VB/VS 60 vs VB/VS.NET

  • Thread starter Thread starter MoKav
  • Start date Start date
M

MoKav

I have Office XP Pro and Developer Edition and SQL Server
installed on my local development machine.

I also have the option of installing
Visual Studio 6.0 Enterprise Edition

AND/OR (????)

Visual Studio.NET Enterprise Architect Edition.


I would prefer to move forward with the .NET but...

My question to you is if I use the VS.NET can I design
VB.Net code or standalone modules to be compatible or
interact with existing Access Databases/Office 2000 and
Office XP?

Is it okay -- even advisable to have VS6 and VS.Net
installed on a single local machine with one partition?

I need to install one of these tonight. My main use will
be VB for now but web apps later. Your thoughts are
most appreciated.

Thanks,
Mo
 
I would go with .NET, and yes .NET can interact with
Office 2000 / Access 2000 and Office XP. Yes multiple
versions of Visual Studio can exist one one machine. I
work on a laptop with Visual Studio 6.0, Visual
Studio .NET 2002 and Visual Studio .NET 2003 with no
problems.

Good Luck.
 
Yes, you can do Office development with VB.Net. I'm using it to build a
Microsoft Word add-in without any (major) problems. You can use the Office
VBA automation model, just as you can with VB6.

Office Development
http://msdn.microsoft.com/vbasic/using/building/office/default.aspx

You might also be interested in the upcoming Visual Studio Tools for Office
technology that Microsoft is developing -- it's designed to make it easier
to integrate VB.Net and C# code into Microsoft Word documents.
(Unfortunately, it's only for Word 2003.)

Just make sure that you're familiar with VB.Net before plunging in -- it's
very different from VB6. (It's really an entirely new language that has
similar syntax to classic VB.) There are some good books on how to migrate
from VB6 to VB.Net. I like "Moving to VB .NET: Strategies, Concepts, and
Code, Second Edition" by Dan Appleman and "Programming VB .NET: A Guide For
Experienced Programmers" by Gary Cornell and Jonathan Morrison.

Hope this helps,
Robert Jacobson
 
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