What is the difference between vb6 and vb.net

[Access2007User]

What is the difference between vb6 and vb.net?

I have read an article which I google about the difference between the two and it says that vb.net was a replacement to COM of vb6.

However, in other forums that I have seen, there was no even one forum for vb.net? Dont people like vb.net?

I am confused if I am going to use vb6 or vb.net !

 

[Banana]

I largely missed out the whole history but I think it's reasonable to say there was a small uproar when Microsoft decided to EOL VB6. VB.NET is often positioned as successor to VB6, but some has argued that it's too different as to make it a distinct language.

It should be also noted that Microsoft for all purposes and intents, wants .NET to be the wave of future and COM to be phased out eventually. I don't know where COM development is at right now, but basically I'd think long and carefully whether I want to write anything new with COM. Furthermore, it is possible to interact with COM even from .NET. In fact, I wrote a demo showing how to consume .NET component from Access via COM which you can find in Sample Database forum.

Another thing about VB.NET is that with .NET, Microsoft tried to make all language (mainly 3; Visual Basic, C# and C++) equal by compiling them into a common intermediary language so there is supposed to be no particular advantage of programming in C or in Visual Basic in .NET context as was the case with earlier IDEs. Even so, I'd think you would be more likely to find far more resources for C# than VB.NET and I, myself, would prefer C# for this reason.

Hope this helps.

 

[Access2007User]

really? you would prefer c#? I thought C++ was the most use and preferred language?

On the phrase that you said there is supposed to be no particular advantage over another language in .net, do you mean that programming in vb.net is as good as in C?

 

[Banana]

Um, there's right tool for right job and there's wrong tool for wrong job.

There are in fact cases where you must do things in C++ because we need low-level bindings, then there are times where we don't want to deal with tedious details at low level and use Python or Perl or VBA (e.g. very high level) to concentrate on getting things done.

I can write functions for MySQL in C because that was what was required for the job. But I can also write functions in SQL language if I didn't need to work outside the environment.

I only said C# because it has more resources and people using it than other languages in the .NET land and for that reason it's easier to find what you need in C#. For a different context, there may exist a better language.



Yes, the theoretical goal of .NET is allow programmer to program in his/her favorite language without being a "second-class" programmer, but of course this doesn't actually work out in reality and there are cases where you must write in certain languages to employ certain functionalities. For trivial programs, VB.Net is supposed to be equally as good as program in C# and C++. For something more complicated, it's an open question.

Again, right tool for the right job.

 

[Access2007User]

ok. I get the point. Ok, I have been studying access, vb6 and vb.net. I am more familiar with the three. With regards to C++ and visual c++, I am not familiar yet. I guess there is a difference between c++ and visual c++. However I am concentrating and studying to ms visual c++ because I was thinking that it is like visual basic 6 that has GUI when you make forms and the like. However, with regards to visual c++, I cant seem to get where are the tools to create the forms and the like there. Can you please show me the way in visual c++ ? TIA