[RESOLVED] Converted project from VB6 to Visual Basic.NET

[Nightwalker83]

Hi,

I converted one of my projects from Visual Basic 6.0 to Visual Basic.NET and noticed stuff such as:

'UPGRADE_WARNING: Structure PROCESS_INFORMATION may require marshalling attributes to be passed as an argument in this Declare statement. Click for more: 'ms-help://MS.VSCC.v90/dv_commoner/local/redirect.htm?keyword="C429C3A5-5D47-4CD9-8F51-74A1616405DC"'
'UPGRADE_WARNING: Structure STARTUPINFO may require marshalling attributes to be passed as an argument in this Declare statement. Click for more: 'ms-help://MS.VSCC.v90/dv_commoner/local/redirect.htm?keyword="C429C3A5-5D47-4CD9-8F51-74A1616405DC"'

Clicking on the link it talking about Imports System.Runtime.InteropServices. Which, I am guessing means the project a mixture of both .NET and .COM. How would I rewrite to be totally .Net compatible instead of relying on .COM?

Also where would I put code in VB.NET if it was in the Form_Initialize() sub in VB6.0?

Thanks,


Nightwalker

[jmcilhinney]

I t doesn't sound like it's COM-related. It's talking about Declare statements, so that means unmanaged code but PInvoke, not COM. If you need to call Windows API functions, or unmanaged code from some other API, then you have no choice but to do so. The preferred .NET way to declare an unmanaged function is to use the DllImport attribute rather than the Declare statement, hence importing the System.Runtime.InteropServices namespace.

It might help if you showed us the declarations of your unmanaged types and functions and also told us where they are declared and showed us the original unmanaged signatures.

[Nightwalker83]

Here is the code:

Option Strict Off
Option Explicit On
Module BasMain
    'Description: checks the system for the default GTA IV settings files
    'and deletes them so you can play the game using the controls you define.
    'Date: 04/05/2011
    'Update 07/05/2011 Refined the code to remove unnecessary code.
    '                  Also, remove the need for a form the code only requires a module to run.
    'Update:  16/05/2011 Modified the code to use dynamic paths instead of hard coded paths.
    'Update:  18/05/2011 Added a function to copy the source files to a new directory if the user is using xliveless.
    'Update: 20/05/2011 Added function to retrieve the folder name of the folder containing the save files
    'Update: 26/05/2011 Added command-line functions
    'Update: 16/07/2011 Added code to adjust the default frame rate
    'Update: 30/07/2011 The code now includes a sub to detect if the target program is still responding
    '                   Added GTA IV icon
    'Author: Aaron Spehr
    'Alias: Nightwalker83
    'Website: http://aaronspehr.net/
    
    Private source, destination As String
    Private c, sNextFile, MyName As String
    Private Declare Function SHGetSpecialFolderLocation Lib "shell32.dll" (ByVal hwndOwner As Integer, ByVal nFolder As Integer, ByRef ppidl As Integer) As Integer
    Private Declare Function SHGetPathFromIDList Lib "Shell32" (ByVal pidList As Integer, ByVal lpBuffer As String) As Integer
    Private Declare Sub CoTaskMemFree Lib "ole32" (ByVal hMem As Integer)
    
    Const CSIDL_PERSONAL As Integer = &H5 '(user)\My Documents
    Const CSIDL_LOCAL_APPDATA As Integer = &H1C '(user)\Local Settings\Application Data
    Private Structure STARTUPINFO
        Dim cb As Integer
        Dim lpReserved As String
        Dim lpDesktop As String
        Dim lpTitle As String
        Dim dwX As Integer
        Dim dwY As Integer
        Dim dwXSize As Integer
        Dim dwYSize As Integer
        Dim dwXCountChars As Integer
        Dim dwYCountChars As Integer
        Dim dwFillAttribute As Integer
        Dim dwFlags As Integer
        Dim wShowWindow As Short
        Dim cbReserved2 As Short
        Dim lpReserved2 As Integer
        Dim hStdInput As Integer
        Dim hStdOutput As Integer
        Dim hStdError As Integer
    End Structure
    
    Public Structure PROCESS_INFORMATION
        Dim hProcess As Integer
        Dim hThread As Integer
        Dim dwProcessId As Integer
        Dim dwThreadID As Integer
    End Structure
    
    Public Declare Function WaitForSingleObject Lib "Kernel32" (ByVal hHandle As Integer, ByVal dwMilliseconds As Integer) As Integer
    'API Constants
    Const SMTO_BLOCK As Integer = &H1
    Const SMTO_ABORTIFHUNG As Integer = &H2
    Const WM_NULL As Integer = &H0
    Const WM_CLOSE As Integer = &H10
    Const PROCESS_ALL_ACCESS As Integer = &H1F0FFF
    'API functions
    
    Private Declare Function SendMessageTimeout Lib "user32"  Alias "SendMessageTimeoutA"(ByVal hWnd As Integer, ByVal msg As Integer, ByVal wParam As Integer, ByVal lParam As Integer, ByVal fuFlags As Integer, ByVal uTimeout As Integer, ByRef lpdwResult As Integer) As Integer
    
    'UPGRADE_WARNING: Structure PROCESS_INFORMATION may require marshalling attributes to be passed as an argument in this Declare statement. Click for more: 'ms-help://MS.VSCC.v90/dv_commoner/local/redirect.htm?keyword="C429C3A5-5D47-4CD9-8F51-74A1616405DC"'
    'UPGRADE_WARNING: Structure STARTUPINFO may require marshalling attributes to be passed as an argument in this Declare statement. Click for more: 'ms-help://MS.VSCC.v90/dv_commoner/local/redirect.htm?keyword="C429C3A5-5D47-4CD9-8F51-74A1616405DC"'
    Private Declare Function CreateProcessA Lib "Kernel32" (ByVal lpApplicationName As String, ByVal lpCommandLine As String, ByVal lpProcessAttributes As Integer, ByVal lpThreadAttributes As Integer, ByVal bInheritHandles As Integer, ByVal dwCreationFlags As Integer, ByVal lpEnvironment As Integer, ByVal lpCurrentDirectory As String, ByRef lpStartupInfo As STARTUPINFO, ByRef lpProcessInformation As PROCESS_INFORMATION) As Integer
    
    Public Declare Function CloseHandle Lib "Kernel32" (ByVal hObject As Integer) As Integer
    
    Private Declare Function GetExitCodeProcess Lib "Kernel32" (ByVal hProcess As Integer, ByRef lpExitCode As Integer) As Integer
    
    Private Const NORMAL_PRIORITY_CLASS As Integer = &H20
    Private Const INFINITE As Short = -1
    Dim proc As PROCESS_INFORMATION
    Dim start As STARTUPINFO
    Dim ret As Integer
    Private Structure OSVERSIONINFO
        Dim dwOSVersionInfoSize As Integer
        Dim dwMajorVersion As Integer
        Dim dwMinorVersion As Integer
        Dim dwBuildNumber As Integer
        Dim dwPlatformId As Integer
        'UPGRADE_WARNING: Fixed-length string size must fit in the buffer. Click for more: 'ms-help://MS.VSCC.v90/dv_commoner/local/redirect.htm?keyword="3C1E4426-0B80-443E-B943-0627CD55D48B"'
        <VBFixedString(128),System.Runtime.InteropServices.MarshalAs(System.Runtime.InteropServices.UnmanagedType.ByValArray,SizeConst:=128)> Public szCSDVersion() As Char
    End Structure
    
    Private Const OF_EXIST As Integer = &H4000
    Private Const OFS_MAXPATHNAME As Integer = 128
    Private Const HFILE_ERROR As Integer = -1
    
    Private Structure OFSTRUCT
        Dim cBytes As Byte
        Dim fFixedDisk As Byte
        Dim nErrCode As Short
        Dim Reserved1 As Short
        Dim Reserved2 As Short
        <VBFixedArray(OFS_MAXPATHNAME)> Dim szPathName() As Byte
        
        'UPGRADE_TODO: "Initialize" must be called to initialize instances of this structure. Click for more: 'ms-help://MS.VSCC.v90/dv_commoner/local/redirect.htm?keyword="B4BFF9E0-8631-45CF-910E-62AB3970F27B"'
        Public Sub Initialize()
            ReDim szPathName(OFS_MAXPATHNAME)
        End Sub
    End Structure
    
    'UPGRADE_WARNING: Structure OFSTRUCT may require marshalling attributes to be passed as an argument in this Declare statement. Click for more: 'ms-help://MS.VSCC.v90/dv_commoner/local/redirect.htm?keyword="C429C3A5-5D47-4CD9-8F51-74A1616405DC"'
    Private Declare Function OpenFile Lib "Kernel32" (ByVal lpFileName As String, ByRef lpReOpenBuff As OFSTRUCT, ByVal wStyle As Integer) As Integer
    
    Private Function FileExists(ByVal Fname As String) As Boolean
        'http://www.vbforums.com/showthread.php?t=349990
        Dim lRetVal As Integer
        'UPGRADE_WARNING: Arrays in structure OfSt may need to be initialized before they can be used. Click for more: 'ms-help://MS.VSCC.v90/dv_commoner/local/redirect.htm?keyword="814DF224-76BD-4BB4-BFFB-EA359CB9FC48"'
        Dim OfSt As OFSTRUCT
        
        lRetVal = OpenFile(Fname, OfSt, OF_EXIST)
        If lRetVal <> HFILE_ERROR Then
            FileExists = True
        Else
            FileExists = False
        End If
        
    End Function
    
    Private Function ExecCmd(ByRef cmdline As String) As Object
        
        ' Initialize the STARTUPINFO structure:
        start.cb = Len(start)
        
        ' Start the shelled application:
        ret = CreateProcessA(vbNullString, cmdline, 0, 0, 1, NORMAL_PRIORITY_CLASS, 0, vbNullString, start, proc)
        
        ' Wait for the shelled application to finish:
        ret = WaitForSingleObject(proc.hProcess, INFINITE)
        Call GetExitCodeProcess(proc.hProcess, ret)
        Call CloseHandle(proc.hThread)
        Call CloseHandle(proc.hProcess)
        'UPGRADE_WARNING: Couldn't resolve default property of object ExecCmd. Click for more: 'ms-help://MS.VSCC.v90/dv_commoner/local/redirect.htm?keyword="6A50421D-15FE-4896-8A1B-2EC21E9037B2"'
        ExecCmd = ret
    End Function
    
    Public Sub MainLoader()
        
        Dim retval As Integer
        Dim lngResult As Integer
        Dim lngReturnValue As Integer
        'Replace the path and app.name.type with that of the application you want to use
        'UPGRADE_WARNING: Couldn't resolve default property of object ExecCmd(). Click for more: 'ms-help://MS.VSCC.v90/dv_commoner/local/redirect.htm?keyword="6A50421D-15FE-4896-8A1B-2EC21E9037B2"'
        retval = ExecCmd("LaunchGTAIV.exe")
        lngReturnValue = SendMessageTimeout(0, WM_NULL, 0, 0, SMTO_ABORTIFHUNG And SMTO_BLOCK, 1000, lngResult)
        System.Windows.Forms.Application.DoEvents()
        If lngReturnValue Then
            Call GetPath()
            Call command_Renamed()
            Game_Loop()
        Else
            'Close the host and the client if the client does not respond
            System.Windows.Forms.Application.DoEvents()
            Running = False
            Call GetExitCodeProcess(proc.hProcess, ret)
            Call CloseHandle(proc.hThread)
            Call CloseHandle(proc.hProcess)
            frmAbout.Close()
        End If
    End Sub
    
    Private Function GetSpecialFolder(ByVal lCSIDL As Integer) As String
        Const S_OK As Integer = 0
        Const MAX_PATH As Integer = 260
        
        Dim sPath As String
        Dim lIdl As Integer
        
        If SHGetSpecialFolderLocation(0, lCSIDL, lIdl) = S_OK Then
            sPath = Space(MAX_PATH)
            If SHGetPathFromIDList(lIdl, sPath) Then
                CoTaskMemFree(lIdl)
                GetSpecialFolder = Left(sPath, InStr(sPath, vbNullChar) - 1)
            End If
        End If
    End Function
    
    Private Function GetPath() As Object
        'UPGRADE_WARNING: Dir has a new behavior. Click for more: 'ms-help://MS.VSCC.v90/dv_commoner/local/redirect.htm?keyword="9B7D5ADD-D8FE-4819-A36C-6DEDAF088CC7"'
        If Dir(My.Application.Info.DirectoryPath & "\dsound.dll") <> "" Then
            source = GetSpecialFolder(CSIDL_LOCAL_APPDATA) & "\Rockstar Games\GTA IV\"
            destination = GetSpecialFolder(CSIDL_PERSONAL) & "\Rockstar Games\GTA IV\"
        Else
            source = GetSpecialFolder(CSIDL_LOCAL_APPDATA) & "\Rockstar Games\GTA IV\"
            destination = GetSpecialFolder(CSIDL_LOCAL_APPDATA) & "\Rockstar Games\GTA IV\"
        End If
        
        Call Delete(source)
        If Not source = destination Then Call Copy(source)
    End Function
    
    
    Private Sub Delete(ByRef source As Object)
        'Deletes the default settings files
        Dim d As String
        'UPGRADE_WARNING: Couldn't resolve default property of object source. Click for more: 'ms-help://MS.VSCC.v90/dv_commoner/local/redirect.htm?keyword="6A50421D-15FE-4896-8A1B-2EC21E9037B2"'
        d = source & "Settings\"
        'UPGRADE_WARNING: Dir has a new behavior. Click for more: 'ms-help://MS.VSCC.v90/dv_commoner/local/redirect.htm?keyword="9B7D5ADD-D8FE-4819-A36C-6DEDAF088CC7"'
        sNextFile = Dir(d & "*.*", FileAttribute.Normal + FileAttribute.Hidden + FileAttribute.ReadOnly)
        Do While sNextFile <> ""
            SetAttr(d & sNextFile, FileAttribute.Normal)
            Kill((d & sNextFile))
            'UPGRADE_WARNING: Dir has a new behavior. Click for more: 'ms-help://MS.VSCC.v90/dv_commoner/local/redirect.htm?keyword="9B7D5ADD-D8FE-4819-A36C-6DEDAF088CC7"'
            sNextFile = Dir()
        Loop 
    End Sub
    
    Private Sub Copy(ByRef source As Object)
        'UPGRADE_WARNING: Couldn't resolve default property of object source. Click for more: 'ms-help://MS.VSCC.v90/dv_commoner/local/redirect.htm?keyword="6A50421D-15FE-4896-8A1B-2EC21E9037B2"'
        c = source & "savegames\"
        destination = destination & "savegames\"
        Call lastFolder(c)
    End Sub
    
    Private Sub lastFolder(ByRef c As Object)
        Dim Mypath, e As String
        Dim iCount As Short
        iCount = 0
        MyName = ""
        'UPGRADE_WARNING: Couldn't resolve default property of object c. Click for more: 'ms-help://MS.VSCC.v90/dv_commoner/local/redirect.htm?keyword="6A50421D-15FE-4896-8A1B-2EC21E9037B2"'
        Mypath = c ' Set the path.
        'UPGRADE_WARNING: Dir has a new behavior. Click for more: 'ms-help://MS.VSCC.v90/dv_commoner/local/redirect.htm?keyword="9B7D5ADD-D8FE-4819-A36C-6DEDAF088CC7"'
        MyName = Dir(Mypath, FileAttribute.Directory) ' Retrieve the first entry.
        Do While MyName <> "" ' Start the loop.
            ' Ignore the current directory and the encompassing directory.
            If MyName <> "." And MyName <> ".." And Not MyName = "user_invalid" Then
                ' Use bitwise comparison to make sure MyName is a directory.
                If (GetAttr(Mypath & MyName) And FileAttribute.Directory) = FileAttribute.Directory Then
                    iCount = iCount + 1
                    'UPGRADE_WARNING: Couldn't resolve default property of object c. Click for more: 'ms-help://MS.VSCC.v90/dv_commoner/local/redirect.htm?keyword="6A50421D-15FE-4896-8A1B-2EC21E9037B2"'
                    e = c & MyName
                    Call VBCopyFolder(e, destination) ' it represents a directory.
                End If
            End If
            'UPGRADE_WARNING: Dir has a new behavior. Click for more: 'ms-help://MS.VSCC.v90/dv_commoner/local/redirect.htm?keyword="9B7D5ADD-D8FE-4819-A36C-6DEDAF088CC7"'
            MyName = Dir() ' Get next entry.
        Loop 
    End Sub
    
    'UPGRADE_NOTE: command was upgraded to command_Renamed. Click for more: 'ms-help://MS.VSCC.v90/dv_commoner/local/redirect.htm?keyword="A9E4979A-37FA-4718-9994-97DD76ED70A7"'
    Private Sub command_Renamed()
        'Paste commandline.txt in the same directory as GTAIV
        Dim ff As Short
        ff = FreeFile
        FileOpen(ff, My.Application.Info.DirectoryPath & "\" & "commandline.txt", OpenMode.Output)
        PrintLine(ff, "-Width 1280" & vbCrLf & "-Height 720" & vbCrLf & "-texturequality 1" & vbCrLf & "-shadowdensity 3" & vbCrLf & "-viewdistance 25" & vbCrLf & "-detailquality 30" & vbCrLf & "-norestrictions" & vbCrLf & "-novblank" & vbCrLf & "- safemode" & vbCrLf & "-fullscreen" & vbCrLf & "-windowed" & vbCrLf & "-availablevidmem 1.5" & vbCrLf & "-percentvidmem 0.5" & vbCrLf & "-frameLimit 1" & vbCrLf & "-refreshrate 60" & vbCrLf & "-fullspecaudio" & vbCrLf & "-minspecaudio" & vbCrLf & "-noprecache" & vbCrLf & "- nomemrestrict" & vbCrLf & "- benchmark" & vbCrLf & "- help")
        FileClose(ff)
    End Sub
    
    Public Sub response()
        Dim ret As Integer
        ret = WaitForSingleObject(proc.hProcess, 500)
        If ret = 0 Then
            Call CloseHandle(proc.hThread)
            Call CloseHandle(proc.hProcess)
            Call GetExitCodeProcess(proc.hProcess, ret)
        End If
    End Sub
End Module

[jmcilhinney]

You should rewrite that code from scratch in VB.NET. Surely you know how to get a special folder path and start a process in VB.NET. That code is basically cr*p from a VB.NET perspective, so much of it can be done so much more simply. Surely you know how to do things like get a special folder path and start a process in VB.NET.

[Nightwalker83]

No, I haven't been taught vb.net and I am only a VB6.0 hobbyist.

Edit:

Where on the internet would I find the information I require, what should I start?

[jmcilhinney]

Hmmm... I've seen your name a reasonable amount and I guess I must have assumed that I'd seen it more in the VB.NET forum than I actually have. Sorry about that.

Anyway, if you want to learn VB.NET from the ground up then this would be a good place to start:

http://www.homeandlearn.co.uk/net/vbnet.html

That said, it is a beginners tutorial so it can feel a bit condescending if you already have programming experience in another language.

If you want to be able to do what that code does in VB6 but with the best VB.NET code possible then you should write out exactly what you want the code to do and then break that down into smaller tasks. Once you have it broken down sufficiently, you can perform useful web searches to find specific information.

For instance, you have a function in there that tells you whether a file exists. In VB.NET, the System.IO.File class already has an Exists function, so you can do away with your own function and just call that. Starting processes and finding special folders are also one-line operations in VB.NET and file I/O has changed considerably.

[Nightwalker83]

I have done a bit of searching on the forum and have found the start process code you mentioned for VS2010 I just need to recreate the project in VB2010 rather than VB2008 which is how I converted the above code.

[jmcilhinney]

I have done a bit of searching on the forum and have found the start process code you mentioned for VS2010 I just need to recreate the project in VB2010 rather than VB2008 which is how I converted the above code.

The Process.Start method has been around since .NET 1.0/VB.NET 2002. I would recommend using the most recent version that you can but I don't see anything in that code (at a glance) that will be significantly changed in VB 2010 from earlier versions.