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Ihave written a few VB applications which might be marketable, but am wondering if I should rewrite them in C++ or Adelphia.
Since I own Visual Studio, it will only cost time to learn C++, not money to buy it. As a retired Mainframe programmer, I know that I could learn C++, but it is the most user hostile language I have encountered. By the way, I am a Dinosaur who has programmed in numeric machine languages as well as assembly and compiler languages. I think I remember being less intimidated by the machine languages than by C++.
It would be appreciated if somebody could critique C++ versus VB on the following.
Is C++ a lot more difficult to use than VB? For a person
who has only taken a quick look at it, does C++ seem to
be worse than it really is?
VB allows for a pretty professional looking application
without a lot of effort. Can C++ applications be as
slick and professional?
Does it take significantly more time & effort to create
forms and provide conveniences like VB dialog Boxes?
Are C++ applications more efficient in run-time and/or
memory required?
Will VB Application run on a system that does not have
VB or the Visual Studio installed? Will C++ Applications
run without C++ or Visual Studio?
Is it easier to find a company willing to buy, market,
or make some deal relating to a C++ application?
What is Adelphia? I recently encountered a Professional who uses it and claimed to like it better than VB. Before he had a chance to elaborate, the conversation turned to cosmology, women, skiing, & duplicate bridge (not necessarily in that order).
Did you know that when dinosaurs roamed the earth, there were programmers who believed that compilers had no future outside the Academic community?
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My opinion
Hello Guv,
This is my personal answer to your questions. I am not what you could call a VC expert, but I have worked with it, and I know VB pretty well.
Is C++ a lot more difficult to use than VB?
Hummm... I'd have to say yes. Unlike VB, most of the functions and/or methods in VC are not intuitive. There are very few methods like Form1.Move... And if you don't know any C++ at all, you're going to be a bit lost by the WinMain requirement and such. I would begin by the MFC if I were you.
Can C++ applications be as slick and professional?
Yes, definitely. But you'll have to spend a bit more time on them.
Does it take significantly more time & effort to create
forms and provide conveniences like VB dialog Boxes?
The keyword here is significant. For a large-scale application, I believe the performance gain for using VC outweights the loss of time used to fine-tune the application. It WILL take you more time using VC, but it WILL be more powerful.
Are C++ applications more efficient in run-time and/or memory required?
YES! You have no idea how much until you try something that drains system ressources, like compression, encryption or even 3D graphics. VC is largely superior in the performance area. VC applications are also more powerful. I think C++ is the best Object-Oriented language there is, for now. It allows flexible but solid classes to be created.
Will C++ Applications run without C++ or Visual Studio?
Yes, they will. If you use a Control from a special DLL, you'll have to distribute the DLL with the application. With VB, you have to distribute the VB run-time DLLs for EVERY application you build, regardless of what you'll put in it. And if you use special Controls, you'll have to package their DLL too.
Is it easier to find a company willing to buy, market,
or make some deal relating to a C++ application?
Err... Depends on the type of application. If you are looking for large-scale apps, I'd say yes. In fact, most big companies start frowning when they see the run-time VB DLLs :). But VB still is very powerful (although not as much as VC, of course).
What is Adelphia?
No idea there. Never heard of it :).
Again, this is only my opinion, so don't take this as solid gold. The comparison I made included only VB and VC, not any other C++ program or other language (but I like Perl too).
I hope this helps you, if you have any other questions, please contact me by e-mail.
Raggart
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Hey- Im No expert at this, (im in the process of learning vc++ myself), but i think i can help answer a few of your questions, and ill answer them all in terms of visual c++.
1.)First of all, though c++ is a bear, it is a lot less intimidating than it looks, and with a good book (i recommend "Beginning Visual C++ 6" by Ivor Horton), you can pick it up pretty quickly.C++ does generally take more time and effort to write programs in, but it is also considerably more powerfull with what you can do.
2.) As far as looks go, vc++ can definitially make interfaces as good as (and in my opinion better than) those from vb.VC++ has the same graphics controls (buttons,frames, etc.) as vb,and a few more.Though it may take just a little more effort,(though it's about the same as vb).
3.)Again,Most of the form setup and conviniences are the same as the ones in vb, with a few more.(Windows-Interface and graphics wise vc++ is really no more complex than vb, its the coding that is more complicated =P )
4.)VC++ applications are a little faster and less memory-intensive, though the difference is usually not very noticable except on large apps, or apps with heavy graphics handling (e.g. most games).
5.)VB applications require runtime files (msvbvm[version #].dll or something like that i beleive) that are over a meg to be on the system before they are run.
VC++ files will usually run on any windows system most of the time.Visual studio isnt a requirement for anything though it does install any neccesary files so a person with it should be able to run any progs you make in any visual studio languages.
6.)i dont have much experience w/ this one (im only 15 :) ) but i would think they may lean a little toward vc++ because of the lack of need for those bulky runtime files.
7.)I'd be willing to bet he was referring to Delphi made by Borland-Inprise , which i know little about but i think is rather like vb.Goto www.Borland.com to find out more on it.
Well, hope to have granted you some more insight =) plz excuse my spelling/wierd abbreiviations (im kind of in a hurry)...
Thnx For Your Time,
CarlosTheJackal
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It probably would a long discussion about VB versus C++, but we're not going to go there right now.
C++ is harder to learn then VB, BUT it is more flexible then VB and faster. Also, for VB you would have distribute runtime files, where in C++ you would have to ship only your EXE, of course, if you use database access libraries like DAO, ADO etc, then you would have to inlude that as well. Microsoft has made an effort to have their version of C++ to be as more VB like as possible by providing MFC (Microsoft Foundation Classes). If you use Microsoft Visual C++, then you can use MFC wizard, which will let you create forms just like in VB. Of course, the code would be different, but atleast it is a lot easier then to write everything from scratch, as MFC does a lot of work for you. You would also have to adopt a syntax, because it is different then in VB. Here is an example of using For...Next loop in VB versus C++:
VB's way
Code:
Dim i As Integer
For i = 1 To 10
MsgBox i
Next
C++ way
Code:
int i;
for (i=1; i<11; i++)
{
cout << i << endl;
}
As you can see it is different, but you can still kind of understand wht it means. C++, also, has a lot more data types then VB, plus support for pointers and linking making it a lot more flexible then VB.
In my opinion, if you already have an application written in VB, then there's no need to rewrite the application in C++ just because it's a little bit faster. If you still interested in learning C++, then I would recomend starting with MFC, as it will make the development time a lot shorter. Also, if you have understanding of Windows API, then it will make you learning process a lot faster.
The conclusion: C++ is a very good development tool, it is very popular on the market, but it's not worth the time to covert existing VB application unless there's something in application that cannot be donein VB, which I doubt you have, since the application is done.
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Ok if you don't know C++ there is a real painfull learning curve involved.
If you mean Delphi, still a painfull learning curve, the language is a cross between Pascal and C++, but a major advantage is Borland's committment to releasing a version for Linux/Unix, opening up a whole new client base not available to vb apps, (try explaing to an Apple or Unix client that they will need to install an extra layer of software to run your windows apps).
If l was you l would keep with vb, but learn xml for the next version (vb7) to allow your apps to surf the ecommerce wave. :)
C++ is much more powerful than vb, but is a ***** of a thing to debug and maintain. :(
