Can someone recommend..?

[wxmancanada]

Hi guys,

I've been working on a project for the past year in VB, and I have realised this late in to the game that VB isnt the right tool for the job.

This project is now being taken to the government for approval and I would like to actually redevelop the project before I submit it.

The project is heavily graphics based, and features scrolling marquees, fading boxes and animated images, and obviliously VB is not the program to be making this in, it worked for Beta purposes but when it comes down to performance and reliability it just wont cut it.

Can anyone recommend a devlopment program that is made to deal graphics and advance things like marquees and animated images?

I'm running VB6, would even upgrading to the latest VB help?

Thanks guy!

[kregg]

C#? VB.NET?

Wait, this is for the government??

[wxmancanada]

I really need things to look smooth, and clean on screen which is why I cant keep using VB6, things are choppy and unreliable. The applications are running on 3.6GHz / 2GB machines and the performance is poor with the scrolls and fades. Need to move on up!

[syntaxeater]

The project is heavily graphics based, and features scrolling marquees, fading boxes and animated images, and obviliously VB is not the program to be making this in, it worked for Beta purposes but when it comes down to performance and reliability it just wont cut it...

I'm running VB6...

obviliously.

I'm going to be the guy who tells you the bad news... VB6 is not easily capable of what you want. Is that VB6's fault or yours for developing on it with the intention to port to something else later on? I'm placing that squarely in your hands. You should have assessed your requirements, did some research and then started started developing.

Even more jaw-dropping to me is that your requirements... And the possible reason you are going to scrap the entire project all together is... Eye candy.

The only thing remotely close to a legitimate suggestion that I can give you is try and do it in VB.Net (2.0 or higher). There is no magic "make my application" cool button and alot of what you want to do will take some real development time to ramp it up. If you've been doing this in VB6 all along and have never been exposed to .Net - you have a real problem on your hands. If you're handing this over soon, you might want to consider bringing in some outside help, and I don't mean forum members. Full-time, expensive contracter help.

The possible good news is (if you structured your vb6 application appropriately), you can use COM components from it in VB.Net. Which means the contractor can just get your UI up and running, use all the functionality you had previously developed in VB6 and hope no one sees the gaping hole behind the picture.

Sorry I couldn't sugar coat this for you or give you an "everything will be ok" response, but... You did really make your bed on this one.

Side note: You may not want to name the project. Ecspecially given the information you provided about what is being considered.

[wxmancanada]

I'm going to be the guy who tells you the bad news... VB6 is not easily capable of what you want. Is that VB6's fault or yours for developing on it with the intention to port to something else later on? I'm placing that squarely in your hands. You should have assessed your requirements, did some research and then started started developing.

Well, the project was very simple when it first started. It was just one page, and it updated its contents using a inet control every hour. It has exploded since and taken on a new design and it's been having ideas / features added weekly, until we've gotten to the final product, which you saw in my links. It's not until recently that the devlopment platform we've been using was un-able to meet our needs.

Even more jaw-dropping to me is that your requirements... And the possible reason you are going to scrap the entire project all together is... Eye candy.

We've invested thousands of dollars in to this project, have many sponsors, and contracts with businesses across the country, there is no way it's just going to be dropped just like that. We've hit a roadbump, time to solve the problem and drive over it.

The only thing remotely close to a legitimate suggestion that I can give you is try and do it in VB.Net (2.0 or higher). There is no magic "make my application" cool button and alot of what you want to do will take some real development time to ramp it up. If you've been doing this in VB6 all along and have never been exposed to .Net - you have a real problem on your hands. If you're handing this over soon, you might want to consider bringing in some outside help, and I don't mean forum members. Full-time, expensive contracter help.

I will look in to VB.Net, your right about the magic button, however we are willing to take the time to rebuild this system. There is no deadline, or consequence to not having it done within a month, it was just our aim to have this done by then.

The possible good news is (if you structured your vb6 application appropriately), you can use COM components from it in VB.Net. Which means the contractor can just get your UI up and running, use all the functionality you had previously developed in VB6 and hope no one sees the gaping hole behind the picture.

Is there not a tool that will convert, or convert some of the project from one source, to another? The main display is just a bunch of labels, a couple of images, and theres only about 10 timers involved, couple of inet controls and XML parsers within'.

Sorry I couldn't sugar coat this for you or give you an "everything will be ok" response, but... You did really make your bed on this one.

Not nessisarly, this demo that I made in VB got me pretty far when it came to presentations / examples of how it worked. Now I just have to take the time to make it work 100%, in a flawless environment.

[syntaxeater]

Is there not a tool that will convert, or convert some of the project from one source, to another? The main display is just a bunch of labels, a couple of images, and theres only about 10 timers involved, couple of inet controls and XML parsers within'.

VS (the IDE for VB.Net) does have a wizard, but... It doesn't do much. It will convert the obvious (integers are now int32, longs are now int64, etc), and leave a bunch of comments with notes saying "you need to do something here." It is by no means a 1 to 1 porting tool and; I as many other, will tell you to skip it all together. It doesn't convert, so much as it misleads.

If you have time, then deffinitely take up VB.Net 2.0. After you get the swing of it you'll wonder how you ever did without.

[Shaggy Hiker]

Actually, 2.0 is dated by now, so .NET2008 would be a better starting point.

[syntaxeater]

Actually, 2.0 is dated by now, so .NET2008 would be a better starting point.

It is, but it isn't. Given that this is coming from VB6 and they were expecting to roll out as a VB6 app - making sure clients have the 3.0 /3.5 wrapper framework might be a little drastic of a requirement this late in the game. Going 2.0 gives him/her all they need while keeping distribution simple(r).

But yeah, worse comes to worse - you can build to 2.0 in 2008; same side of a different coin.

[wxmancanada]

The software is not user interactive, the software will be running on machines devloped on site and shipped across the country, self maintained so it won't be a worry what components are installed on the user end, because, well, there is no user end. :P

I'm downloading Visual Basic 2008, is that the same thing? And is it free? It seems like it is?

[syntaxeater]

Express is free. You won't be able to distribute with it.

[mendhak]

moved from the chit chat forum which isn't meant for general developer topics.

[alex_read]

I'd agree with everything SyntaxEater's said. I would only add the 2 comments as all other advice has been laid out perfectly.

.net is a full OOP cabable language. The more you can learn in relation to .Net and OOP concepts, coupled with both a greater understanding of the customer needs and planning of the application design (incliding splitting your design out to classes and attampting to second guess where the customer may with to make expansions in the future [from a theoretical, and not development point only]) will mean you will lose much of your "it started as a hello world program but now it's the admin tool for the Fort Knox banking system" scenarios/experieces.

The .Net 3.5 framework is an additional download which the end user may not have, however it is built upon the .Net 2.0 framework and supports WPF. It sounds as though you may be at a proof of concept stage as opposed to a beta release? If so I would imagine there is still time for you to specify a .Net framework version for them to install.

I realise WPF is new, limited and experiences - even in external consultants will be extrememly limited, however they may be available for use, and even if they aren't, you can expand this at a later time and not require the end user to install a different framework version then - might be an option if all the whizzy graphics are an absolute must have.

If, as I/we suspect, whizzy graphics aren't an absolute must have, than you might want to consider submitting this as-is, minus all the fancy graphics for submission in order to allow yourself more time in gathering a concept application which is both working and tested as much as possible. In this way you can negotiate a UI upgrade after, possibly which would include payment and timescales covering you learning the newer WPF technologies.

[wxmancanada]

This product will not be interactive to a user, no one will be using the system the application is running on. The system will be running on our own, in house devloped machines. Updates to both the OS and application are send via satellite uplink (Ethernet > satellite VBI lines > satellite dish > VBI decoder > Ethernet).

As you said this is basically the "proof of concept stage" and there is time for other devlopment.