yes. It's called the documentation. Source: over 3 years ago
  • Any good tutorials and books for VB.Net and VBA?
    The Microsoft documentation is probably going to be the best bet for VB.NET. Source: over 4 years ago
  • Magikcraft โ€“ Teaching Kids to Program Using Minecraft with Joshua Wulf
    And for that one, I had a friend who worked at the computer place who had Visual Basic, and I was like, "Give me the Visual Basic disc." And so I loaded that onto my computer and just made a CV as a program in Visual Basic, put it on a floppy disk, and then dropped it in the letterbox of this guy who was in his garage. He had a small business, and he needed an extra programmer. And that's how I started my first... - Source: dev.to / over 4 years ago
  • Where can I find a very good VBA course?
    How about this by Microsoft? https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/visual-basic/. Source: about 5 years ago
  • Need help running a vb.net console application in powershell.
    Are you referring to the .NET version of Visual Basic here or the classic Visual Basic 6 which pre-dates .NET by quite a bit and whose extended support ended in 2008? Source: about 5 years ago

D (Programming Language) mentions (60)

  • Ask HN: What is your (AI) dev tech stack / workflow? (June 2026)
    I've spent 2 weeks (2-4h per day) to make D language[1] version of Sciter SDK [2] Choice of AI "tooling" was by accident - typed something like "how to define copy constructor in D for custom structure" in Microsoft's Copilot in Edge browser that gives context for AI. The answer was good enough for me and so I went with it further. [1] D language HQ : https://dlang.org/. - Source: Hacker News / about 1 month ago
  • Rue: Higher level than Rust, lower level than Go
    > Mostly, I am not really trying to compete with C/C++/Rust on speed, but I'm not going to add a GC either. So I'm somewhere in there. Out of curiosity, how would you compare the goals of Rue with something like D[0] or one of the ML-based languages such as OCaml[1]? 0 - https://dlang.org/ 1 - https://ocaml.org/. - Source: Hacker News / 7 months ago
  • Pony: An actor-model, capabilities-secure, high-performance programming language
    The D language home page has something similar with a drop down with code examples https://dlang.org/. - Source: Hacker News / 12 months ago
  • Show HN: D++lang โ€“ A new systems programming language with Python-like syntax
    What is this? There's a lot of red flags here. * The name "D" for a programming language was taken in 1999: https://dlang.org/. - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago
  • Koto Programming Language
    >For me the biggest gap in programming languages is a rust like language with a garbage collector, instead of a borrow checker. I cannot agree more that's the much needed sweet spot/Goldilock/etc. Personally I have been advocating this approach for some times. Apparently the language is already widely available and currently has stable and wide compiler support including the venerable GNU compiler suite (GDC). It... - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Visual Basic and D (Programming Language), you can also consider the following products

C++ - Has imperative, object-oriented and generic programming features, while also providing the facilities for low level memory manipulation

F# - F# is a mature, open source, cross-platform, functional-first programming language.

Nim (programming language) - The Nim programming language is a concise, fast programming language that compiles to C, C++ and JavaScript.

Go Programming Language - Go, also called golang, is a programming language initially developed at Google in 2007 by Robert...

V (programming language) - Simple, fast, safe, compiled language for developing maintainable software.

Perl - Highly capable, feature-rich programming language with over 26 years of development