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VB Express and VB files

Author
3 Jul 2009 1:39 PM
Alan
Hi.  I am familiar with VBA and BASIC in general, but I am new to
the VB Express tool and am not familiar with Visual Studio in
general.

I have some VB files (e.g., .frm and .vbp) that are VB files produced
by Visual Studio.  I have downloaded VB Express, but it does not seem
to recognize them as valid VB files.  At a minimum, I want to know
which files contain the code and be able to view/print them.  Ideally,
I could import them as a VB project in VB Express.

I did a little searching on this but had no luck.

Can anyone help?         Thanks, Alan

Author
3 Jul 2009 1:54 PM
mayayana
You have files for VB5 or 6. If you want to continue
using VB you can ask questions here. VB Express is
actually VB.Net. If you want to use that you have to
pretty much start over. And there are different
newsgroups. For VB.Net you can try the groups below,
or any other group with "dotnet" or "vsnet" in the name:

microsoft.public.dotnet.general
microsoft.public.dotnet.languages.vb

There are "two VBs" in use, which are entirely different beyond their
similar syntax. Likewise, there are two kinds of VB newsgroups.

  Microsoft dropped ".Net" from the name "VB.Net" as part of their marketing
strategy to sell .Net to VB developers. Adding to that confusion, VB.Net has
been named with several versioning systems. There is VB.Net v. 1, 1.1, 2 and
3. There is VB.Net 2005 and VB.Net 2008. And sometimes the VB.Net versions
are referred to as VB7, VB8 and VB9, even though VB.Net is not a
continuation of VB6! These days, anything other than VB5 or VB6 is probably
VB.Net.

  You need to be aware of the difference between "the two VBs" when looking
for newsgroups. The same applies when searching for sample code. VB and
VB.Net code can look very similar in some cases, but code in one system is
not applicable to the other.

They are radically different programming systems. VB is a COM-centric system
for creating compiled software. .Net is a Java clone that runs on top of a
"virtual machine", the .Net Framework. VB does not use the .Net objects.
VB.Net is not directly COM compatible. The only thing in common between the
two is a visual similarity in the language syntax.
--
--

Show quoteHide quote
>   Hi.  I am familiar with VBA and BASIC in general, but I am new to
> the VB Express tool and am not familiar with Visual Studio in
> general.
>
> I have some VB files (e.g., .frm and .vbp) that are VB files produced
> by Visual Studio.  I have downloaded VB Express, but it does not seem
> to recognize them as valid VB files.  At a minimum, I want to know
> which files contain the code and be able to view/print them.  Ideally,
> I could import them as a VB project in VB Express.
>
> I did a little searching on this but had no luck.
>
> Can anyone help?         Thanks, Alan
>
Author
3 Jul 2009 2:08 PM
Alan
Thanks!
Author
3 Jul 2009 1:57 PM
dpb
Alan wrote:
....
> I have some VB files (e.g., .frm and .vbp) that are VB files produced
> by Visual Studio.  I have downloaded VB Express, but it does not seem
> to recognize them as valid VB files.  At a minimum, I want to know
> which files contain the code and be able to view/print them.  ...

Open them up and look (w/ any text file viewer handy) and it'll be very
clear... :)

--
Author
3 Jul 2009 2:21 PM
Larry Serflaten
"Alan" <jalantho***@verizon.net> wrote

> I have some VB files (e.g., .frm and .vbp) that are VB files produced
> by Visual Studio.  I have downloaded VB Express, but it does not seem
> to recognize them as valid VB files.  At a minimum, I want to know
> which files contain the code and be able to view/print them.


Open Notepad, point Windows Explorer at your code folder, and drag
a .frm or .vbp file from Explorer onto the open Notepad window.
View/Print as desired....

LFS
Author
3 Jul 2009 3:19 PM
Alan
mayayana,

Are there any free IDEs for VB6?

Thanks, Alan
Author
3 Jul 2009 3:36 PM
Nobody
"Alan" <jalantho***@verizon.net> wrote in message
news:bb7cabd7-e354-4d1f-9da4-85f56138dff7@t13g2000yqt.googlegroups.com...
> Are there any free IDEs for VB6?

No. VB6 is still available by MSDN Subscription(not free), or on eBay.
However, if you want to see how the stupid upgrade wizard is going to
convert your code, in the Express version, select File-->Open Project, then
browse to the VBP file. VB.Net uses other file extensions, SLN(Solution),
VBPROJ(Project), and VB(For all source code files), so there is nothing in
common with VB6.
Author
3 Jul 2009 4:15 PM
mayayana
As "Nobody" said, there isn't really a free
IDE. VB6 also runs in Visual Studio (VS6)
or in the VB6 IDE. The original prices were
about $1,000 and $500 respectively. The
academic version was $100. There were
versions similar to "Express", but I only ever
saw them in VB book CDs. There was the
"working version", which if I remember correctly
was the one that would compile. Then there was
the Learning Version that didn't compile. Later
MS packaged the Learning Version as a boxed
program for $100. (!) Now all of that is gone.

   So if you can find a working version from an
old book CD, or buy VB6/VS6 online (either new or
used), then you're all set. I think the so-called
"Professional" version is the minimum that doesn't
have license restrictions.

  I was originally writing software on one of
the book CD versions, but the license for
writing commercial software was iffy at best.
So I bought the full product.
  I imagine the situation is probably similar with
Express, in terms of license restrictions, but I
don't know the exact license terms for that.

  There are also some other Basics that have been
discussed here off and on - RealBasic, FreeBasic,
etc. You could look into those if you want to.
Some people here use them. I looked into the options
briefly at one point. I even found a VB clone for
Linux. They all had one glaring fault to my mind:
People writing Basic-type tools tend to assume
they're writing for a non-programmer audience simply
because it's a verbose language. With VB6 that easy,
simple approach is built in, but it's also relatively easy
to write something closer to C++, using the Windows
API without all of the extra dependencies and middleman
ActiveX controls. From my brief research into Basic
options I didn't get the sense that other Basics were
so flexible. ....But others here know more about that
than I do.

Show quoteHide quote
>
> Are there any free IDEs for VB6?
>
> Thanks, Alan
>
>
Author
3 Jul 2009 4:22 PM
Tom Shelton
On 2009-07-03, mayayana <mayaXXy***@rcXXn.com> wrote:
Show quoteHide quote
>   As "Nobody" said, there isn't really a free
> IDE. VB6 also runs in Visual Studio (VS6)
> or in the VB6 IDE. The original prices were
> about $1,000 and $500 respectively. The
> academic version was $100. There were
> versions similar to "Express", but I only ever
> saw them in VB book CDs. There was the
> "working version", which if I remember correctly
> was the one that would compile. Then there was
> the Learning Version that didn't compile. Later
> MS packaged the Learning Version as a boxed
> program for $100. (!) Now all of that is gone.
>
>    So if you can find a working version from an
> old book CD, or buy VB6/VS6 online (either new or
> used), then you're all set. I think the so-called
> "Professional" version is the minimum that doesn't
> have license restrictions.
>
>   I was originally writing software on one of
> the book CD versions, but the license for
> writing commercial software was iffy at best.
> So I bought the full product.
>   I imagine the situation is probably similar with
> Express, in terms of license restrictions, but I
> don't know the exact license terms for that.
>
>   There are also some other Basics that have been
> discussed here off and on - RealBasic, FreeBasic,
> etc. You could look into those if you want to.
> Some people here use them. I looked into the options
> briefly at one point. I even found a VB clone for
> Linux. They all had one glaring fault to my mind:
> People writing Basic-type tools tend to assume
> they're writing for a non-programmer audience simply
> because it's a verbose language. With VB6 that easy,
> simple approach is built in, but it's also relatively easy
> to write something closer to C++, using the Windows
> API without all of the extra dependencies and middleman
> ActiveX controls. From my brief research into Basic
> options I didn't get the sense that other Basics were
> so flexible. ....But others here know more about that
> than I do.
>

You obviously didn't look to much at powerbasic if you feel taht way...

--
Tom Shelton
Author
3 Jul 2009 8:23 PM
Webbiz
On Fri, 03 Jul 2009 09:22:30 -0700, Tom Shelton
<tom_shel***@comcastXXXXXXX.net> wrote:


>
>You obviously didn't look to much at powerbasic if you feel taht way...

So what's the story about Powerbasic?

Webbiz
Author
3 Jul 2009 8:34 PM
dpb
Webbiz wrote:
> On Fri, 03 Jul 2009 09:22:30 -0700, Tom Shelton
> <tom_shel***@comcastXXXXXXX.net> wrote:
>
>
>> You obviously didn't look to much at powerbasic if you feel taht way...
>
> So what's the story about Powerbasic?

<http://www.powerbasic.com/products/pbdll32/>

--
Author
3 Jul 2009 9:22 PM
mayayana
> You obviously didn't look to much at
> powerbasic if you feel taht way...
>
   No, I haven't looked very much at any of them,
as I said. I'm not even clear on which is which.
To the extent that I have checked out other
Basics when people have mentioned them I was,
let's say, underwhelmed. But if you or someone
else knows about a free or almost free Basic
that's somehow an improvment on VB6, and not
just a high-level, OO user of custom libraries, then
I'd be interested to hear more.
Author
4 Jul 2009 6:43 AM
Tom Shelton
On 2009-07-03, mayayana <mayaXXy***@rcXXn.com> wrote:
>> You obviously didn't look to much at
>> powerbasic if you feel taht way...
>>
>    No, I haven't looked very much at any of them,
> as I said. I'm not even clear on which is which.
> To the extent that I have checked out other
> Basics when people have mentioned them I was,
> let's say, underwhelmed. But if you or someone
> else knows about a free or almost free Basic
> that's somehow an improvment on VB6, and not
> just a high-level, OO user of custom libraries, then
> I'd be interested to hear more.

I don't know of any free or almost free.  The few free basics I have tried
have been on Linux - and they all sucked, but of the 3 mono-basic sucked the
least.

PowerBasic is not free.  It is a commercial product, but it is a very powerful
basic, with a lot of decent 3rd party utilities.  I used to own a copy of the
console compiler and the win32 compiler - great for making dll's :)  The
newest versions even support COM (both client and server).  The biggest issue
(may be resolved now) I know of is that while the compiler generates true
32-bit exe's - the compiler is a 16-bit application.  That means that you can
not run the compiler on a 64-bit OS....

--
Tom Shelton
Author
4 Jul 2009 12:50 PM
dpb
Tom Shelton wrote:
....
> ... The biggest issue
> (may be resolved now) I know of is that while the compiler generates true
> 32-bit exe's - the compiler is a 16-bit application.  That means that you can
> not run the compiler on a 64-bit OS....

Would seem so for the Win compiler, anyway...

"Minimum System Requirements
     * Personal computer with an 80386 or higher processor
     * Any 32/64 bit version of Windows including WinVista or Win2008.
     ...."

<http://www.powerbasic.com/products/pbdll32/>

Never tried it; just from the PB site above...

--
Author
4 Jul 2009 1:46 PM
mayayana
> PowerBasic is not free.  It is a commercial product, but it is a very
powerful
> basic, with a lot of decent 3rd party utilities.  I used to own a copy of
the
> console compiler and the win32 compiler - great for making dll's :)  The
> newest versions even support COM (both client and server).  The biggest
issue
> (may be resolved now) I know of is that while the compiler generates true
> 32-bit exe's - the compiler is a 16-bit application.  That means that you
can
> not run the compiler on a 64-bit OS....
>

  Thanks for that info. It does look interesting, at
least for future reference. Their general policy statement
blurb sounds very encouraging.

   It does seem a bit pricey, though. The $200 base price
is not unreasonable, but it's hard to tell how much
it *really* costs: compiler: $200. Visual form designer:
$100. Manual: $60+-. And probably a number of other
costs that wouldn't be apparent until one started
working. It looks like it might be realistic to expect
to spend up to $500, not including the time investment.
Author
4 Jul 2009 3:43 PM
dpb
mayayana wrote:
....
....
>    It does seem a bit pricey, though. The $200 base price
> is not unreasonable, but it's hard to tell how much
> it *really* costs: compiler: $200. Visual form designer:
> $100. Manual: $60+-. And probably a number of other
> costs that wouldn't be apparent until one started
> working. It looks like it might be realistic to expect
> to spend up to $500, not including the time investment.
....

Well.... :)

From just a few posts upstream--

"VB6 also runs in Visual Studio (VS6) or in the VB6 IDE. The original
prices were about $1,000 and $500 respectively."  <VBG>

--
Author
3 Jul 2009 3:17 PM
Nobody
VB6 and VB.Net are not compatible. If you have a VB6 project, you have to
rewrite it to make it work with VB.Net. See this article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_Basic_.NET#Criticism
Author
3 Jul 2009 4:53 PM
Dick Grier
If these are VB5 or VB6 files, then the Import Wizard should be able to
handle them -- though the results may not be the "best practice," and in
some cases simply will not work without modification.

However, if you are attempting to import VB3 or VB4 code, there may be
issues.  These environments allowed source code (not project files, though)
to be stored in binary format.  There would have to be a three-step process
to use these files.  First, save as Text (from, say, VB3) -  import into
VB6, then save and import to VB .NET.

Best may be to simply make sure that the files are text, and use Notepad to
view them.  You can cut and paste much of the code, though event
names/descriptions will have a different signature in VB .NET than in
earlier versions.

If you are attempting to learn VB .NET, there are a number of free online
tutorials and books that will help.  Of course, you can ask questions in the
microsoft.public.dotnet.vb (etc.) newsgroups.

Dick

--
Richard Grier, MVP
Hard & Software
Author of Visual Basic Programmer's Guide to Serial Communications, Fourth
Edition,
ISBN 1-890422-28-2 (391 pages, includes CD-ROM). July 2004, Revised March
2006.
See www.hardandsoftware.net for details and contact information.