I've been thinking recently about a possible maturity index for languages/platforms.  I use Java and C# as my main development languages.  They are very similar in syntax and in function.  If you can do something in one language you can probably do it in the other.  The differences are usally a bit of "syntactic sugar."  The major difference is the maturity of the documentation and of the available "code in the wild" by which I mean demo, samples and full fledged open source libraries.  Java has this in spades.  C# and by association .NET have a lot of this and it is growing each day, however Java has a much bigger head start and a more-open source build-it-yourself mentality. 

Hence the point of this post.  VB was my first language.  I came in to it at version 6, obviously at the end of its life cycle.  However, VB was in its prime.  You could find books, magazines, samples and examples galor.  Programmers had explored every angle of VB, not only had they put on the rubber glove and explored its orifaces but they had opened it up and shined the light on its entrails.  VB was a mature, highly productive platform, which is something that Java is now and C# is definetaly becoming. 

This is not to put down C#.  On the contrary, when C# has the maturity that Java now enjoys it should be a true work of art.  I think that as the .NET platform enters into version 2 we should see C# hit its sweet spot.  The major thing I see holding it back is the lack of open-source (read FREE) software.  Obviously it is designed and publilshed by Microsoft for the intent of selling MS product.  I see promise in that most popular Java utility libraries (JUnit, JDoc, Log4J) have been ported to .NET.  I would like to see more enterprise applications out there.  An open source appserver and web server would be nice.  Some decent object pooling and threading libraries would help. 

I think these will come, its just a matter of maturity.