PaulV_MS : Q: Are we going to get anonymous methods support as well in vb.net?

PaulV_MS : A: Not in this release. It's a very interesting feature that we looked at, but it wasn't a high enough priority when matched against the other stuff we're doing this time. Definitely something we're going to keep our eye on.

Amanda_MS : Q: In the future, are we going to see more support in the IDE for refactoring tasks, like in Intellij Idea, or Eclipse?

Amanda_MS : A: We are very seriously considering features that could be classified as "refactoring" features. For VB, we are considering them on a feature by feature basis... What would you like to see most?

Matt_MS : Q: Are we going to have a better documentation on Whidbey?

Matt_MS : A: Corrado, We are aggressively evaluating the documentary experience for our customers, as well as refactoring how we get that information to our users. We believe the upcoming release will be the most thoroughly documented version yet, and the informati

Matt_MS : information will be the easiest to find.

Matt_MS : .

Amanda_MS : The roadmap for the different .NET languages can be found at: http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/productinfo/roadmap.aspx

Amanda_MS : It covers a lot of features that will be in the next release. Including XML Doc Comments.

Matt_MS : A: Corrado, samples are the area we are expanding the most. In addition to having a large number of fairly extensive samples, we are also introducing a series of short, task-based code sample topics, and are updating sample code for the .NET members.

PaulV_MS : Q: Why do i always need to keep VisualBasic dll in my VB.NET apps even if i don't use any 'old' function?

PaulV_MS : A: The CLR doesn't support all the bells and whistles that the VB language does, so there are a number of runtime helper functions that are in that DLL that we emit calls to when you do certain things in the language. That's why you can't stop...

PaulV_MS : ...referencing the DLL even if you don't use any of the user functions in it.

Amanda_MS : Q:Refactoring stuff: Make variable into a property, extract code to a separate method, Make into singleton

Amanda_MS : A: Thanks Roy! We'll definitely make sure that those features are on the list to consider.

PaulV_MS : A: One example would be the Like operator. It has to call a helper to provide the functionality, and there was no exact analogue in the frameworks. There are others...

PaulV_MS : Q: Are we going to have a C# "As" counterpart in VB.NET?

PaulV_MS : A: Corrado, we've had many requests for this feature, and it's something we're strongly considering for a future release. That's about all I can say at the moment...  :-)

PaulV_MS : Q: Paul, message received but why don't you let user possibility to use .NET only functionalities removing VB dll?

PaulV_MS : A: We have talked about splitting the helper functions out into a separate DLL so that people could do this. It's something we continue to think about, because we do get requests for this.

Amanda_MS : Q: Should we expect any VB surprises announced at the PDC?

Amanda_MS : A: I think the PDC will be very exciting...

Corneliu_MS : Q: Is there a reason why VB does not support operator overloading? Will it in the future?

Corneliu_MS : A: Operator overloading will be in the next verssion

Amanda_MS : A: The initial implementation uses '@ but we haven't closed on what the final notation will be.

johnny_vb : A: The Windows Forms team hopes to add flow and grid panels in a future release.

PaulV_MS : Q: Next VB.Net will support partial types? (can't remember...)

PaulV_MS : A: Yup!