Re: Is it possible to convert VB3 to .NET ?

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Bob Butler wrote:
"Chris Dunaway" <dunawayc@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1161618892.669732.233530@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
<cut>
Someone
correct me if I'm wrong, but in the Chinese language, for example,
there are many dialects. And some Chinese people who speak one
dialect may not fully understand those who speak a different
dialect, yet both are still referred to as speaking Chinese.

By outsiders who understand neither. AFAIK they'd say they are
speaking mandarin or cantonese or whatever actual dialect they speak.


But collectively, they're referred to as Chinese.

And VB.Net and C# are collectively called "Visual Studio .Net". That does
not mean that they are not distinct languages in their own right. By your
logic I guess calling cantonese a dialect of mandarin is OK because somebody
else might call them both chinese and they might have some words in common.

I don't think that follows. Visual Studio is not a language, it's an
application. If someone asked me what language I program in, I
certainly would not say I program in Visual Studio. I would say I
program in VB.Net or C#.

And I wouldn't call cantonese a dialect of mandarin, I would call it a
dialect of Chinese. They are both forms of Chinese so it is
appropriates to refer to someone who speaks cantonese as speaking
Chinese.




Mike, I know full well that, even if you had no training in VB.Net,
that you could look at a program written in VB.Net and be able to
understand it.

I can look at code written in lots of languages that I've never
trained in or used and still be able to follow most, if not all, of
the logic simply because I can apply lots of experience in many
different languages to the task. When the VB.Net compiler can take
in VB 6.0 code and be able to understand at least most of it the
same way the VB 6.0 compiler does then it'll be a new "dialect" of
the same language.

And what percentage must it understand to be considered a new dialect?
60%? 80%? 99%? Who determines this figure?

I doubt that there is a hard line but it's certain that VB.Net is way beyond
it. In my opinion you should be ab le to take things from one version that
do not compile properly in the next and divide them into 4 general
categories:
a) things that had to change because of the target platform (e.g. 16bit to
32bit OS)
b) things that do not compile
c) which do compile but produce different results
d) things that compile but are flagged as deprecated

categories A & D can be a pain to deal with but are reasonable to expect;
categories B & C should ideally be empty and there should be some
*extremely* good arguments for any items that do appear there (language
stability is supposed to be a <good thing>)

The problem with VB.Net was that category A had little in it (DF was one);
categories B & C were overflowing with pointless changes and category D was
empty. When taht happens it's not the same language any more.


Point taken. But look at cars. You certainly can't take all the parts
from a '57 chevy and use them in modern Chevy's, so does that mean that
the modern incarnations should not be called Chevy? Or can you take
parts from the original Ford Mustang and put them in the new Ford
Mustang? Does that mean the new one should not be called Ford or
Mustang?

I agree that you can't consider VB.Net and VB6 the same language, but I
still maintain that VB.Net is still Visual Basic and can rightfully
claim succession, in spite of the challenges of moving from one to the
other.

--
Reply to the group so all can participate
VB.Net: "Fool me once..."

.

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