I'm an e-mail junkie. If my computer is on, I guarantee Outlook is running. And when I hear the "new mail" beep, I can't help myself—I've got to open and read the message immediately. Here's how bad it is: You know how you have several e-mail accounts you never check? I check them daily.

Lately, though, I've found myself reluctant to check the vcdjedit@fawcette.com account—the one where readers send their feedback. Why? Because I've received a huge number of letters kibitzing about our C# (now Visual C#.NET, because Microsoft evidently thought "C#" by itself didn't have enough capital letters or strange punctuation) coverage. I swear, if I weren't such a simple person, I might've developed a complex.

So I had a dilemma. On one hand, I remain convinced that for VS.NET development—Web Services, in particular—C# is by far and away the best development tool. On the other hand, I'm getting (and printing) all these letters. Do they represent the majority of VCDJ readers?

There's an easy way to find out. I sent a survey to 1,000 of you, asking what technologies you're using, what you plan to use, what you're reading in VCDJ, and what you'd like to read more (and less) of. To entice you to respond to the survey—instead of reflexively pressing the Delete key—I awarded a random respondent a PlayStation 2. (Hmmmm, for some reason, my response rate was unusually high. I wonder why….) Here's what you said:

You've got the beta, and you're using it. Fifty-eight percent of you have got ahold of the VS.NET beta, and a third of you have started serious development trials with it. And a whopping 78 percent of you intend to adopt VS.NET within a year of its release. Considering all you've got to work with so far is a pretty shaky first beta, I'd say the bulk of you share my enthusiasm for the possibilities VS.NET brings to development and agree that it warrants early investigation.

You want to know more about C#. Only a quarter of you have given VC#.NET the ol' college try, though 38 percent are interested in trying it out soon. Twenty percent of you are on the fence, waiting to see if it becomes a standard. I think it's a telling point that, after trying out C#, only 2 percent of you said you don't like it. Similarly small is the percentage of you who doubt you'll ever even try C#: 4 percent. To me it seems clear that VCDJ readers have realized C# is no passing fad.

The main reason I launched this survey, of course, was to see if my assumption—that VC++ developers want and need our C# coverage—was way off-base. Evidently, I wasn't too misguided: 72 percent of you want as much or more C# coverage as we currently include.

Right about now, you're probably thinking the entire point of my writing this article is to crow, "I told you so!" But that's not true at all. That's only half the point. The other point is to say that as a VCDJ reader, you're probably interested in new development technologies, as well as the tools you use to build your current products. I'm going to make sure we cater to both these aspects of your development work.

Tell me what's on your mind. As we conducted this survey, I realized I'm always curious how useful VCDJ readers find each article in each issue. So, I've set up a Web site: www.ftpreseVCDJarch.com/vcdj. Go there each month and spend a couple minutes letting me know which articles you liked—and which you didn't. (And, each month, I'll draw a response at random and award that person some cool electronic gizmo.) I'll use your feedback to hone the contents of VCDJ, making it the magazine you want it to be.

Or, if you'd prefer to give me your feedback more directly, send me e-mail:. Hey, after all, the e-mail junkie's gotta get his fix.