Why doesn't VB.NET 9 have Automatic Properties like C# 3?

Question

Would having a nice little feature that makes it quicker to write code like Automatic Properties fit very nicely with the mantra of VB.NET?

Something like this would work perfect:

Public Property FirstName() As String
    Get
    Set
End Property

UPDATE: VB.NET 10 (coming with Visual Studio 2010 and .NET 4.0) will have Automatic Properties. Here's a link that shows a little info about the feature: http://geekswithblogs.net/DarrenFieldhouse/archive/2008/12/01/new-features-in-vb.net-10-.net-4.0.aspx

In VB.NET 10 Automatic Properties will be defines like this:

Public Property CustomerID As Integer

Answer 1

One reason many features get delayed in VB is that the development structure is much different than in C# and additionally, that often more thought goes into details. The same seems to be true in this case, as suggested by Paul Vick's post on the matter. This is unfortunate because it means a delay in many cases (automatic properties, iterator methods, multiline lambdas, to name but a few) but on the other hand, the VB developers usually get a much more mature feature in the long run (looking at the discussion, this will be especially true for iterator methods).

So, long story short: VB 10 will (hopefully!) see automatic properties.