Objects implicitly instantiated in vb.net?

Question

I am maintaining an application that has both VB.NET and c# components. I thought these two languages differed only in syntax, but I have found a strange feature in VB.NET t

Answer 1

For forms, VB creates a default instance for you behind the scenes. e.g., the following VB:

Public Class bill_staff
    Inherits System.Windows.Forms.Form
End Class

class testclass
    sub testmethod()
        bill_staff.Show()
    end sub
end class

is equivalent to the following C#:

public class bill_staff : System.Windows.Forms.Form
{

    private static bill_staff _DefaultInstance;
    public static bill_staff DefaultInstance
    {
        get
        {
            if (_DefaultInstance == null)
                _DefaultInstance = new bill_staff();

            return _DefaultInstance;
        }
    }
}

internal class testclass
{
    public void testmethod()
    {
        bill_staff.DefaultInstance.Show();
    }
}

This only occurs in VB for forms (classes which inherit from System.Windows.Forms.Form). Personally, I think this is a terrible 'feature' of VB - it confuses the distinction between class and instance.