Using VS 2008 Beta 2 to generate classes usable by VBA - How?

[Dave]

So far, I have done all of my programming for PowerPoint addins in
VBA. I have created one small class in Perl, which my addin code
accesses through a .dll which is registered using regsvr32.

I would like to take advantage of some of the functionality provided
by vb.net and I would like to end up with an addin that can be
deployed to other users, most of whom are PowerPoint 2003 users. I
downloaded VS 2008 Beta 2 and installed it ok on XP SP2. Now I am
trying to generate and deploy just a small test class,
and I'm totally stuck, puzzled, and frustrated.

I seem to be able to build something ok - I can see a whole bunch of
files gettting generated (manifests, .dll, .snk, etc.) in different
directories (bin, debug, release, etc.) But I don't see any way to
make that class available to VBA. I have no idea what to do from
thist point on. For instance, how am I supposed to build those files
so that they are COM-visible? What's all this about no-register COM -
do I have run regasm on some, or all, of these files? Which?
Should I be able to see the test class' library in VBA->References (I
don't).

I found one reference to VBA-.NET developemnt that said I should
generate a .snk file (which I did do - I can see it). But when I try
to add an <assembly: AsemblyKeyFile ...> statement to the generated
AssemblyInfo.vb file, VS gives me a warning.

I'm pretty sure that most of my problems stem from not knowing
doodly-
squat about development in the VS Express environment. Can anyone
point me to a step-by-step guide for generating a small class in that
environment which can be accessed from VBA?

Thanks.

 

[Guest]

I think that Rich and Seth answered this in your other post. In my mind, VBA
and VB 6 are closly related, and the way to connect from either of these to
..Net objects is via COM. If you find an example by searching for VB6->VBNet
(2003, 2005 or 2008), then the process would be the same as for VBA->VBNet
(2003, 2005 or 2008).