If you're one of the many who have VB6 code, you have three basic options:
stay with VB6, convert to .NET, or rewrite from scratch. In this article, we
will look at converting VB6 code to VB.NET and C#. I'll discuss when it makes
sense to convert versus staying with VB6 or rewriting from scratch. I will
cover what converts well and what does not, different ways to do the
conversion, how to get code ready to convert, and handling issues after the
conversion.
Executive Overview
First, let's get an executive-level overview of where VB6 and VB.NET are at
in their life cycles. Note that when I mention VB.NET in this article, I mean
all three versions (2002, 2003, 2005). When I talk about a specific version,
I will specify the version (such as VB.NET 2002). With the advances in VB.NET
2003, as well as its compatibility with VB.NET 2002, there is little reason
to migrate ... (more)
Big Boo-Boo on the Mono Web Site
The Mono Web site has, in some cases, been downloading a very old version of
Mono. It serves as a fine example of what can go wrong with software, even
with the best of intentions, and without anyone really making a mistake. What
happened was back in May 2005, the Mono team added accessibility features to
its Web site, including the little yellow pop-up balloons for screen readers.
One of the fly-bys was associated with the link for downloading the latest
version. Both the balloon and the link were set to download the latest
version of Mono. The p... (more)
Time sneaks up on us. Last month’s issue started year six of
“Monkey Business” in .NET Developer’s Journal. Many thanks
to all the readers who made this milestone possible. You can revisit all of
the past “Monkey Business” columns. Last November marked the
beginning of my seventh year with the Mono project.
SharpDevelop 3.0 Hits Beta 1
SharpDevelop has released the first beta of version 3.0. It now supports the
same multiple frameworks as VisualStudio 2008 (2.0, 3.0, and 3.5), so work on
improving version 2.2. has stopped. My favorite new feature... (more)
Mono Version 1.1.10
Version 1.1.10 is another release packed with new code. The release notes can
be found at www.go-mono.com/archive/1.1.10/, and can be downloaded from
www.mono-project.com/Downloads. Mod_mono, the ASP.NET module for the Apache
Web Server, now has an autoconfiguration tool that eliminates the old
requirement that administrators manually import all of the directories
containing ASP.NET code. This tool allows an ASP.NET application to work with
no configuration changes to Apache; similar to how PHP works under Apache,
all files with ASP.NET extensions are automati... (more)
SharpDevelop 2.2
SharpDevelop has released version 2.2. Version 2.2 is mostly a bug fix
release, but also adds support for newer versions of Boo (0.7.8),
NUnit(2.4.1) and Wix (2.0.5325), Cecil (0.5), additional templates have been
added, and SharpDevelop Reports 2.2 are included while support for the old
SharpDB Tools has been dropped.
SharpDevelop has a Web page
(http://community.sharpdevelop.net/blogs/mattward/articles/VisualStudioExpressComparison.aspx)
that compares SharpDevelop with the express editions of VisualStudio. The
nice thing about this is that it was done by an en... (more)
Dennis Hayes is a programmer at Georgia Tech in Atlanta Georgia where he writes software for the Adult Cognition Lab in the Psychology Department. He has been involved with the Mono project for over six years, and has been writing the Monkey Business column for over five years.
Derek Granath
Tom Flynn
Patrick Pushor
Bob Evans
