Co-Evolution for VB.NET and C# - and a new article on language futures in VS2010

The following is snipped from an article I had commissioned on language futures. The article is a good summary of what to expect in Visual Studio 2010. Enjoy.

"Visual Basic .NET and C# are both built on top of the Common Language Runtime (CLR), which means they both compile down into the same Common Intermediate Language (CIL). Since they both compile down to the same code, there should be no intrinsic benefit of one language over another. However, both languages are maintained by separate teams at Microsoft, and over the years this separation has led to a variety of language-specific features in both C# and VB.NET as the teams focus on different areas with their respective products. Many VB.NET developers feel that the most exciting new features appear in C# first and are only later introduced into VB.NET. Naturally, this has generated a bit of animosity in the VB.NET community.

Co-evolution is a promise from Microsoft that recognises VB.NET and C# as equally important languages, and guarantees that as new language features evolve, those features will be incorporated into both languages simultaneously. No longer will you need to second guess your decision to go with a particular language for want of a particular feature, and the debate between which language is "better" will be reduced back down to syntactic preference. "