Visual Basic 6.0 - Superior Source Code

Friday, February 27, 2015

The WORLD HAS VOTED !

CodeProject.com is one of the most respected sites in current affairs of programming. Below is a poll made by them. The comments are made by me:

Source: http://www.codeproject.com/script/Surveys/View.aspx?srvid=1722&srvsucc=Voted

Tuesday, February 24, 2015

I'm also a Microsoft Certified Professional in Visual Basic: by Kevin Matney

Yes, I have masters degree in Engineering, but I'm also a Microsoft Certified Professional in Visual Basic, although I received my professional certificate about 6 years after my Master's degree. So I know how to program, and know what I'm doing, and know what my code does, I have software running on multi-million dollar equipment in the worlds most advanced semiconductor fabs. These are mission critical programs, and they are written in VB6 (mostly). I learned the hard way that if you push VB6 too hard, you are asking for trouble, and I had to remove some hardcore API calls I was using. I was only pushing VB6, since it hadn't been updated in so long. So I backed off, and now just live within the limitations of VB6.

VB6 catered to a certain type of programmer, we we took to it like a duck to water. The language just feels natural. You have some of that in VB.Net, but too many other aspects get in the way. I have forced myself to do most (but not all) new programming with VB.Net, and it's been about 2 years, so I'm reasonably proficient. But it still feels like pulling teeth at times - the love just isn't there. If I need to knock out a quick prototype App, I still use VB6, and will do so for many years to come. I tested all my VB6 Apps in Windows 10 and everything works great. So I'm good at least another 10 years.

People forced VB6 limitations and created bunch of hack API stuff, subclassing etc: a comment by Anonymous

People forced VB6 limitations and created bunch of hack API stuff, subclassing etc. There were many 3rd party vendors, who tried to do a buck. It soon became an uncontrollable monster and needed to be put down for many other reasons, mostly it could not really allowed to be expanded and was lacking many important features like multithreading etc. VB6 couldn't be changed easily and to change it you needed to do it from the bottom up. So Microsoft did chose the bottom-up approach and created .NET. This new platform had all the goodies that VB6 didn't have and never could have (because of it's inefficient general design philosophy). That's the reason why pro-coders are now quite happy with .NET today.
However there is still good news for hobbyist coders, who used VB6 (and still continuing to do so). There is VBA and VB script. VB6 coders can switch to those as they are familiar with the syntax. Besides, there are other languages around like python, which is easy to pick up for non-pro coders.
Microsoft did the very right think to put VB6 asleep as it was really hopeless, however provided all the help to interop from VB6 to .NET. That's the best that they could honestly do and I don't blame them.
I suggest that you try .NET, which is getting better each year. (check out NET 2015). However as you are saying that you are a non pro-coder, I would suggest that you use VB6 as it is, because MS support OS support will be there until 2024. But if you need to develop yourself then you should learn .NET, because it is one of the most comprehensive frameworks around for real programmers. Thank you.

Microsoft "evangelists" present the news stuffs as good !: a comment by Michelle

I guess should be the time to seriously think about to abandon Microsoft and their moods. I would remember that EACH SINGLE time they release a new technology, they present and SELL IT as the absolute and definitive good solution for ever. While, in the meantime, they constantly show all the weak point of the past technology like if was made from somebody else!
I've partecipated to hundreds of workshop from Microsoft and their "evangelist" and ALWAYS they present the news stuffs as good, past stuffs with absolutely BAD even if THEY MADE IT. This happened with RDO and then, after a little while ADO was suddendly the new way to god... Also with IIS happened the same. And now it happen with the SDKs...For who is taking the time to read this post, please consider that from .Net 1.0 to .Net 4, ALWAYS a "porting" was needed! Even if you used .Net... but with the new wrong version! At Microsoft seems they do not care AT ALL about developers.

They seems not to understand that all the above "moods" COST MONEY other than time! Bigger the company bigger the costs. Not all the software company around the world have the resources Microsoft have! I hope those are only "moods", otherwise that means at Microsoft they do not know what they are doing! At moment, seems that developers are binded with their operating system and if you want to produce YOUR software, you MUST agree with their politics. Take it or leave it. If you don't agree, you just loose all what you did till that moment! I perfectly understand that the world need to be innovated, but then two considerations came to my mind:

1) I wish to be FREE to decide if I NEED to innovate myself or forced to do it, paying otherwise the penalty to loose my customers or job.
2) If innovation is in terms of software "theology", structure, OOP etc. and the porting from "the past old bad stuffs and habits" is the "new" .Net way of light, please consider that JAVA it's like is .Net NOW, but just years and years ago! So if we want to talk about innovation, then it is Microsoft that is LATE about 10 years, not WE as developers. WE JUST BELIEVED TO THEIR ABILITY to provide a working environment to build software. And Visual Basic 6 IT IS EXACTLY THAT. So, if we are talking about "innovation" seems then that all the developers that trusted on Microsoft's solutions have really used very OLD stuffs, not competitive since the beginning. So, how many of you still believe to continue trusting in Microsoft?

How long this "new and good" .Net technology will remain the same, until the new "porting", in the name of the "innovation"? We have to still trust about the forecast for the support of this .Net product? What about the mandatory switching to Windows 8 if you want to INVEST into the new latest versione of .Net? How many of your customers will feel comfortable to mandatory switch to Win8 only because you started to use the latest .Net framework? Personally, because of the amount of the products and related code I've done in these years I CANNOT AFFORD to "port" it to .Net. Too much complicated. Dot Net is good for "complex" stuffs to do with VB6, but incredibly slow and difficult for basic everydays stuffs. Not to mention the protection of the intellectual property, that with .Net it is simply impossible to really protect. Well.. there are "obfuscators"... good to stop just my grand mother...

That said, if a new Linux Basic SDK appear on the market, I'll for sure reccomend it to ALL OF MY customers, suggesting to switch to Linux. Probably I'll do the switching for free then! Incredibly less cost, more performance, more stability, less problems system-wide. If a new "Linux Basic" that REALLY WORKS will be sold for Linux, I'll go to buy it. 100%. So, who is able to do a compiler, should take this opportunity that Microsoft left open! Whoever will make a Linux Basic, have a market of thousands and thousands of developers, READY TO GO. Those developer, like me, are simply tired to be kept by the neck from Microsoft. We do not switch to other systems simply because there are no good alternatives, or good economic alternatives.
Yet.

Well... if I'm FORCED to INVEST my time and MONEY somewhere else, there is JAVA, that prooved to be made from who have clear idea in mind about software industry and how to respect who kept the company grow. Do you think that Microsoft could sell so many licenses of Windows and Office, if there was not so many developers around the world?

I respect what Mr. Paul Yuknewicz said. Technically speacking, his points are honestly good points, but economically speacking, and in the way Microsoft usually put decisions, it is totally unacceptable. Refactor VB6 is difficult?!!? This maybe means that doing the .Net was easier?

We have no way to force Microsoft having a "GOOD SENSE OF PRACTICE" other than go away and leave them alone.
So, this is a WORLDWIDE CALL to any developers that are able to make a SDK that have the same ability of VB6, but opened to all the suggestions made in this forum, actualize it, make it for mobile applications too, if possible and with the obvious constraints.
BUT running onto a serious platform: LINUX.
That one will be then a "porting" that could make some sense to do... and not blindly still follow the Microsoft "evangelists" (I'm not kidding. They call like that, by themself, at least here in Italy...).

Kind regards.