Language Recomendation

[westfw]

VB6 is a wonderful RAD tool, unfortunately is was long gone.

I'm pretty sure that the VB I used previously and subsequently recommended was VB6 or earlier; I didn't realize that there had been major changes :-(

[IanB]

I'm pretty sure that the VB I used previously and subsequently recommended was VB6 or earlier; I didn't realize that there had been major changes :-(

And will continue to be. These days it seems Microsoft can't stick with the same thing for more than three years before retiring it and moving on to the next latest and greatest technology 

[John Coloccia]

That's kind of like saying that you don't need to write C code yourself...you just use other people's C code.

That is correct. I was saying that. At the time I was using VB, not only did I not know how to write ActiveX components, I didn't know how to write C code either. I was using VB in the way that many (most?) other people were using it, as a "glue" to join other components together.

It is quite possible for people to construct an assembly out of pre-built components, without necessarily knowing how to design and make those components. Just as it is with electronics...

The point is that VB.net no longer requires doing it like that. Your approach may work if everything you need happens to exist as a component that does precisely what you want it to do. In general, that's not the case. It could be true in your particular case because of what you happen to be using it for. Believe me, Ian, I've spent many many hours writing ActiveX controls because someone else was hell bent on using VB. The situation today with VB.Net is much improved.

This all started because someone claimed that he old VB was better or simpler. In fact, for all but very simple drag and drop GUIs, the situation today MUCH simpler because you can do so much natively.

VB6 is a wonderful RAD tool, unfortunately is was long gone.

I'm pretty sure that the VB I used previously and subsequently recommended was VB6 or earlier; I didn't realize that there had been major changes :-(

Just download Visual Studio and check it out. I doubt you'll be upset when you see what it's like.

[IanB]

The point is that VB.net no longer requires doing it like that. Your approach may work if everything you need happens to exist as a component that does precisely what you want it to do. In general, that's not the case. It could be true in your particular case because of what you happen to be using it for. Believe me, Ian, I've spent many many hours writing ActiveX controls because someone else was hell bent on using VB. The situation today with VB.Net is much improved.

I know. In those observations I was speaking in the past tense, i.e. two decades ago, way back when, when I happened to be writing some VB code. That was before I knew how to code in C, C++ or C#, before .NET was even conceived. The situation is quite different today.

Today, I fully agree with you. The .NET environment is much more complete, and anyone today would be crazy not to make use of it.

[John Coloccia]

I know. In those observations I was speaking in the past tense, i.e. two decades ago, way back when, when I happened to be writing some VB code.

Hey, do you remember what it was like if heaven forbid you ever launched a program without saving your work first, and it happened to get stuck in a loop somewhere or something like that...and then it all locks up and you loose all of your work. The funny thing is that there's a way to kill the running program and get back to normal, but I didn't learn about it for years. I'm also one of those people who thought Roy Orbison was blind. Found out he wasn't just a few years ago. It happened to come up in conversation with a friend recently. I thought we would have a good laugh over my own stupidity. Instead he said, "What do you mean? He WAS blind!"  I'm still not sure if he believes me or not.