VB6 to VB.NET, comments please

[jim]

As I remember, they weren't going to support VB6 in Vista either. The
original apps were in assembly language with two ISA cards doing the real
time work. Then Graphics cards got better and cpu's got faster. That's
when I jumped on VB6 as it was easy to get up to speed.

Then ISA became passe and USB appeared, so I jumped on that.

I've toyed with going to C++ but it puts me back in the position of
figuring everything in detail. Hell, that's what I was doing originally in
MASM. Age comes into play also. My first program was an Infant Hearing
Screener written on an Intel ISIS system using 8085's.

Galen

I feel your pain. I am 39. I taught my first programming class when I was
15 (Apple IIe and IIgs). I stopped coding 4 years ago and opened my own
business doing network administration for small to mid-sized bsinesses. It
gets boring, but it beats the hell out of coding for big companies like
Citibank, Porsche, Coca-Cola, etc. (The constant push to put apps out before
they are ready...and all that crap.)

I have been planning on doing some .Net stuff, learning C & C++...but I am
(and I think everyone gets) not so impressed with technology any more. I
look for simple, cost effective solutions. I look for things that will let
me do my job as fast as possible and go live a little.

In fact, it looks to me like the general population is tiring of the whole
technology boom. Just look at the Wii kicking the butts of Playstation and
XBox.

I've screamed about it until blood has shot out of my mouth.....people just
want simple. Simple has always outsold complex, and it always will.

Simple is more cost-effective and makes greater profit margins. Simple
means fewer tech support calls. Simple means money.

But, I'll be damned if anyone is listening.

Microsoft killed the most popular programming language EVER (in terms of
coders and application base) in favor of what? .Net?

..Net was never written for programmers. It was written by Microsoft, for
Microsoft's vision of software as a service. They lied to people to try and
sell it (there NEVER was a "Dll Hell" and I can prove it). They push .Net
on programmers because they can.

(One more point and I promise....I'm off my soapbox.) And, Microsoft can
push programmers (and end users) around for one simple reason...proprietary
data formats.

Proprietary data formats make it damned near impossible (practically or
financially) for businesses to leave Microsoft or Quickbooks or AutoCAD or
thousands of other applications and move to a different app (much less a
different OS).

Things will never change until we enact legislation that enforces open data
formats. All companies that store user data should be forced by law to
publish the data formats that the data is stored in BEFORE they can sell (or
update) their software that users will use to store data. After all, it is
your data (regardless of what software package you use to compile or store
it) and it should always be your data and be portable to where ever you want
to take it.

If we enacted open data format legislation, you would see a whole new,
affordable, usable downpour of applications and OS' begin to be used in
business and home use.

Software would have to compete based on usability, features and cost
effectiveness....not because the users can't easily or cost effectively port
their data to an app more suited to their needs.

(OK....ok.....I'm stepping down now......)

 

[Galen Somerville]

I feel your pain. I am 39. I taught my first programming class when I
was 15 (Apple IIe and IIgs). I stopped coding 4 years ago and opened my
own business doing network administration for small to mid-sized
bsinesses. It gets boring, but it beats the hell out of coding for big
companies like Citibank, Porsche, Coca-Cola, etc. (The constant push to
put apps out before they are ready...and all that crap.)

I have been planning on doing some .Net stuff, learning C & C++...but I am
(and I think everyone gets) not so impressed with technology any more. I
look for simple, cost effective solutions. I look for things that will
let me do my job as fast as possible and go live a little.

In fact, it looks to me like the general population is tiring of the whole
technology boom. Just look at the Wii kicking the butts of Playstation
and XBox.

I've screamed about it until blood has shot out of my mouth.....people
just want simple. Simple has always outsold complex, and it always will.

Simple is more cost-effective and makes greater profit margins. Simple
means fewer tech support calls. Simple means money.

But, I'll be damned if anyone is listening.

Microsoft killed the most popular programming language EVER (in terms of
coders and application base) in favor of what? .Net?

.Net was never written for programmers. It was written by Microsoft, for
Microsoft's vision of software as a service. They lied to people to try
and sell it (there NEVER was a "Dll Hell" and I can prove it). They push
.Net on programmers because they can.

(One more point and I promise....I'm off my soapbox.) And, Microsoft can
push programmers (and end users) around for one simple
reason...proprietary data formats.

Proprietary data formats make it damned near impossible (practically or
financially) for businesses to leave Microsoft or Quickbooks or AutoCAD
or thousands of other applications and move to a different app (much less
a different OS).

Things will never change until we enact legislation that enforces open
data formats. All companies that store user data should be forced by law
to publish the data formats that the data is stored in BEFORE they can
sell (or update) their software that users will use to store data. After
all, it is your data (regardless of what software package you use to
compile or store it) and it should always be your data and be portable to
where ever you want to take it.

If we enacted open data format legislation, you would see a whole new,
affordable, usable downpour of applications and OS' begin to be used in
business and home use.

Software would have to compete based on usability, features and cost
effectiveness....not because the users can't easily or cost effectively
port their data to an app more suited to their needs.

(OK....ok.....I'm stepping down now......)

I agree. My apps have a number of different file formats in use. I decided
early on that they would be handled within the programs.

Galen

 

[Number 11950 - GPEMC! Replace number with 11950]

I feel your pain. I am 39. I taught my first programming class when I was
15 (Apple IIe and IIgs). I stopped coding 4 years ago and opened my own
business doing network administration for small to mid-sized bsinesses. It
gets boring, but it beats the hell out of coding for big companies like
Citibank, Porsche, Coca-Cola, etc. (The constant push to put apps out before
they are ready...and all that crap.)

I have been planning on doing some .Net stuff, learning C & C++...but I am
(and I think everyone gets) not so impressed with technology any more. I
look for simple, cost effective solutions. I look for things that will let
me do my job as fast as possible and go live a little.

In fact, it looks to me like the general population is tiring of the whole
technology boom. Just look at the Wii kicking the butts of Playstation and
XBox.

I've screamed about it until blood has shot out of my mouth.....people just
want simple. Simple has always outsold complex, and it always will.

Simple is more cost-effective and makes greater profit margins. Simple
means fewer tech support calls. Simple means money.

But, I'll be damned if anyone is listening.

Microsoft killed the most popular programming language EVER (in terms of
coders and application base) in favor of what? .Net?

.Net was never written for programmers. It was written by Microsoft, for
Microsoft's vision of software as a service. They lied to people to try and
sell it (there NEVER was a "Dll Hell" and I can prove it). They push .Net
on programmers because they can.

(One more point and I promise....I'm off my soapbox.) And, Microsoft can
push programmers (and end users) around for one simple reason...proprietary
data formats.

Proprietary data formats make it damned near impossible (practically or
financially) for businesses to leave Microsoft or Quickbooks or AutoCAD or
thousands of other applications and move to a different app (much less a
different OS).

Things will never change until we enact legislation that enforces open data
formats. All companies that store user data should be forced by law to
publish the data formats that the data is stored in BEFORE they can sell (or
update) their software that users will use to store data. After all, it is
your data (regardless of what software package you use to compile or store
it) and it should always be your data and be portable to where ever you want
to take it.

If we enacted open data format legislation, you would see a whole new,
affordable, usable downpour of applications and OS' begin to be used in
business and home use.

Software would have to compete based on usability, features and cost
effectiveness....not because the users can't easily or cost effectively port
their data to an app more suited to their needs.

(OK....ok.....I'm stepping down now......)

Anyone can come up with a database format, and provided it communicates via
internationally recognised standard formats, it does the job. It's the API
for which a standard needs to be set. This would be possible only if it can
be legally recognised that the API is part of the IDEA of the operating
system and NOT part of its design. That way, the API can neither be
protected by copyright nor patent. As a programming level communications
standard necessary for cross-platform (XP) applications, I'd say that it's
not unreasonable to consider the API of ANY operating system fair game for
application in competing operating systems. If the Open Source crowd had the
cajones to take the Windows API on as an application communication standard,
all our apps would suddenly be Linux compatible as well...

The push for a redundant intermediate level API known as the framework via
..NET, signals plans to make major changes to the existing API - namely the
removal of substantial functionality. By going .NET your software becomes
forward compatible with respect to planned changes to Windows API. There is
a lot of pressure from wealthy Hollywood nobs to remove functions that can
be used to directly access media without monitoring by the operating
system's anti-piracy routines. Equally, this means that the Open Source
crowd will not only have to take on the Microsoft for the Windows API but
also for the Framework as well - if the dream of true XP applications is
ever going to be realised...

I would suggest that the Hollywood set may not necessarily represent
American interests - something to remember next time you vote...

 

[Galen Somerville]

Whoa. Way to much for me. I am deleting this newsgroup and sticking with
VB6.general.discussion or whatever.

Galen

"Number 11950 - GPEMC! Replace number with 11950" <[email protected]>
wrote in message

 

[Number 11950 - GPEMC! Replace number with 11950]

Whoa. Way to much for me. I am deleting this newsgroup and sticking with
VB6.general.discussion or whatever.

Galen

"Number 11950 - GPEMC! Replace number with 11950" <[email protected]>
wrote in message
news:[email protected]...

[SNIP]

Sorry, but I could never resist a good soapbox! :^)