I've been checking out DNN and I admit I was a bit disappointed to see that there is no C# version of DNN and that it uses the WSP template.  

I have a varied background in business applications of all sorts and sizes but predominantly larger systems that implement SOA, external facing, and internal portals/workflows etc.  What I have found through my experiences is that C# and the WAP template to be more beneficial than VB.NET and WSP in a multiproject environment.  I say beneficial in my context not better.   Not trying to start a fight here.  I don't have anything against VB.NET.  I just rarely every work with it on any of the projects I'm involved with.

Searching the DNN site for information about a possible version of C# I came across the posts about code convertors and DNN being supported by VB.NET folk etc.

I noted a couple of things going through the forums here aftereards with respect to C# and WAP, and have my own observations.  I'm curious if anybody else has noticed the same thing.

Personally, I've noticed an increase in the number of projects requiring C# over VB.NET.  A few years ago I believe it was the opposite with the exception of projects that had some kind of connection to C++ or Java.   These days, at least in my corner of the universe, I get the impression that where VB.NET would have been the language choosen for new projects, it is now leaning towards C#.  This might simply be because it is possible to leverage C++, and Java resources to solve issues due to the similarities to C#.  I know I've used Java forums to find answers for C# projects.  Maybe between the three languages it's just a volume thing.

My second observation is that there seems to be a fair number of people posting questions/comments that are using C# / WAP here.  Perhaps the trend is more wide spread than I thought.  A collegue of mine mentioned that other day that he finds there is more C# books available too.  This is subjective of course.

Any comments?

Peter,

  I have to second Chris's comment here.  Many of us on the project actively develop in both C# and VB and have projects in both WAP and WSP.  While the syntax for the two languages may be different, at the end of the day what matters is execution and interoperability.  .Net is a great platform in that it allows different pieces of a solution to be developed in different languages but seamlessly work together.

While there was a lot of call early on for both a VB and C# version, that has quieted down somewhat in the last couple of years.  As people became more familiar with DotNetNuke they realized that changing the core application is a very bad practice (it essentially creates a nightmare trying to perform upgrades). The core team has always promoted using the built in extensibility to provide your desired functionality. Once you do that, you will find that the truly relevant pieces of code are those that you are writing and maintaining - which can be in any language which runs on the .Net platform.

In many respects, this is analogous to Microsoft Word.  It is not that relevant what language Word is written in, as long you are free to write documents in the language of your choice.  So my suggestion to you is to create whatever modules, skin objects, and providers you wish in whatever .Net language you wish and don't focus so much on the core platform language, since you probably shouldn't be modifying that code anyway..

We have half a dozen programmers creating DotNetNuke modules for large scale systems (for example we have one DNN site that takes attendance for 18,000 children each day between the hours of 1:00 pm -3:00 pm). Everything we do is in C#. We use Team Foundation Server for Source control and we use the WSP format.

Everything works fine.