VB6 vs VB.net ?

hi all. I'm an expert php/intermediate c++ coder. I recently have become interested in rapid windows development and have decided to take up VB.

I have obtained visual studio 2008. My question is, can I/should I start with vb6 (using vs 2008) or should I start with .net?

any info you can provide on the difference in power and learning curve between the two would be greatly appreciated.

to anyone else to reads this.. I started some vb .net tutorials and .net looks like it will be best. also, this syntax is easy. im breezing through it. this is nice compared to c++ and php in that you dont have to code all the interface elements manually. hmm I am now also wondering if it would be better to use visual c++ or visual c#

Yeah, i'd suggest you stick to .net over vb6, it makes little sense if learning from scratch to spend time on vb6.

I on the other hand learnt on vb6 and am in the process of "retraining" as its been some years and the syntax is slightly different with some things.

You can't code VB6 in Visual Studio 2008, but yes, go straight to .NET.

I wish someone would kill off VB6, that would be a glorious day!

EDIT:
Saw the second question ... VB.NET is more object-oriented, and I believe it is far easier to learn. I learned VB.NET first, and transitioning to VB6 was very easy. Plus, you don't learn all the bad habits that VB6 teaches you when you learn VB.NET first, and you take the good coding principles you learn and apply them to 6.

::update::

After careful research of each language I have decided to go with coding C# in VS2k8. The syntax is much more similar to my native scripting language (PHP) and there are many features of the language that make it superior to VB. At first I thought it was going to be more difficult. I had already spent a few hours on VB.NET but after going through some tutorials I realized that the amount of code i had to write was about the same.

Now, visual C++ on the other hand is a different story. Though I do have some c++ experience and it would be cool to use for it's 30 years of backward compatability with a wealth of code, I have decided to stay away from it. Mainly due to all the extra code required compared to C#.

Also, I did some searching around and there are plenty of libraries already written for just about anything I could want to use C# for so I'm not worried about having to reinvent the wheel.

BTW, heres the very awesome tutorial im following to get the basics down: http://www.homeandlearn.co.uk/csharp/csharp.html

C# FTW!!!

Search for books by Andrew Troelson (i think that is spelled right). He will teach you everything you need to know about C# and .Net from the ground up. But he mostly stays on the Windows side. Get the PRO ASP.NET in C# 2008 book from Apress. Both excellent books. I am trying to upload both to RS.

DeskCoder said:

Search for books by Andrew Troelson (i think that is spelled right). He will teach you everything you need to know about C# and .Net from the ground up. But he mostly stays on the Windows side. Get the PRO ASP.NET in C# 2008 book from Apress. Both excellent books. I am trying to upload both to RS.

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that would be appreciated. I have been following this: http://www.homeandlearn.co.uk/csharp/csharp.html

just got done making my calculator!

Nice, I think you make a good decision for using C#. I had started on VB .Net before, but then switch to C# now..

todaydvd said:

Nice, I think you make a good decision for using C#. I had started on VB .Net before, but then switch to C# now..

Click to expand...

yeah its the smartest thing to do. much more powerful, similar syntax to my PHP, and more cross platform.

<ProgrammerSpeak>

There is actually very little different between VB.NET and C#, since they compile to the same intermediate language. If you write in VS 2008 and compile using the .NET 3.5 framework, vB.NET has some cool things with LINQ that you can't do easily in C# (because MS simply didn't implement it in the C# language).

While VB6 is almost a 'dead' language, I have made a living writing code on MS platforms since 1993, and have written systems in 'classic' VB (starting with VB3) that have done literally hundreds of millions of dollars in business. While it doesn't have all of the power of the .NET framework and languages, it is well suited for a lot of business applications (especially with a few API calls).

</ProgrammerSpeak>

-e-

Here is Troelson's book on C# 2008:


Excellent book for beginners or advanced. If you know all about OOP, he goes into it near the beginning, but I waded through it again, and kept going.

Haven't read this one, but it is supposed to be a quick course through C#


Uploading ASP next, it is a big one.

Nice!!!!!

There's even a site that converts c# to vb .net and back again.

http://labs.developerfusion.co.uk/convert/csharp-to-vb.aspx
http://labs.developerfusion.co.uk/convert/vb-to-csharp.aspx

It was a proof of concept site that proved it so well that it became a bookmarkable resource.

Except for syntax and some extra features there is no differnce between C# & VB.NET. They use the same concepts & Libraries.
VB.NET carries a bad from the VB6, but I would not worry about it.

In your case C# syntax is definitely more familiar.
And yes, Andrew troelsen book is the best.
Good luck with it.