A Simple Question

[Beany]

Hi,

its just a simple question......ive tried searching but i couldnt find the answer...

whats the difference between Visual Basic and VB.NET? what can you do with them? advantages/disadvantages?

im planning on learning VB.NET......it would be highly appreciated if someone could point out differences!! (in simple terms )

and also can any1 recommend any books or sites that will help me greatly in learning VB.NET?

THANKS

 

[Kodo]

Wow.. that's a hard question to answer in a short post. However.. The syntax is quite similar but that's really where the similarities end. You see it's not so much the difference between VB6 and VB.NET so much as it is the difference between VB6 and the .NET framework. Understand that the Framework (aka BCL or base class library) makes development so much easier. Yes, VB, the language, has undergone some serious changes under the covers but it's because of how the framework is constructed.

The fx was built with XML in mind. True and full support of OOP.. inheritance, polymorphism, multithreading. I can only suggest you watch some videos on it and see it in action:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/vb/features/

even go so far as to check it out..
http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/beginner/
I promise you, you'll never touch VB6 after you use .NET

 

[hooks]

I agree with Kodo. Once you use .Net you will never want to use vb6.

I have noticed that the development time on an application using .Net is way shorter than vb6. Also vb.net kind of makes you learn the OOP way of doing things. That in the long run make you life as a programmer way easier.


Hooks

 

[dan-cat]

Following on from the two previous posts, the principle behind the .net framework is to place a layer between you the coder and the operating system that you are working on.

You use classes (objects) in the .net framework (a whole lot of 'em ), the .net framework works with the operating system to return the results you're looking for. You don't interact with the operating system directly which means less chance of breaking things permanently.

With more experience, you start to integrate this principle into your own solutions. ie a Web Page interacts with a business layer, which interacts with a data layer which interacts with a datasource.

When you first start to look at .net, you think how the hell am I going to learn all this but actually once you've sussed the syntax, all the hard work has been done for you, leaving you more time for development.

 

[wazz]

check out books by 'Deitel and Deitel'. i have C#.NET. How to Program. i'm pretty sure they have one for VB.NET.