Re: VB.NET advantages

From: Dan Barclay (Dan_at_MVPs.org)
Date: 01/13/05 

Date: Thu, 13 Jan 2005 17:33:02 -0600

David,

As you can no doubt tell by now, there is a bit of controversy in the VB
community.

MS has demonstrated a habit in the VB releases of changing the *core*
language. By changing it, I mean that it's changed enough that you have to
do significant rewrite of your code to move it to the next version.

We've raised holy heck about this in the past (particulary after VB 4), and
were promised by the VB team that they would make the language stable enough
that this would not be a problem going forward.

Prior to VB7 (they call VB.Net, others call Visual Fred), it only required
rewriting some of your code. With this release, you simply cannot convert
your existing applications to the current version without a complete
rewrite. MS has admited this after having played with their wizard until
they can't see straight. Simply put, there are enough changes this time
that it's not really the same language.

Why is this important? Please read:

  http://vb.mvps.org/tips/stability.asp

Having demonstrated that they will change the language, then demonstrating
that they will change it after *promising* not to... what do you think the
chances are that it won't be changed again??

I'd be asking a different question if I were you. If you want to write in
VB, I'd stick with VB6 and write WinApps. It will be around for a while.
If you have a fundamental requirement to use .Net for some reason, look at
the other languages in .Net. The VB dev team has clearly demonstrated that
(a) they do not understand the VB developer community (b) they do not
respect the assets of the community, and (c) they don't have a clue about VB
and have lost the magic of the language (clue on "c" is that they don't
*use* VB).

FWIW, we're doing some work with Delphi (as well as VBClassic). Delphi has
a lot of the feel of VB, and the language is far more forward compatible.
Another free clue: much of Delphi is written in Delphi. Going that route,
we can write winapps and still have a path forward if .Net becomes
compelling for us (it isn't yet).

Before you peg me as "anti VB", let me say that I was in the first group of
MVP's in 1993. Can you say "cheerleader"? I didn't lose hope until we had
been thoroughly ignored for a couple of years into this fiasco. Some of us
thought that they just didn't understand what they were doing to us. The
real fact is, they don't care.

If I felt comfortable that MS really understood and appreciated the
developer community I'd be sticking with VB. Instead, they scare me. I
mean, they really scare me. I have zero doubt that code written in VB.Net
is going to be trashed, so I'd only use it for "throwaway" (quickie
one-time) code.

Dan
Former VB MVP.
MVP.Not

"David" <David@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:474E570A-A899-45B0-AFF8-645B1D7D312D@microsoft.com...
> Hello,
> I got Visual Studio 6 installed. I work more with VB6, because my
> company's
> application is made in VB6. But now I need to make a new application and
> I'm
> thinking if it's better to install Visual Studio .NET and work with the
> new
> VB.NET.
> My question is what are the advantages of the new version and if it's
> possible to continue developing the old applications made in VB6 in the
> new
> version?
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
> David

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