Need to code something in VB6 ... or move on, but to what?

Phibsboro

Hi,

Any input on this would be really appreciated. I am looking at adding some fairly substantial additions to a VB6 app I wrote a few years back. As I dug out the old VB6 cd's again to install on my computer it occurred to me that maybe this was the time to move the app onto to a better platform. I don't have the close family ties I used to have with the company using the app and I feel they would be better off having something that would be easier to get support for in the future.

When I originally wrote the app I was basically a hobby coder but have since become a professional java coder (but with no GUI experience, all back end stuff). The app itself is database centric with a mix of RDO and ADO data controls (cos it was added to over the years). I ran a quick conversion to VB 2008 and as expected got errors all over the place, the most serious of which are to do with the data control on the main form.

This has lead me to the conclusion that I would probably be better rewriting the app almost from scratch in 2008. But there I wondered, if I am going to learn VB 2008 (which looks significantly different from old style VB), maybe there are better tools out there for the job? Does anyone have any thoughts on where an old VB coder with current java experience should go for windows GUI coding? I had a quick look at swing but the non native controls just look so bad and remind of me of really really yucky programs i've come across that it put me right off. Is SWT any better? Anyone doing VB style coding in Eclipse? Is C# the way to go?

Any thoughts would be really appreciated.

Thanks,
Colm

BostonB

Why not Java if its what you know?

C# would the be next closest to Java.

DublinWriter

Or if you want to compile .exe's with a small footprint and no DLL dependencies you could always use Delphi.

...I'll get my coat.

Ginger

THere is an upgrade wizard from VB6 to VB.NET, which would get most of the way there.

Only thing is that, you might be looking at a complete rewrite than trusting yourself to the wizard

Phibsboro

Thanks for the input. I am wary of Java cos the app is basically a couple of data bound forms with data input, table look ups and a few reports. So its all about the GUI and Swing just looks horrible :S Also my IDE of choice for java is Eclipse whereas it looks like the best GUI builder option might be netbeans/matisse. But if anyone has any experience of doing a data bound GUI app with java I'd love to hear their experience.

I have actually run the conversion wizard - thats what convinced me that I'd need to rewrite. Most of the issues are small but some are major - it doesn't convert the data control on the main form at all because its RDO. Looking at the web, there are ways around this that would involve wrapping the data control up in an active-x control, but really if I go down that kind of road I'm just going to leave the company in a more perilous state - the code will become unfathomable

As for Delphi - theres a thought I have fond memories of programming in Turbo Pascal many moons ago - it is pascal based right? I fear that Delphi might really be as hard to find support for as VB6 but it is in the right ball park in the sense that I guess what I'm really asking is - what are people using to code up quick GUI based apps these days?

Evil Phil

As BostonB said, if you're going the .Net route then go with C#. You know most of it already from working with Java

I suppose you have to ask how much work is involved in rewriting the application and more importantly how much will you get paid for it?

Phibsboro

Sooo, after a quick read of wikipedia's C# vs Java entry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_C_Sharp_and_Java , I think I'll give C# a try. It reads more like Java than I would have expected but presumably has much of the same GUI goodness that VB has (even from just sharing the same IDE).

thanks again for the advice.

C

bonkey

Phibsboro wrote: »

Swing just looks horrible :S

You're doing it wrong

stevenmu

Phibsboro wrote: »

Sooo, after a quick read of wikipedia's C# vs Java entry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_C_Sharp_and_Java , I think I'll give C# a try. It reads more like Java than I would have expected but presumably has much of the same GUI goodness that VB has (even from just sharing the same IDE).

thanks again for the advice.

C

Yes, apart from syntax, C# and VB.net are almost exactly equivalent. In general you can change between the two just by swapping some bits around and adding or removing semi-colons.

Hobbes

Phibsboro wrote: »

So its all about the GUI and Swing just looks horrible

Use SWT then. That will look like a windows/linux/mac program. Eclipse 3.2 has a plugin that has a visual UI editor. Europa (3.3) might have the editor by now as well.

Very easy to code in by hand as well.