Considering vb .net standard

[Wowbagger]

I am considering upgrading from vb 6 to .net 2003 and have a couple of
questions for which I could not find answers on the MS site.

What are the differences between the standard, professional and enterprise
editions?

In VB 6 learning edition the controls for network functionality were
missing. I want to be able to use functions such as finger, HTTP post and
ftp: is the .net 2003 standard edition crippled in any way, and/or would I
have to buy additional controls to be able to do these things?

In a nutshell, for a basic programmer, how different is .net from vb 6? Is
there a steep learning curve?

 

[William Ryan]

Standard doesn't give you Crysal Reports and you can't use the Server
Explorer to connect into SQL Server other than MSDE. You can still write
code that will connect to it but the visual tools like the DataAdapterWizard
won't let you hit SQL Server other than MSDE

If you get VS Pro, you'll get Crystal Reports and the other Languages.

As far as the learning curve...there is one, but at least from Syntax you'll
have a head start. ADO.NET and many features of .NET are so radically
different from VB6 that it's really the conceptual stuff that's where the
learning curve is. Structured exceptions for instance are totally different
than goto's. Strong Typing is another thing that might give you some
trouble, unless you avoided weak typing in VB6.

You no longer use the Set statement for object declartation and forms are
have to be declared and instantiated before being called.

Dan Appleman wrote a great book on Moving to VB.Net that is definitely
something you'll want to read.

HTH,

Bill

 

[Daniel Walzenbach]

I don't know whether you are familiar with German but if you are this is the
answer to your question.

http://www.zoschke.com/products/Microsoft/VS/VS.asp

HTH
Daniel Walzenbach

 

[Robert Jacobson]

Standard Edition is missing other features, like the templates for creating
a class library. It's roughly equivalent to VB6 Learning Edition. (For
more information, search groups.google.com for "Visual Basic .Net Standard
Edition.") If you're planning to do professional development, you'd be much
better off with Visual Studio .Net Professional.

I second the recommendation for the Appleman book -- it's a must read.

 

[Nak]

Standard Edition is missing other features, like the templates for
creating

a class library. It's roughly equivalent to VB6 Learning Edition. (For
more information, search groups.google.com for "Visual Basic .Net Standard
Edition.") If you're planning to do professional development, you'd be much
better off with Visual Studio .Net Professional.

I second the recommendation for the Appleman book -- it's a must read.

I see this written all over the place, only buy it if you can afford it.
But don't buy it just because you think you won't be able to do as much with
the standard edition. I use VB.NET 2002 Standard and they only things that
I haven't been able to do that I have actually wanted to is write web
services, but this is down to Windows XP Home edition rather than VB.NET
(Though there is a work around).

You don't *need* VS.NET to develop with VB.NET, the removal of the templates
is just a big con, but that is also easy to work around. Ask yourself what
you want to be doing with it first, do you want to be using any of the other
languages? Do you want to be generating crystal reports? The .NET Framework
is exactly the same either way so you're not restricted with Network
accessing classes etc. think hard whether you actually *need* VS.NET is my
advice.

Nick.

--
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
"No matter. Whatever the outcome, you are changed."

Fergus - September 5th 2003
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

 

[Herfried K. Wagner [MVP]]

Hello,

I am considering upgrading from vb 6 to .net 2003 and
have a couple of questions for which I could not find answers
on the MS site.

What are the differences between the standard, professional
and enterprise editions?

You will find a lot of information on this page (have a look at the menu
items "Product Information" and "How To Buy":

http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/
http://msdn.microsoft.com/vbasic/

 

[Wowbagger]

Thanks for the responses.

To provide a bit more info, the types of programming I would want to do are
things such as:

1. Finger a NOAA server and parse the results.

2. Create a front-end for a Quickbase database

3. Create rather basic client-server apps that collect reports from people
then SMTP the information somewhere else.

The lack of TCP/IP controls in VB 6 learning edition were quite
frustrating... there were several things that I think I could have pulled
off if I only had that one control, but I didn't have the budget.

 

[Herfried K. Wagner [MVP]]

Hello,

To provide a bit more info, the types of programming I would want
to do are things such as:

1. Finger a NOAA server and parse the results.

2. Create a front-end for a Quickbase database

3. Create rather basic client-server apps that collect reports from people
then SMTP the information somewhere else.

The lack of TCP/IP controls in VB 6 learning edition were quite
frustrating... there were several things that I think I could have pulled
off if I only had that one control, but I didn't have the budget.

I think the functionality you need is included in the .NET Framework.
Nevertheless I would buy VS.NET Professional or better if I have enough
money to do that...