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Posted by Jonathan Allen on Aug 21, 2007 12:04 PM
Visual Basic 7, also known as VB.NET, was released in 2002. At that time a significant number of compatibility issues were identified. Many of those issues were not changes to the core language but rather missing libraries.
For example, at the time it was impossible to convert any VB application that had printing capabilities. Though the VB6 Printer object was quite primitive, and the PrintForm command downright trivial, neither were included in VB.NET. Even the line and shape controls, which are essentially a couple of properties and an OnPaint event, were missing.
It is now 2007 and Microsoft has finally released a Visual Basic 2005 PowerPack that includes these features. What's troubling is that there is no mention of including this in VB 9 or the .NET 3.5 framework. Nor is there any mention of integrating this into the VB6 to VB.NET migration wizard.
With practically all support for VB 6 in the process of being ended, it is imperative that applications be migrated to a platform with long-term viability. But with Microsoft only giving lip service to the migration path, the future looks bleak for the countless companies running on VB6 applications.
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I personally think that these libs shouldn't even be there.
.NET is so different from VB6 that there is no way anything acceptable will come out of such a process.
As a freelancer i have done "migration" to .NET since 2001 and I can tell you that
it is a lot easier to rewrite everything than to try to migrate.
Nearly nothing is done in a similar way in .NET than it was done in VB6.
And if you stay in the mindset of a vb6 developer than you will miss the whole new world.
While I agree with you in spirit, there are a lot of companies that simply cannot afford a complete rewrite. The ability to port everthing and then upgrade the code at a slower pace is the only way they can handle the situation, other than remaining on VB6.
How can you "upgrade" those .NET code converted from VB6 by tools (aka machine generated code)? Re-write.
It is re-write at once or re-write gradually. But if you cannot afford to re-write at once and want to re-write gradually, why would you convert? For maintemance? Will it be easier to maintain the original VB6 code than maintaining the generated VB.NET code from VB6?
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