Minimum environment for VB.NET EXEs?

[TC]

Hi folks

Someone has told me that VB.NET programs are pure win32 executables.
The person who told me this is often wrong about technical issues. But
he is very confident, & has the ear of his employer!

Thus, can someone please tell me (or give me a link to), what is the
minimum environment necessary to run a "hello world" VB.NET program?
Does it need anything more than the relevant program EXE? Maybe a
simple runtime engine like "normal" VB? Or does it need a big support
environment like Visual Studio?

Asked slightly differently: what (if anything) would I have to install
on a plain vanilla win98 PC, to run a "hello world" VB.NET program?

TIA,
TC

 

[tanuki]

i think all you need is to include all the references into the build.
you'll prolly get a few dll's and a xml file or 2 and then offcourse your
exe.

at the bare minimum i think you'll get your exe file and system.dll

tanuki

 

[Steve Garman]

You'll need the .NET framework

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...e3-f589-4842-8157-034d1e7cf3a3&DisplayLang=en

 

[Cor Ligthert]

TC

Someone has told me that VB.NET programs are pure win32 executables.
The person who told me this is often wrong about technical issues. But
he is very confident, & has the ear of his employer!

In fact that is right at the moment, it is based on the Windows operatings
system as the whole dotNet is, which does not mean that there is as well a
project to make it run on Linux what is in a very far state.

http://www.go-mono.com/download.html

http://www.go-mono.com/class-status-Microsoft.VisualBasic.html

Thus, can someone please tell me (or give me a link to), what is the
minimum environment necessary to run a "hello world" VB.NET program?
Does it need anything more than the relevant program EXE? Maybe a
simple runtime engine like "normal" VB? Or does it need a big support
environment like Visual Studio?

Because the dotNet framework should be an independent layer upon your OS you
need to have installed dotNet framework which the vendor of the OS delivers.
For Microsoft that is possible for (the still or ending suported systems)
NT4 with SP6, W98/Me and all newer NT systems than NT4.

Asked slightly differently: what (if anything) would I have to install
on a plain vanilla win98 PC, to run a "hello world" VB.NET program?

As told above the dotNet framework is an OS layer for all languages who can
work with the framework even when it is from an independent supplier, what
was not with other languages on Win32 before the introduction of dotNet.
(exept the pure C type ones and the Win32 assembler). When the framework is
installed there is nothing extra needed.

I hope this helps?

Cor

 

[Richard Myers]

Thus, can someone please tell me (or give me a link to), what is the
minimum environment necessary to run a "hello world" VB.NET program?
Does it need anything more than the relevant program EXE? Maybe a
simple runtime engine like "normal" VB? Or does it need a big support
environment like Visual Studio?

Visual Studio is the preferred professional toolshed. It is not in any way
required to run .Net programs nor to develop them if you are happy with the
command line compilers and text editors of the bare bones .Net SDK.

[I shouldn't really say bare bones, because there are some incredibly handy
utilities in that SDK.... you could, if you were that way inclined, get up
to all kinds of mischief with it..... ]

:0

VB.Net is one of several languages that can be used to develop programs and
class libraries to run on the dotNet runtime. That is to run a Vb.net
program you will need the dotNet runtime, which is freely available for
royalty free distribution. This will be built into future operating system
delivered by Microsoft. The dotNet framework essentially wraps the inane
complexity and havoc of the Win32 API into something a little less mind
boggling and altogether more productive.

Asked slightly differently: what (if anything) would I have to install
on a plain vanilla win98 PC, to run a "hello world" VB.NET program?

One dotNet HelloWorld .exe, which in dotNet is often referred to as an
assembly. This assembly contains the manifest, which is the self describing
"header" of the .exe, containing version and dependancy info etc.
It also contains the MSIL (Microsoft Intermediate Lanaguage instructions)
that constitute the working "guts" of the program. It is this MSIL that is
JIT compiled and run by the framework at runtime.

You will also need the runtime as mentioned above to run this program. So
all in all.. two things.

N.B You will often hear the terms "framework" used when "runtime" is meant.
Its probably more correct to think of the runtime as being exactly that, a
runtime engine. The framework is all the supporting goop such as base class
libraries etc that support and wrap the Win32 interop etc providing the
dotNet namespaces.

You cant run a dotnet program without the framework... but understand that
the framework is not the runtime engine. The framework includes but is not
limited to the runtime engine.

hth
Richard

 

[Herfried K. Wagner [MVP]]

* (e-mail address removed) (TC) scripsit:

Someone has told me that VB.NET programs are pure win32 executables.

Partly. There is Win32 startup code that starts the CLR, but the rest
is .NET metadata and MSIL code.

Thus, can someone please tell me (or give me a link to), what is the
minimum environment necessary to run a "hello world" VB.NET program?

Does it need anything more than the relevant program EXE? Maybe a
simple runtime engine like "normal" VB? Or does it need a big support
environment like Visual Studio?

To /run/ an application, you need the .NET Framework on the destination
machine (~ 22 MB):

Asked slightly differently: what (if anything) would I have to install
on a plain vanilla win98 PC, to run a "hello world" VB.NET program?

See link above.

 

[TC]

Thanks to all respondents for your timeley & useful answers.

TC