Way back in 2000 Microsoft announced C#, and the rest is history.
Excerpt:
REDMOND, Wash., June 26, 2000 — Microsoft Corp. today announced Microsoft® ( "C sharp" ), a modern, object-oriented programming language built from the ground up to exploit the power of XML-based Web services on the .NET platform, which was announced last week at Forum 2000. With its Visual C++® development system heritage, C # will enable millions of C and C++ developers to use existing skills to rapidly build sophisticated XML-based .NET applications. To simplify integration and interoperability, Microsoft is working with ECMA, an international standards body, to create a standard for C # , enabling multiple vendors to deliver the language and supporting tools.
Read the entire announcement
A RSS feed aggregator aggregates syndicated web content such as online newspapers, blogs, podcasts, and video blogs (vlogs) for various purposes e.g. to provide one location for easy viewing.
The VB module provides a code sample for one way you can create a RSS feed aggregator with VisualBasic.
Module Module1 Const feedUrl As String = "http://+:8086/VBfeeds/" Sub Main() Dim listener As New HttpListener listener.Prefixes.Add(feedUrl) listener.Start() 'Open a browser pointing at the feeds being served. System.Diagnostics.Process.Start("iexplore.exe", "http://localhost:8086/VBfeeds/") 'Serve requests. While True Dim context As HttpListenerContext = listener.GetContext() Dim body As XElement = GetReplyBody() context.Response.ContentType = "text/xml" Using writer As XmlWriter = New XmlTextWriter(context.Response.OutputStream, System.Text.Encoding.UTF8) body.WriteTo(writer) End Using End While End Sub Function GetReplyBody() As XElement Dim feeds() As String = {"http://blogs.msdn.com/vbteam/rss.aspx?Tags=VB6_5F00_Migration_2F00_ "http://blogs.msdn.com/vsdata/rss.xml", _ "http://blogs.msdn.com/vbteam/rss.aspx?Tags=IDE&AndTags=1"} Return VB Genius http://+:8086/VBfeeds/ VB Team Members XLinq-based RSS aggregator using VB Only Super Cool XML Literals Feature End Function End Module