- Developers Get Three Choices
- How Is VB.NET Different?
- Two Tools: Code Advisor and Upgrade Wizard
- Which Apps Should You Move?
How Is VB.NET Different?
How, exactly, is VB.NET different from VB6? It would take much less time and space to talk about how the two products are the same. According to information posted on the MSDN Web site, VB.NET introduces changes across areas that include forms and controls, data binding, Web architecture, projects, component authoring, and much more.
The changes are so sweeping, in fact, that various .NET experts tend to shine the light on different enhancements. In his talk at the VBLive! conference, Pleas talked mainly about the differences between VB6 "Ruby" forms and the new Windows forms. Essentially, in VB6 and earlier editions, developers created applications with the use of forms that were part of the VB runtime. In VB.NET, on the other hand, developers use Windows Forms, which are part of the .NET Framework.
As Pleas sees it, the biggest changes on the forms side are as follows:
Rich new object library
New coordinate system
Arrange and dock
Visual inheritance
Capability to place API calls to GDI+ Managed Classes
Pleas touched on a number of other .NET changes, too, across areas that included keywords, structured exception handling, declaration syntax, classes, events, controls, and APIs.
Getting into some of the nitty-gritty, Pleas took a look at retired and replaced keywords. For example, the following keywords are no longer supported in VB.NET:
DefType statements (such as Defint, DelSir, and so on)
Let
Option Base 0 / 1
VarPtr, ObjPtr, StrPtr
Other keywords have been replaced in VB.NET:
VarType becomes GetType in System.Object
Date & Time becomes SystemDateTime
RSet, LSet become PadRight, PadLeft in System.String
Rnd, Randomize becomes System.Random
A few of the developers in the room peppered the speaker with technical questions. Others, though, watched silently. Some seemed rather apprehensive.