What should I use vb6, vb.net or something else

Hello

I believe this is the correct forum in which to ask for advice. If this is not the right location I appologize in advance.

I am looking for opinions and suggestions on what would be the best way to perform a project. I have very limited experience with programming either than with simple vba in office applications. That being said I do not believe my project should be to difficult. I was originally planning on doing this project using vba with word but I realized that the majority of people who this will be available to may not have word. So I am looking for a way to provide the completed project to them that can be used on a pc running anything from win98 through win7 were the user will not have to install anything and can just run the program. I came across the following leading me to think vb6 may be an option

"""Visual Basic 5 and 6 are able to compile the code to either native or P-Code as the programmer chooses. The P-Code is interpreted by the language runtime, also known as virtual machine, implemented for benefits such as portability and small code. However, it usually slows down the execution by adding an additional layer of interpretation of code by the runtime although small amounts of code and algorithms can be constructed to run faster than the compiled native code. Visual Basic applications require Microsoft Visual Basic runtime MSVBVMxx.DLL, where xx is the relevant version number, either 50 or 60. MSVBVM60.dll comes as standard with Windows in all editions after Windows 98 while MSVBVM50.dll comes with all editions after Windows 95"""

I have seen a lot of advice on not using anything other than vb.net unless absolutely necessary. But as I mentioned earlier those that will be using this will be very limited on there abilities and the need to install anything will be a problem. My understanding, based on the below information, is that vb.net requires .net framework to be install if it is not already installed (which makes sense).

"""""in addition, the required runtime libraries for VB6 programs are provided with Windows 98 SE and above, while VB.NET programs require the installation of the significantly larger .NET Framework. The framework is included with Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP Media Center Edition, Windows XP Tablet PC Edition, Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2003."""""""

The program is to essentially solve the unknown for an equation. There will be 5 user input boxes were anyone of the 5 will be left blank (as the unkonwn) an the other 5 will have user input. Once the user has entered information in any of the 4 input boxes and presses a command button it will provide a step by step explanation of how the equation is solved. I realize that there are programs out there that may do this already but I am needing to provide more detailed and customized explanations for each step in solving the equation. At this time I am trying to determine which programing language I should use based a few things.

1.) application portability ( I mean the ability to run the program with out having to install itself or anything else onto the computers it will be running on)

2.) I need to be able to display the equations how they would be hand written ( this is on of the reasons I was looking at using word 2007 because of its Equation Editor. These will be simple equations mainly just requiring the ability to display a "stacked fraction" when necessary )

I have tried to include as much information as I could think of but if I have left anything out please let me know.

Any suggestions and or comments in helping me with this situation will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your time in advance

Well, based on criteria 1, most languages are out. .NET is out, as would be Java. For what you're looking at, probably C or C++

As far as 2 goes... well... you're going to want something that has a good graphics package and can draw things to the screen.

-tg

I would worry a whole lot less about item #1 than about item #2, which could well be the crux of the matter. After all, you can create an installation package in either VB6 or .NET whereby the effort needed to install the program is the same: One or two button clicks. While you might go a step further with VB6 and create the program such that you can just copy it over....well...actually, you can't! At least, not with item #2 in the way. I seriously doubt that the program will end up being a single file without any other resource files, which means that a setup.exe is the way most people will start out.

Ok, so I'm rambling. My point is this: Drawing equations is not a trivial task. If you are willing to write an equation like this:

(y^2 + X)/(Y^3-X)

then you have all kinds of options for how you do the graphics. Of course, there are some seriously bad things about that example, such as the ^2 and ^3 parts, which will be only vaguely familiar at best to non-programmers. You might also want to draw the numerator over the denominator with a solid horizontal line between them, rather than just a /. You might also want to use more complex things like integrals or something like e^1/2, or even e^n^2, none of which can be handled easily.

Because of things like that, you probably have to decide first off just how comlex your functions really will be, and how you are willing to draw them. If my first example was good enough, then you can go with any language. If that first example wasn't good enough, then you might well be looking at some kind of add-on equation editor or graphical equation package....not that I know of any.

So you see, I feel that the language may prove to be secondary to the graphics.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by john909228

1.) application portability ( I mean the ability to run the program with out having to install itself or anything else onto the computers it will be running on)

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Your requirement - application portability - the ability to run the program without installing it pretty much eliminates vb6 as well. As soon as you drag a few control onto your form you'll have dependencies that may not exist on the target machines.

If you went to something like RealBasic (www.realbasic.com) you'll be able to build applications that don't need installing - all the dependencies are contained in the (larger) executable so you can place the exe on a user's computer and run it right away without installing.

Use RealBasic pro and you can also compile for MacOS and Linux (same project, just recompile for different target OS)

Maybe you'd like to take a look at realbasic