Covered, but...Converting VB6 to VBNET

[birthjay]

Hello,

I have a VB6 project that has approximately 40,000 lines of code. What recommendations can you give me about converting this to VB.NET? Eventually this will likely be converted to C#.

I have heard that the current version of VB.NET does not have control arrays, but that the new version coming out will have control arrays put back in. Will this help in the conversion considering the VB6 project uses them extensively?

Has anyone developed any new tricks or tips? I have the Visual Basic Code Advisor thing and am looking into that now.

Thanks!

[hellswraith]

First, if you do a true port of the application, you may be able to cut that 40,000 lines to about 20-30K.

Nice.

If you are going to have it on C#, why would you convert it to VB.NET first? That just doesn't make sense.

If the application is working right now, why not just leave it till 2005 comes out (framework 2.0). There is a bunch more features that will help your coding.

[jwebster03]

Based on my experience with large vb6 to vb.net apps your almost better off building from the ground up, however, there are those exceptions. My suggestion would be to try the built in .net conversion utility and see how it interprets your code.

If you are planning on waiting for the newest version of .net, inside sources tell me it isn't going to be released as planned which shouldn't suprise anyone.

Jim Webster - MCSD, MCSE

[birthjay]

<<If you are going to have it on C#, why would you convert it to VB.NET first? That just doesn't make sense.>>

The "powers that be" feel it will be easier to convert VB6 to VB.NET and then later on convert the VB.NET to C#. From what I have read and heard, you just about have to re-write your application so converting from VB6 to C# makes sense, but if there is an "easier" way to convert to .NET from VB6 then that is the way to go for now.

When is 2005 coming out? What month? Is there a pre-release I could experiment with and how would I get it?

Tell me more about this "true port of the application" thing.

Thanks!

[<ABX]

I think 2005 was suspose to come out the last quarter of 2004

What does your app do?

If you use lots of API that cannot be replaced by methods in the .NET framework it may cause problems because some API calls are a pain in the ass.

If possible, could we look at the project?

[CyberHawke]

Originally posted by jwebster03
Based on my experience with large vb6 to vb.net apps your almost better off building from the ground up, however, there are those exceptions. My suggestion would be to try the built in .net conversion utility and see how it interprets your code.

If you are planning on waiting for the newest version of .net, inside sources tell me it isn't going to be released as planned which shouldn't suprise anyone.

Jim Webster - MCSD, MCSE

The conversion utility is a sad disappointment at best, a delusion at worst. First, it does not use anything that could be considered .NET specific. eg. It wraps ado objects and makes them work in your .NET application, not very useful if you are trying to port your application to ADO.NET. Additionally, it takes your activex components and wraps them to work in your ".NET" project. From the examples I've attempted (and observed others attempt) I would say that using it is a complete waste of time if you actually want a genuine .NET project.

The only benefit I've seen from a conversion is that it does teach you a lot (probably more than you would ever really want to know) about COM interop.

[birthjay]

The 2005 Beta is out now. Non-subscribers can order a cd.

http://lab.msdn.microsoft.com/vs2005/

They also have some interesting "Express" versions. I wonder if these Betas Expire. What do you think?

[<ABX]

if its like the beta for office 2003, no... but a microsoft beta is a bug waiting to distroy every file on your hard drive

[CyberHawke]

All beta's have an expration date I believe. The express versions are language specific, eg. VB.NET or C#.NET, but do not include all functionality for all languages. I would spend the few $$ and order the cd for the full version if you really want to get your head around it.