Opinion - Rewrite in vb.net 2005

[Stan Canepa]

I am looking for good documentation to help support rewriting a VB 6 app in
Dot Net. I looking for things like VB 6 being unsupported in March 2008,
general performance improvements, at what point will VB 6 just won't work on
the newest version of Windows. How good is the ajax functionality in 2005?
Can you make a rich UI web base without losing performance? Really anything
you can think of that can be used as a bullet point for moving existing apps
to DotNet. Any links to good articles related to this topic would also be
appreciated.

Thanks

 

[Michael D. Ober]

At this time, the VB 6 runtime is in the 32 bit version of Vista. You won't
get to 64 bits with VB 6. Converting an application from VB 6 to VB 2005
isn't trivial, especially if you used ADO or other "older" technologies.

AJAX support is just coming into Visual Studio - it will probably be in the
next major release, but MS hasn't committed to doing so. Personally, I
wouldn't move existing apps to VB 2005 so long as they work and don't
require major rewrites. If they stop working or you need to do a major
rewrite, then rewrite it entirely in VB 2005. Your skills in VB 6 will
port, but signficant portions of your code won't.

My recommendation is that you download and install VB 2005 Express and try
some small applications first. This will allow you to start learning the
..NET framework without the time crunch of a major application rewrite.

Mike Ober.

 

[Cor Ligthert [MVP]]

Stan,

In my idea are you asking things that does not fit by each other and as well
were not available in VB6.

Dotnet is very extended if you compare it with VB6. In your case I would
specialize your question very very much more.

Just my thought,

Cor

 

[Carlos J. Quintero [VB MVP]]

Hi Stan,

See:

Resources about upgrading from Visual Basic 6.0 to Visual Basic .NET
http://www.mztools.com/resources_net_developers.htm#Upgrade

--

Best regards,

Carlos J. Quintero

MZ-Tools: Productivity add-ins for Visual Studio
You can code, design and document much faster:
http://www.mztools.com

 

[Stan Canepa]

Thanks for the input. I thought it might help if I give a little more
details about what I am trying to do. I have very large VB 6 application
with several modules. And at some point we are going to have problems with
VB 6 apps not running are running proficiently on newer OS, and I will have
to do a rewrite. I am expecting the rewrite to take roughly 2 years, and
don't want to wait until I am forced to do it because of the time required
to do it.

So, I was looking for input as to why Dot Net is better. Some time frames of
when I might start having problems with the OS. Just opinions on when people
feel we may have problems finding VB 6 developers. I am basically looking to
put together case for the rewrite and a time frame as to when it should take
place, so that I can take it to the board for approval.

Thanks again

 

[Phill W.]

And at some point we are going to have problems with
VB 6 apps not running are running proficiently on newer OS .. . .
why Dot Net is better.

I think you've answered you own question.

At /some/ point, VB6 will run so inefficiently, or will have access to
so few "new" technologies, that it will no longer be worth fighting for.
Just when (or, perhaps even, if) this happens is anyone's guess.

..Net (even if the name is "old news" and has been dropped from the
product line) /is/ supported and on-going.

Regards,
Phill W.

 

[Guest]

Michael,

Microsoft's ajax technology is out. Check out the atlas project.
atlas.asp.net

Ken
---------------

 

[Ken Halter]

Thanks for the input. I thought it might help if I give a little more
details about what I am trying to do. I have very large VB 6 application
with several modules. And at some point we are going to have problems with
VB 6 apps not running are running proficiently on newer OS, and I will
have
to do a rewrite. I am expecting the rewrite to take roughly 2 years, and
don't want to wait until I am forced to do it because of the time required
to do it.

So, I was looking for input as to why Dot Net is better. Some time frames
of
when I might start having problems with the OS. Just opinions on when
people
feel we may have problems finding VB 6 developers. I am basically looking
to
put together case for the rewrite and a time frame as to when it should
take
place, so that I can take it to the board for approval.

Thanks again

Since I have no dotNet projects, I'll answer from "the other side of the
fence" <g>. By the time VB6 just won't run anymore, several versions of
dotNet will have been released. They're already "advertising" VB9 (hate the
name 'cuz it just ain't VB, it's B#)

Future Versions
http://msdn.microsoft.com/vbasic/Future/default.aspx

imo, the best thing you can do, right now, at this point in time, is open
that VB6 project and start commenting the heck out of it. VB6 is already
"pseudo code like" so find any parts of your app that aren't crystal clear
just by looking at the code and either A) comment the code heavily or B)
(preferred) re-write for clarity, using VB6.

Then again, since you mentioned "take it to the board for approval", I
assume that company is large enough to support "a board" <g> so, if money's
not an issue, you can start the re-write at any time.

fwiw, keep the URL to my website handy. As long as you have that, you won't
have any problems finding at least one VB6 developer <g> Regardless of the
language(s) I'm forced to use at work, VB5/6 is my all time my favorite and
I plan to continue development as long as there are PCs available that'll
run Win2k or XP.

Side note: Don't expect any performance increase on a desktop app when
migrating a VB6 app to dotNet. With all the overhead dotNet has, it would be
hard to compete with a fully compiled language such as VB6. Especially for
small "do it now and get it over with" type apps.