How is VB.net different from VB6?

[Dan]

Hi - can anyone tell me how much different VB.net is different from VB6? I'm
thinking of transitioning but would like to know more about its capabilities,
ease of transition, etc.

Any opinions would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks -

Dan

[m.posseth]

Hello Dan

Well i am a VS6 and VS.Net coder ( i use both for my work ) VB.Net is
fully object oriented and is in a lot of ways totally different as VB6 ,
you have to think more in OOP style while VB6 was more forgiving VB.Net is
much more strict .

However i believe that with the correct book specially targetted to
programmers switching from VB6 to VB.Net like the Core reference guide
from Francesco Balena "Programming Microsoft Visual basic .Net" ( note that
the 2005 edition will be availlable in mid january 2006 ) you feel
yourself at home within a few weeks , and never want to switch back in a few
months

VB.Net is now as powerfull as all the rest of the Visual studio languages ,
if you can overcome the distribution of the framework with your app , You
have a far more superior development environment as with VS 6

regards

Michel Posseth [MCP]

"Dan" <Da*@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:D5**********************************@microsof t.com...

Hi - can anyone tell me how much different VB.net is different from VB6?
I'm
thinking of transitioning but would like to know more about its
capabilities,
ease of transition, etc.

Any opinions would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks -

Dan

[Jim Hubbard]

IMHO, you'll get farther faster if you think of VB.Net as another language
entirely.

You will see some things (such as syntax and old method names) that are
similar to VB6, but VB.Net is really nothing like VB6. The underlying
classes, object oriented approach to everything and dealing with the CLR as
opposed to stand-alone exes makes VB.Net a new breed.

Don't expect VB.Net to be VB 7. It isn't. If you try and force the new
things that you will learn into your VB6 knowledge, you will have a harder
time learning VB.Net.

I believe that you will be better off not thinking of VB.Net as VB 7.
Approach it as an entirely new language and you will learn faster and be
better off for it.

DL the learning edition of Visual Basic 2005 (called Visual Basic 2005
Express) for free at http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/vb/download/.
It is a great place to start and is light years ahead of the VB.Net 2002 and
VB.Net 2003 versions. In fact, it's starting to feel a little like VB6
again.

Jim Hubbard

"Dan" <Da*@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:D5**********************************@microsof t.com...

Hi - can anyone tell me how much different VB.net is different from VB6?
I'm
thinking of transitioning but would like to know more about its
capabilities,
ease of transition, etc.

Any opinions would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks -

Dan

[Dan]

Michel - thanks a lot for that information! Not sure what you mean by
"distribution of the framework"... Is creating an executable or install
package more cumbersome than VB6?
Dan

"m.posseth" wrote:

Hello Dan

Well i am a VS6 and VS.Net coder ( i use both for my work ) VB.Net is
fully object oriented and is in a lot of ways totally different as VB6 ,
you have to think more in OOP style while VB6 was more forgiving VB.Net is
much more strict .

However i believe that with the correct book specially targetted to
programmers switching from VB6 to VB.Net like the Core reference guide
from Francesco Balena "Programming Microsoft Visual basic .Net" ( note that
the 2005 edition will be availlable in mid january 2006 ) you feel
yourself at home within a few weeks , and never want to switch back in a few
months

VB.Net is now as powerfull as all the rest of the Visual studio languages ,
if you can overcome the distribution of the framework with your app , You
have a far more superior development environment as with VS 6

regards

Michel Posseth [MCP]

"Dan" <Da*@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:D5**********************************@microsof t.com...

Hi - can anyone tell me how much different VB.net is different from VB6?
I'm
thinking of transitioning but would like to know more about its
capabilities,
ease of transition, etc.

Any opinions would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks -

Dan

[Mike Labosh]

> Michel - thanks a lot for that information! Not sure what you mean by

"distribution of the framework"... Is creating an executable or install
package more cumbersome than VB6?
LOTS. I really miss the old Package & Deployment Wizard.

In the .NET world, you create a "setup project" which has its own bizarre
set of designers.

"Distribution of the Framework" means having to distribute the .NET
Framework with your application. This is similar to how many C++
applications required the MFC dll's, or how "classic" VB required
msvbvm60.dll / msvbvm50.dll / vbrun40032.dll / vbrun40016.dll / vbrun300.dll
etc.

The pain is that in the .NET world, your users may already have the
framework installed by the OS (XP / 2003) or not (Windows 98 / 2000) or if
they're running say, Windows 2000, and some other application has already
installed the .NET Framework, the version of the Framework that your app
needs might be a different version.

Plus, the classic VB runtime DLL's are just a couple megs, but the .NET
Framework is about 20 Megs.
--
Peace & happy computing,

Mike Labosh, MCSD

"When you kill a man, you're a murderer.
Kill many, and you're a conqueror.
Kill them all and you're a god." -- Dave Mustane
"Dan" <Da*@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:6A**********************************@microsof t.com...

Dan

"m.posseth" wrote:

Hello Dan

Well i am a VS6 and VS.Net coder ( i use both for my work ) VB.Net is
fully object oriented and is in a lot of ways totally different as VB6
,
you have to think more in OOP style while VB6 was more forgiving VB.Net
is
much more strict .

However i believe that with the correct book specially targetted to
programmers switching from VB6 to VB.Net like the Core reference guide
from Francesco Balena "Programming Microsoft Visual basic .Net" ( note
that
the 2005 edition will be availlable in mid january 2006 ) you feel
yourself at home within a few weeks , and never want to switch back in a
few
months

VB.Net is now as powerfull as all the rest of the Visual studio languages
,
if you can overcome the distribution of the framework with your app , You
have a far more superior development environment as with VS 6

regards

Michel Posseth [MCP]

"Dan" <Da*@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:D5**********************************@microsof t.com...

> Hi - can anyone tell me how much different VB.net is different from
> VB6?
> I'm
> thinking of transitioning but would like to know more about its
> capabilities,
> ease of transition, etc.
>
> Any opinions would be greatly appreciated!
>
> Thanks -
>
> Dan

[Jay B. Harlow [MVP - Outlook]]

Dan,
As Mike suggests a .NET application requires the .NET Framework installed.
However this is a one time install (per version), once the Framework is
installed for one app, its installed for all apps. As more & more developers
create .NET apps, the framework is going to be installed on more & more
machines, thus increasing the chance that it will already be installed...

Luckily .NET was designed with side-by-side in mind, which means you can
have multiple versions of the Framework installed at one time. Each
respective app will use their respective version of the Framework. .NET was
also designed with a certain amount of compatibility across versions.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/de...ecutiontop.asp
..NET 2.0 will run most .NET 1.1 & 1.0 applications without any problems.

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms228009.aspx

In fact most .NET 1.0 & 1.1 apps will/should run under the .NET 2.0 64-bit
edition!

http://blogs.msdn.com/joshwil/archiv...06/415191.aspx

However due to meta file changes (Generics & such) .NET 1.0 & 1.1 cannot run
..NET 2.0 assemblies.
With appropriate lines you your app.config/web.config you can have .NET 1.0
run most .NET 1.1 applications. While .NET 1.1 will run most .NET 1.0
applications without change.

The general problem with running an app on different versions of the
framework are the "Breaking changes".

By .NET application I mean which version of the framework the program was
compiled against. VS 2002 compiles against .NET 1.0, VS 2003 is .NET 1.1,
while VS 2005 is .NET 2.0.

--
Hope this helps
Jay [MVP - Outlook]
..NET Application Architect, Enthusiast, & Evangelist
T.S. Bradley - http://www.tsbradley.net
"Dan" <Da*@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:6A**********************************@microsof t.com...
| Michel - thanks a lot for that information! Not sure what you mean by
| "distribution of the framework"... Is creating an executable or install
| package more cumbersome than VB6?
|
|
| Dan
|
|
|
| "m.posseth" wrote:
|
| > Hello Dan
| >
| > Well i am a VS6 and VS.Net coder ( i use both for my work ) VB.Net is
| > fully object oriented and is in a lot of ways totally different as VB6
,
| > you have to think more in OOP style while VB6 was more forgiving VB.Net
is
| > much more strict .
| >
| > However i believe that with the correct book specially targetted to
| > programmers switching from VB6 to VB.Net like the Core reference guide
| > from Francesco Balena "Programming Microsoft Visual basic .Net" ( note
that
| > the 2005 edition will be availlable in mid january 2006 ) you feel
| > yourself at home within a few weeks , and never want to switch back in a
few
| > months
| >
| > VB.Net is now as powerfull as all the rest of the Visual studio
languages ,
| > if you can overcome the distribution of the framework with your app ,
You
| > have a far more superior development environment as with VS 6
| >
| > regards
| >
| > Michel Posseth [MCP]
| >
| >
| >
| > "Dan" <Da*@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
| > news:D5**********************************@microsof t.com...
| > > Hi - can anyone tell me how much different VB.net is different from
VB6?
| > > I'm
| > > thinking of transitioning but would like to know more about its
| > > capabilities,
| > > ease of transition, etc.
| > >
| > > Any opinions would be greatly appreciated!
| > >
| > > Thanks -
| > >
| > > Dan
| >
| >
| >

[Cor Ligthert [MVP]]

Dan,

Michel - thanks a lot for that information! Not sure what you mean by
"distribution of the framework"... Is creating an executable or install
package more cumbersome than VB6?

It is not as simple as the VB6 setup
However less difficult as more advanced deployment packages.
What you can do with is in the same order.

The advance is that often the resulting msi file is very small.

This because that the main part is already in the .Net framework that only
needs to be installed one time.

The .Net framework is a standard layer on the OS. A user has only to install
the latest version of the framework (the same as with a servicepack) it is
backwards compatible. (Not the developments parts, those are version
related).

VB6 has the same kind of code as VBNet, however for the rest is comparing
VB6 with VBNet almost the same as comparing a bicycle with a car.

I hope this gives an idea

Cor

[Herfried K. Wagner [MVP]]

"Dan" <Da*@discussions.microsoft.com> schrieb:

Hi - can anyone tell me how much different VB.net is different from VB6?
I'm
thinking of transitioning but would like to know more about its
capabilities,
ease of transition, etc.

In addition to the other replies, you may find the following resources
useful when migrating:

Upgrading Visual Basic 6.0 Applications to Visual Basic .NET and Visual
Basic 2005
<URL:http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/dnpag2/html/VB6ToVBNetUpgrade.asp>

Micrososoft Visual Basic Code Advisor
<URL:http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/dnvb600/html/vb6_FixItRuleTool.asp>

--
M S Herfried K. Wagner
M V P <URL:http://dotnet.mvps.org/>
V B <URL:http://classicvb.org/petition/>

[Cor Ligthert [MVP]]

And than in addition to Herfried again,

http://www.vb-tips.com/default.aspx?...5-e16db864a414

I hope this helps,

Cor