stay with vb6, or move to csharp?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Elhanan maayan
  • Start date Start date
E

Elhanan maayan

hi all..

(this message was also posted in vb.general, becouse i didn't know where
exactly to fit it).

i work in a company that deals with mainly with hardware devices via serial
comm port. up untill most of the software was writeen in plain old dos c.

that company is planning to move it's applications to windows. the
applications themselves are rather small, theh usually just extract binary
data from devices store them in a database or a file and present them in a
report format.

they are now considering to start programming in vb6, and never heard about
dotnet languages or csharp.

i have managed to find an excellent interface to a serial port called
SerialStream, in dotnet, but till vb6 has mscomm.

i would like to hear the pros and cons of staying or moving to dotnet in
regards to these applications.
 
ON this type of app, C# (or another .NET language) is nice, as long as you
are creating software for your own company. Where you end up with problems is
when you start selling the software.

Having worked for years in VB6, I appreciate being able to program in .NET.
You have a lot more access to deeper functions without having to touch API
calls. This may or may not be the case in your situation, but I will pretty
much guarantee you some poking into the API with VB6.

---

Gregory A. Beamer
MVP; MCP: +I, SE, SD, DBA

***************************
Think Outside the Box!
***************************
 
Cowboy said:
ON this type of app, C# (or another .NET language) is nice, as long as you
are creating software for your own company. Where you end up with problems is
when you start selling the software.
Click to expand...

Perhaps you could elaborate a bit on why this would be a problem. I'm
just starting to program .NET and am wondering why distribution would be
a problem.
 
actually the software is not for in house but more of outward distribution.
so where would i find problems?
 
The current version of .Net does not have native serial port support. You
definitely want to check this kind of a requirement out before you start
getting into distribution.

I believe the next version of .net has more hardware interfaces -- of course
you can make API calls in .Net.
 
Hi,

First of all, a few years ago I needed to use mscomm, and it was nothing but
trouble.. it had memory leeks and gods knows what other issues.. I'd strongly
advise against using it, but if you choose to, make sure you have ALL the
latest service packs etc..

As for .NET, a few people have mentioned that it does not have native
support for comms.. But you have already found a component that you can use.

As for deployment, it can be a problem depending on how you distribute you
software.. Any .net application (C#, VB.NET, J# etc) all have a dependancy on
the .NET framework, which is freely available form Microsoft, is included as
an optional extra in service packs etc.. I beleieve you can also distribute
it with your own applications.. This is an option if you deploy via CD...

Alot of people are conserned about a once off 21mb download, but the
benifets are well worth it...

That's my 2c..

Eddie de Bear
 
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