Re: Advice Needed...

"Robert Morley" <rmorley@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:%23BDuUG3mHHA.4592@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Wasn't that cited in the original VB.NET as being the reason that some
features couldn't be maintained? I seem to remember it was, though I
won't claim certainty on that.

If that was the case I would say it was BS on MSs part. They made the IL so
they could make it any way they wanted.

Really? Access hasn't had to break backwards compatibility
since...well...ever, yet it performs fantastically for a local database,
and continues to add features with each release.

Access is one of the most horrible applications I've ver used. It's
completely unstable and extremely outdated. If something badly needs a
complete update it's Access. A complete break from the past could
potentially make a top app and really revolutionise internal apps.

All the other Office apps are pretty much the same.

The office API is pretty horrible also.

The Windows API hasn't broken compatibility (significantly, anyway) across
all 32-bit versions, and has compatibility layers for 16-bit versions (and
of course the 64-to-32 bit layer in the 64-bit versions).

They have no choice there.

But looking strictly at languages, C++ hasn't had any major breakage since
dinosaurs roamed the Earth,

And it's still stuck in the dinosaur age.

nor has Delphi,

I haven't used delphi that much

or HTML,

HTML is horribly outdated also. SQLServer is a good example also, it's been
compatible for many years but is really stuck in the dark ages. No table
inheritance and the stored proc syntax is a disaster.

or...I'm sure if I thought about it, I could go on for a while. So why is
VB "special"?

I don't know but now they've done it they've created something truly
special. It's the first language I know of that has no skeletons from the
past. It's extremely refreshing. They have compatibility with outdated
technology such as COM but it has been implemented very well and isn't
holding it back in any way. To make it compile VB6 syntax as is would have
held it back a *HUGE* amount.

But let's say there were significant gains to be made by breaking
compatibility, you'll never convince me that things like forcing all
arrays to start with the same base was a *necessary* compatibility break
in order to make VB.NET "better" somehow.

You don't strictly need to have zero based arrays, there is a way around it
I believe. I have never used it though as I don't see the need and do think
the consistancy is better. I don't see any reason to start a list of items
at anything besides zero.

I suppose you might argue that it lends to more structured programming,

Yes :-)

but if that were a concern in VB, there would've been a lot of other
things removed or altered as well. They may also have wanted to consider
the concept that if they were going to break compatibility, they should
have designed the new language in such a way that an upgrade could
actually do a half-decent job instead of just littering code with ToDo
statements.

I agree they most definately should have done a better job there. A lot of
the problems would be caused by upgrading to ADO.net, if plain old ADO was
used it would probably be a lot easier.

I'm suprised a third party hasn't released a better upgrade tool. It
wouldn't be hard to do and would be popular and could be fairly expensive.

Michael


.

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