VB6 - far from dead!

Nish Nishant

At least on CP: http://www.codeproject.com/script/Answers/List.aspx?tab=active&tags=75[^] Why are people still using this? I mean why not VB.NET? [I don't believe that people using VB6 would use the native code vs managed code argument]

Regards, Nish

My technology blog: voidnish.wordpress.com Part 2 in my WinRT/C++ series : Visual C++ and WinRT/Metro - Databinding Basics

Rama Krishna Vavilala

Nishant Sivakumar wrote:

I don't believe that people using VB6 would use the native code vs managed code argument]

Why not?

gavindon

I was going to say legacy with bosses to cheap to upgrade. but then I read the original post and it appears to be a new project? maybe that's the only thing he knows? just playing devils advocate since I'm in a foul mood.

Let's face it, after Monday and Tuesday, even the calendar says WTF! Be careful which toes you step on today, they might be connected to the foot that kicks your butt tomorrow. You can't scare me, I have children.

Nish Nishant

Rama Krishna Vavilala wrote:

Why not?

VB6 has not culturally been a toolset/language used by people with performance requirements.

Regards, Nish

My technology blog: voidnish.wordpress.com Part 2 in my WinRT/C++ series : Visual C++ and WinRT/Metro - Databinding Basics

Nish Nishant

The link I posted is to all recent questions tagged as VB6. Many of them are new projects.

Regards, Nish

My technology blog: voidnish.wordpress.com Part 2 in my WinRT/C++ series : Visual C++ and WinRT/Metro - Databinding Basics

gavindon

ah.. I only seen the one and read it.. I'll go away now. Wait, maybe some school is teaching it still? /*runs for the bushes to duck the salvo*/

Let's face it, after Monday and Tuesday, even the calendar says WTF! Be careful which toes you step on today, they might be connected to the foot that kicks your butt tomorrow. You can't scare me, I have children.

Nish Nishant

Wow. I just read your profile. Impressive! :thumbsup:

Regards, Nish

My technology blog: voidnish.wordpress.com Part 2 in my WinRT/C++ series : Visual C++ and WinRT/Metro - Databinding Basics

gavindon

Why thank you sir, I am proud of myself. I guess I should update it though, I am now in my second job and looks as if I am about to be the official Director of IT here at this company. The previous director quit two months after hiring me to be their programmer, I have been the interim Director by default for almost 3 months. I'm pretty sure they are going to make it official as they have quit interviewing candidates for replacement and we have been in negotiation for me to have the job. So from nobody to programmer to Director in less than a year. :-D On an associates degree at that....

Let's face it, after Monday and Tuesday, even the calendar says WTF! Be careful which toes you step on today, they might be connected to the foot that kicks your butt tomorrow. You can't scare me, I have children.

Nagy Vilmos

In defence of some software houses the cost of upgrading from VB6 has been too high. Where I worked previously, their was a multiyear project to move everything from VB6 to C#, but it couldn't be done in one hit. The plan when I left was that it would take another 2-3 years.

Panic, Chaos, Destruction. My work here is done. Drink. Get drunk. Fall over - P O'H OK, I will win to day or my name isn't Ethel Crudacre! - DD Ethel Crudacre I cannot live by bread alone. Bacon and ketchup are needed as well. - Trollslayer Have a bit more patience with newbies. Of course some of them act dumb - they're often *students*, for heaven's sake - Terry Pratchett

Abhinav S

Nishant Sivakumar wrote:

Why are people still using this?

Legacy code. Someone needs to maintain old running applications, right?

Too much of heaven can bring you underground Heaven can always turn around Too much of heaven, our life is all hell bound Heaven, the kill that makes no sound

Slacker007

I think VB6 is akin to driving a classic car. It reminds you of the past but you wouldn't want to race it.

Just along for the ride. "the meat from that butcher is just the dogs danglies, absolutely amazing cuts of beef." - DaveAuld (2011)
"No, that is just the earthly manifestation of the Great God Retardon." - Nagy Vilmos (2011)

No e

Some companies, mine included have lots of legacy applications written in VB6, and have not allocated the resources to upgrade them. I am currently trying to peck away at one with well over a million lines of code. This is just not an important issue in most of managements opinion. I am about 90% there, but that last 10% is a bugger to convert. I am the only (part time) resource allocated to and supporting this particular conversion. This software is currently running on probably 1000 systems at this point, many of which, hardware wise may not support .net very well. (very old PC's)

Nish Nishant

Slacker007 wrote:

I think VB6 is akin to driving a classic car

So that's why they call it Classic VB then.

Regards, Nish

My technology blog: voidnish.wordpress.com Part 2 in my WinRT/C++ series : Visual C++ and WinRT/Metro - Databinding Basics

gavindon

Oh I don't know about that. I wish I had my old Mach1 back, and I would most certainly still race it.(probably a good reason for me NOT to have it back, truth be told) EDIT: because I apparently cant spell today.

Let's face it, after Monday and Tuesday, even the calendar says WTF! Be careful which toes you step on today, they might be connected to the foot that kicks your butt tomorrow. You can't scare me, I have children.

Gregory Gadow

I can think of several reasons. As others have mentioned, there is legacy code. Second, not every shop has the money to switch to VB.net, even if they have the interest: if they are already maintaining a significant codebase in VB6, and already have the expertise and compiler software, and everything is working just fine, why go to the effort and cost of changing? In my experience, the computer industry is pretty conservative when it comes to changes. When I started at my current company in 1996, I was hired because I was the only applicant who admitted to knowing COBOL: they needed my skills because our enterprise database -- which had been in place and largely unchanged since the early 1980s -- was a non-relational database on a Rand-McNally minicomputer with a JCL-like form generator for the user interface that used hundreds of COBOL applets to manipulate data. The one and only reason we got rid of it in 1999 was federal mandate to "address the Y2K problem" in the financial industry. Thirteen years later, we are still using the VB6 (originally VB4) application that replaced it, although we have plans to upgrade to a VB.Net version in a few months that will no doubt continue in use for at least another decade.

Julien Villers

Nishant Sivakumar wrote:

VB6 has not culturally been a toolset/language used by people with performance requirements.

FTFY. Sorry couldn't resist :laugh:

'As programmers go, I'm fairly social. Which still means I'm a borderline sociopath by normal standards.' Jeff Atwood 'I'm French! Why do you think I've got this outrrrrageous accent?' Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Paul Conrad

Nishant Sivakumar wrote:

Why are people still using this? I mean why not VB.NET?

There is legacy code unfortunately written in VB6 that is still out there. I know of some software shops I've worked with that have cited the move from VB6 to VB.NET is something they have planned to do, and the move for some of them have been slow because of money and other reasons leaning towards office/interdepartment politics.

"The clue train passed his station without stopping." - John Simmons / outlaw programmer "Real programmers just throw a bunch of 1s and 0s at the computer to see what sticks" - Pete O'Hanlon "Not only do you continue to babble nonsense, you can't even correctly remember the nonsense you babbled just minutes ago." - Rob Graham

Slacker007

Did you mean the "Mach 1"?

Just along for the ride. "the meat from that butcher is just the dogs danglies, absolutely amazing cuts of beef." - DaveAuld (2011)
"No, that is just the earthly manifestation of the Great God Retardon." - Nagy Vilmos (2011)

gavindon

!@#$#@!$ I'm going back to bed. I knew that didn't look right and typed it anyway.

Let's face it, after Monday and Tuesday, even the calendar says WTF! Be careful which toes you step on today, they might be connected to the foot that kicks your butt tomorrow. You can't scare me, I have children.

_beauw_

This does not answer your exact question, but I do think it's important to remember that VBA and Office automation are both tightly coupled with some aspects of the "Classic VB" architecture. I think that this will probably continue to be true for some time. VBA is very much a member of the "Classic VB" language family, and until Microsoft offers something similar that's built on more modern underpinnings, people will continue to do VBA development, especially with Microsoft Access. More generally, Office automation is based on COM and in particular on ActiveX. I am a bit surprised this is still the case. When I first started using .NET, I expected the "PIA" wrappers used to do Office automation would get replaced with .NET-based equivalents within a reasonable time frame. This has not happened, and as a result the .NET languages do not offer a really compelling advantage for doing Office automation. If anything, VB6 (which was largely just a clever tool for commanding ActiveX components) probably still provides a better developer experience for this sort of work. Certainly this is the case if one is already familiar with VB6.