Why migrate an application from VB6 to .NET

[Hennesey]

Hello all,

we have build a big application with VB6.

Now I prefer to migrate to .NET. Maybe step by step.

Therefore I'am looking for good arguments to persuade my boss.

So what are the most important reasons for migrating a application from
VB6 to .NET?

Thanks in advance.

Best regards.

 

[Tasos Vogiatzoglou]

Some oneliners that hopefully will give you some hints

Better development environment
The development environment is pretty mature and with lot of features.
Although not radically different than VS 6 it has lots of improvements.

Webservices
You can create and consume webservices with ease. This way you can
provide cross-platform compatible communication with your application.

Enterprise Serviced Components
You can leverage the power of the provided services and build
enterprise scalable applications easily.

Cleaner Development Model
Personally, I think that C# and OO provides a simpler and more robust
development model.

ADO.NET
A managed framework for accessing data. It's mostly data-source
agnostic, so it gives you a great deal of flexibility.

Support and compatibility issues
By developing an application (especially a big one) in VB6, you invest
in a technology that it's old. I don't know Microsoft plans about VB
support

Easier Installation
You have no DLL hell and you can deploy an application simply by XCopy.

Mono
There is an OpenSource implementation of the .Net framework that you
can use to develop cross-platform applications.

Fashion
Although it may sound funny lots of bosses like trendy technologies.

 

[Guest]

Others may be able to more persuasively extol the rich framework library, but
I prefer to approach it from this angle: VB6 is over 7 years old - why
wouldn't you want to keep up with technology? It's not going to get easier
to update if you wait longer.
--
David Anton
www.tangiblesoftwaresolutions.com
Instant C#: VB.NET to C# Converter
Instant VB: C# to VB.NET Converter
Instant C++: C# to C++ Converter
Instant J#: VB.NET to J# Converter

 

[Guest]

My Favorite Reason

Your boss will find it easier and more cost effective to recruit high
quality developers in future, to enhavce and maintain a system writen in .net
than in an old technology.

Ben

 

[Cor Ligthert [MVP]]

Hennesey,

Two things not written.

It has probably the best IDE that there is ever build what improves your
speed to create better and nicer looking programs (better than any other Net
language by instance).

An endless amount of nice and common looking controls that you did not had
in VB6. You will miss some however see after a while that the ones you
missing are build than more logical in one.

The upgrade tools from VB6 to VBNet are still there and improved. I never
tested them in the version 2005. In VB2002 it was s**t, in VB2003 it was
usable, and they should be in VB2005 good.

Cleaner code than in VB6, (not all kind of escapes to make it you more easy
however making it in fact more difficult). It has the same development model
now as the languages C#. (Therefore I do not deal the sentence from Tasos
about this, however it is his opinon against mine and he is free to have
that).

And not the least. The dotnet languages newsgroups are with the excel
programmers newsgroup the most visited developers newsgroups from Microsoft.

Just some arguments

Cor

 

[Jon Skeet [C# MVP]]

Two things not written.

It has probably the best IDE that there is ever build what improves your
speed to create better and nicer looking programs (better than any other Net
language by instance).

Out of interest, Cor - which other IDEs have you used for significant
amounts of time?

I always use Eclipse as an example of an IDE which has been a long way
ahead of VS for a long time. It's had refactoring in it for years, and
it's not alone in that. It's got well-integrated unit testing. It's got
great support for Ant (the standard build too for Java). I wince when I
have to go back to developing C# code in VS.NET 2003 compared with
developing Java in Eclipse, despite preferring (by and large) C# as a
language. Eclipse doesn't have as many designers and the like (although
there are vast numbers of plugins available, some of which are
excellent and some of which are terrible).

VS 2005 has made huge strides, and I'm really looking forward to using
it at work - but even then, there are plenty of things I use every day
in Eclipse which just aren't available in VS 2005.

Now this is just comparing VS with Eclipse. There are plenty of Java
developers who tell me that Eclipse doesn't hold a candle to IDEA.
Although I've tried IDEA a couple of times, it's commercial and doesn't
seem to have enough "extras" in it to make it worth me (or my company)
stumping up money for it. I do take the claims of its proponents very
seriously though.

 

[Cor Ligthert [MVP]]

Jon,

It started with what was for me a kind of real IDE from the Cobol 80 from
Microsoft (I thought that it was already with CPm). That became everytime
better. The last I used it was with I thought what was the Cobol 4 version
from Microsoft (it was than not Microsoft anymore, however the same
program).

Most people I knew did not want to use that IDE than because they where
sticked to what where in my opinion text editors.

I have used before that a kind of IDE as well on IBM 360/370 mainframes
although that where more texteditors with shortkeys to actions, however they
where given back information to what you can call the IDE but I never saw it
as that

I have used the VB6 IDE, and now I make a comparising between the C# IDE and
that from VBNet especially 2005. I just was making a little test in C# 2003
and had to build it twice to get rid of two errors in 8 lines of code (You
would have seen that I am a bad correct typer, I loose even letters in this
kind of messages where I often see afterwards that I have by instance typed
"the" instead of "they" and more of those things.).

The statement as I did "the best" I make of course as well what I have read
in these newsgroups.

The main reason I like more VBNet than C# is that behaviour of that IDE, for
the rest I see not really much difference. With the same IDE (including as
well as VBNet autotyping and corrections), I probably would prefer C# and
maybe import than the Visual Basic namespace for by instance those handy
convert functions.

I hope that it gives you an idea

Cor

 

[Jon Skeet [C# MVP]]

The statement as I did "the best" I make of course as well what I have read
in these newsgroups.

Hmm. It seems a bit of a stretch to claim VS is "the best" IDE with
only a pretty limited experience - which is all most of us have,
frankly. (I've tried a few Java IDEs, VS.NET and VS5/6, but that's
about it.)

I only picked up on it really because I've seen so many people touting
VS.NET (2003, not 2005) as "the best" IDE without having experience of
other modern IDEs.

 

[nomair.kashif]

There is no automatic way to completly migrate. Althought there are
some nice tools that assist in the process. You will have to know both
languages to successfully do the job right.

http://resumes.hotjobs.com/dearnomee/.netarchitectmgr

 

[Cor Ligthert [MVP]]

Jon,

As you write it is for me as saying that a *professional* carpenter limited
in his experience, when he tells that Stanley hammers and Stanley knives are
the "best" in that area, while there is so much more and cheaper on the
market that he has never used.

There will be more good and maybe even for some better hammers and imitation
Stanley knives. However there is much more that is crape.

Cor

 

[Jon Skeet [C# MVP]]

As you write it is for me as saying that a *professional* carpenter limited
in his experience, when he tells that Stanley hammers and Stanley knives are
the "best" in that area, while there is so much more and cheaper on the
market that he has never used.

And there are also probably more expensive ones too, just as there are
IDEs which are more expensive than VS as well as cheaper ones.

There will be more good and maybe even for some better hammers and imitation
Stanley knives. However there is much more that is crape.

Your analogy seems to be implying that all other IDEs imitate VS.NET.
In practice, VS has been playing catch-up for a few years - how long do
you think refactoring has been around, for instance?

However, the important thing for me is that if X is better than Y, then
X can't be "the best ever", however many things there are worse than
it. I wouldn't say I was the best programmer in the world just because
there are worse ones, so why should you try to apply that logic to
IDEs?

 

[Michael J. Ryan (tracker1)]

I only picked up on it really because I've seen so many people touting
VS.NET (2003, not 2005) as "the best" IDE without having experience of
other modern IDEs.

Agreed, I've used a few different IDEs, and I actually like the VS2003
the best so far... haven't worked with 2005, but the "simplified" interface as
far as the name goes (for the standard, and express versions) kinda scares me
to be honest...

Also, for .net you can take a look at the #develop idea at
www.icsharpcode.com, it's pretty nice, doesn't really do web projects, but has
some nifty features that even VS doesn't have.

 

[Jon Skeet [C# MVP]]

Michael J. Ryan (tracker1) <[email protected]

Agreed, I've used a few different IDEs, and I actually like the VS2003
the best so far... haven't worked with 2005, but the "simplified" interface as
far as the name goes (for the standard, and express versions) kinda scares me
to be honest...

I think you've misread my posts. VS.NET 2003 is horribly clunky
compared with Eclipse.

 

[Cor Ligthert [MVP]]

Jon,

You get forever more out of my messages than I in advance had even thought
about or have ever written in it.

And there are also probably more expensive ones too, just as there are
IDEs which are more expensive than VS as well as cheaper ones.


Your analogy seems to be implying that all other IDEs imitate VS.NET.
In practice, VS has been playing catch-up for a few years - how long do
you think refactoring has been around, for instance?

No I did not, I told you that I have used a kind of IDE before that
Microsoft exist so impossible that I told that it was an imitate of VS.Net
(read my replys better next time).

However, the important thing for me is that if X is better than Y, then
X can't be "the best ever", however many things there are worse than
it. I wouldn't say I was the best programmer in the world just because
there are worse ones, so why should you try to apply that logic to
IDEs?

*The best ever* is a real personal (subjective) expirience you can use an
election and even than you have forever very time related choose and miss
even by instance the death persons or the ones who are not yet born opinion.

So when I write "the best ever" than is it my personal opinion. If you
disagree that with me, feel free, if you think that you know better what is
"the best ever", than you have to be a ..............................

Just my thought,

Cor