Tracking change and innovation in the enterprise software development community
IBM WebSphere
Virtualize apps
to lower costs,
Increase agility
Learn more!
QCon San Francisco
Nov 19-21:
+ 80 sessions & tracks
Register now
and Save $400!
Terracotta:
Scale your
Apps w/ease
Offload the DB:
Learn More!
JProbe Freeware,
an Eclipse plug-in,
diagnoses
memory issues
quickly & easily.
Though released nearly a decade ago, Visual Basic 6 still remains a cornerstone for the IT department of many companies. With so many line of business applications, many no longer with source code, in use, upgrade paths to Windows Vista and Server 2008 needs to be considered carefully. The make the upgrade somewhat easier, Microsoft has committed to an "It Just Works" policy for VB 6 applications.
Developers today are constantly creating applications that consume services of other web sites. Consuming these services requires figuring out and understanding the sometimes complex Application Programming Interfaces (APIs).
Six years after VB.NET was released, Microsoft is still slowly working towards a true migration path for VB 6 applications. Recently Microsoft released "Visual Basic Power Packs 3.0". This release adds the Data Repeater, an important control for layouts.
When .NET 1.0 was released, VB and C# were very similar. But with the fourth version nearing release, the differences are really mounting. Today we look at the subtle differences in nullable types that can trip up developers.
Another piece of key VB 6 functionality, line and shape controls, has finally made it in to a VB 8 PowerPack. But for VB 6 developers looking to migrate is it too little, too late.
The new version of Interop Forms allows .NET controls to be placed on VB 6 forms as if they were ActiveX controls.
Back in September, Microsoft's VB team gave developers a way to include .NET forms in VB6 applications. In their latest CTP, they also bring you the ability to include .NET controls on a VB6 form.
Microsoft has released a Print Form component for VB 2005 and is developing a Printer Compatibility Library that will allow VB 2005 applications to use the Printer object from VB6.
