Is it worth learning VB6?

I'm a developer with 10 years experience but not in VB/VBA, rather heavily in SQL/XSLT/Unix. I recently read an article on banking IT that said there are far too many Java programmers who won't and can't do VBA (they sneer at it I presume) and that simply there is a lot of VBA code work in banking.
With that in mind, I thought I'd add VBA to my skill set...then I found there is VB6, and then VB.NET. So now I'm confused...is it worth learning VB and if so, VB6 or VBA or VB.NET? Any pointers are welcome. Thanks.

Welcome to the forums.

Suggest .Net and VB6 later if you're still interested afterwards. Focus on a language with a greater potential of growth & employment opportunities. Focus on older languages more as a hobby

Thanks for the welcome.

For support purposes though, would it be correct to assume that VB6 is legacy code and that there is a still a large amount of it about? Or has most VB6 code largely been migrated by now? Not an easy question to answer but can you or other members give me an answer based on their own experience? My background is support, and support is what I prefer to do.

Although there is still lots of "legacy" code out there (and will be for a long time) I would also recommend start learning VB 2010 (.net was dropped from the product name back in 2005).

The kind of jobs you'll find maintaining VBA macros (and most of it will be maintenace) won't require much if any VB6. So all you need is Office and maybe one of the Office Developer packages which contain extras that can be very useful.

Among the pile of things there you'll find VSTA/VSTO, Microsoft's half-baked attempt to begin replacing VBA by VB.Net. Indeed, to get the Office Developer stuff you may have to ovtain the VSTA/VSTO (they seem to keep renaming it) package. Or maybe it is in one of the Visual Studio SKUs now?

VSTA/VSTO has had an uphill struggle for years trying to make a dent in the market. It has failed, and only die-hard .Net fans even use it.

You can safely ignore VB.Net and the .Net Visual Studio releases (everything since VS 6.0/98). They will not be highly relevant to most Office developers.


See VBA Forever! (and this guy is a big VB.Net fan) and other articles on the subject.

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Originally Posted by LaVolpe

Welcome to the forums.

Suggest .Net and VB6 later if you're still interested afterwards. Focus on a language with a greater potential of growth & employment opportunities. Focus on older languages more as a hobby.

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+1. I use VB6 as a hobby because I stopped developing applications professionally 3 years ago. I still use VB6 for quick and dirty Apps on my own machine because it's so easy for me to write them. Some seem to run just as fast if not faster because VB6 seems to have less overhead to trip over.

I suppose one day Microsoft will launch an OS that walks completely away from all VB6 Apps. :eek2:

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Originally Posted by Code Doc

+1. I use VB6 as a hobby because I stopped developing applications professionally 3 years ago. I still use VB6 for quick and dirty Apps on my own machine because it's so easy for me to write them. Some seem to run just as fast if not faster because VB6 seems to have less overhead to trip over.

I suppose one day Microsoft will launch an OS that walks completely away from all VB6 Apps. :eek2:

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Perhaps though, as I understand it, the VB6 runtime will still run under Win8 (if not be included in it). It's a 13-year-old technology but still has a lot of relevance. The system I work on is still 40 to 50% VB6 which will never be replaced.

To the O.P. ... I agree that if you're just getting into it that you ought to go the .Net route. It's not that VB6 couldn't address many problems but it's just getting very long-in-the-tooth. VB6 was very professional for development a few years ago but the environment that .Net has built just runs rings around it from a functionality standpoint. I say that with qualification: I wrote VB6 for close to 10 years, fought .Net tooth-and-nail but after I had some serious time with it I realized how much deeper a platform .Net is. Further, I think .Net now has even a better "infrastructure" than VB6, certainly when you get past XP. It's got a steep learning curve, but when you realize what you can do with it VB6 looks like a toy by comparison.

-Max

Guys, thanks for all the replies.

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Originally Posted by J_UK

Guys, thanks for all the replies.

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:thumb:
You are certainly welcome, and I still use the VB6 Shape control. ;)

Th VB6 runtime libraries are part of the Win8 Dev Preview, so odds are good the released OS will have them.

Welcome to the vbforums.

i would also suggest .Net .visual studio 2010 express edition is free available on web.download from the following link and start learning it . Focus on a language with a greater potential of growth & employment opportunities.



http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudi...itions/express

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Originally Posted by Code Doc

+1.

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I wonder what does "+1" mean? "+1" rep or post or what?

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Originally Posted by RhinoBull

I wonder what does "+1" mean? "+1" rep or post or what?

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AFAIK it is webspeak for "I second that opinion".

I thought it was pre-Web speak from the NNTP newsgroup era.

The proper thing you'd do in a Web forum like this one is to use the "Rate this post" link to the left to actually give somebody a reputation+1. Saying "+1" in this forum is actually a snub, since the user doesn't get any rep points that way.

In ancient times (before the Web) this was supposed to read as "Hear, hear!" Some trace it to the 1-up (extra life) in early video games, e.g. Super Mario Brothers.

since where does it say vb6 run times will be included in w8? this is not a disagreement but never seen an answer either way

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Originally Posted by ident

since where does it say vb6 run times will be included in w8? this is not a disagreement but never seen an answer either way

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This has been answered in other threads on the subject several times here recently and doesn't really belong here, but...

I don't think anybody ever said there was an answer yet.

Windows 8 is far from released and thus completely unannounced yet. All Microsoft has said on the subject is that they have no plans to announce yet about this. The Win8 Dev preview has the runtime libraries though, which is a good sign it will be in the eventual release of Win8.

If certain people had not been so quick to spread FUD we would not be seeing this question asked over and over and over again. We go through this cycle every time a new version of Windows comes along. :eek2:

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Originally Posted by dilettante

The proper thing you'd do in a Web forum like this one is to use the "Rate this post" link to the left to actually give somebody a reputation+1. Saying "+1" in this forum is actually a snub, since the user doesn't get any rep points that way.

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Exactly my thoughts...

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Originally Posted by RhinoBull

Exactly my thoughts...

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Sorry I went over your head, Rhino. I'll be more careful next time. :rolleyes:

You don't have to be sarcastic really. Just answer the question. Is that so difficult? Your reasoning escapes me.