Frequently Asked Questions About Visual Basic .

NET

Q. What is the name of the new version of Visual Basic?

A. The version of Visual Basic following Visual Basic 6.0 is Visual Basic .NET.

Q. What are the primary benefits of moving to Visual Basic .NET today for Visual Basic 6.0 developers?

A. Visual Basic .NET was built to empower today's Visual Basic developers with new levels of productivity
and power. Visual Basic .NET solves the most challenging issues facing Visual Basic developers, from
application deployment to Microsoft Windows®-based and Web-based application development to data
access. Some of the new features in Visual Basic .NET include XCOPY Deployment, which allows
applications to be deployed simply by copying files into the target directory, Auto-download
Deployment, which enables developers to deploy Windows-based applications as easily as deploying a
Web page, and Control Anchoring, which eliminates the need to write complex form resize code. Visual
Basic .NET also includes improved Microsoft IntelliSense® statement completion and strongly typed
Microsoft ADO.NET data access programming. With Visual Basic .NET, you build robust applications
of all types more rapidly, with fewer errors, and deploy them seamlessly.

Q. Can I use Visual Basic 6.0 and Visual Basic .NET on the same computer?

A. Yes, you can install Visual Basic .NET on a computer that is running Visual Basic 6.0 and use both,
system requirements permitting. Both the design-time environments and applications created with Visual
Basic 6.0 and Visual Basic .NET will run side-by-side on the same computer seamlessly.

Q. Why have you updated the Visual Basic language in Visual Basic .NET?

A. Visual Basic has always been on the cutting edge. With the introduction of the Microsoft .NET
Framework, we wanted to ensure that Visual Basic remains on the cutting edge and provide Visual Basic
developers with unprecedented programming power, simplicity, and access to the platform. These design
goals drove the language Visual Basic .NET. While the Visual Basic language has been updated and
enhanced in Visual Basic .NET, the vast majority of language syntax and semantics will be immediately
familiar to today's Visual Basic developers.

For more information on the language enhancements in Visual Basic .NET, please see Upgrading to
 Visual Basic .NET.

Q. What is the Visual Basic .NET Upgrade Wizard?

A. The Visual Basic .NET Upgrade Wizard comes as part of Visual Studio .NET Professional, Enterprise
Developer, and Enterprise Architect Editions. It enables you to upgrade existing Visual Basic projects to
Visual Basic .NET in order to take advantage of all the benefits of working on the .NET Framework.

Q. What is the .NET Framework?

A. The .NET Framework is a new programming model designed to simplify application development,
provide seamless integration in the highly distributed environment of the Internet, and deliver new levels
of programming power and flexibility to Visual Basic developers. All applications written in Visual
Basic .NET execute within the context of the .NET Framework and can leverage the full power of the
rich classes provided as part of the .NET Framework. In addition, the .NET Framework provides a
consistent programming model that enables Visual Basic .NET developers to easily share and reuse code
assets written in any of the more than 20 programming languages in the .NET Framework.

Q. With the changes to the Visual Basic language, how can I best preserve my existing Visual Basic
investments?

A. Microsoft is dedicated to ensuring the viability of existing Visual Basic investments. We have
implemented a number of features and designs in Visual Basic .NET to ensure that existing investments
will carry forward. These include:

• COM interoperability
A rich, high-performance interoperability layer that enables you to have seamless bidirectional
communication between Visual Basic .NET and Visual Basic 6.0 components without the need to
rewrite a single line of Visual Basic 6.0 code.
• Semantic consistency
Visual Basic 6.0 and Visual Basic .NET provide high levels of semantic consistency within the
language to ensure that the vast majority of the code you have written in Visual Basic 6.0 will have
the same semantic meaning in Visual Basic .NET.
• Incremental migration
Using Component Object Model (COM) interoperability, you can upgrade your project component-
by-component over time to achieve a smooth, incremental upgrade process.

• The Visual Basic .NET Upgrade Wizard

 Provided as part of Visual Studio .NET Professional, Enterprise Developer, and Enterprise Architect,
the Upgrade Wizard upgrades up to 95 percent of your existing Visual Basic 6.0 code to Visual
Basic .NET. This enables you to take full advantage of new features in Visual Basic .NET and the
.NET Framework.

Q. Should I plan to upgrade all of my Visual Basic 6.0 code to Visual Basic .NET?

A. In some scenarios, you may decide not to upgrade Visual Basic 6.0 code to Visual Basic .NET. Where
Visual Basic 6.0 code is deployed, running, and in "maintenance" mode, it may be best to simply
communicate with that code from new Visual Basic .NET components using COM interoperability. This
enables you to build new applications using Visual Basic .NET without the need to rewrite existing
components written in Visual Basic 6.0.

Q. Does Visual Basic .NET still enable me to build rich desktop applications?

A. Absolutely. Visual Basic .NET provides the most comprehensive, productive environment for building
rich desktop applications. A new forms package called Windows Forms enables Visual Basic developers
to build desktop applications in less time, with enhanced power, easy deployment, and improved
maintainability. New features in Windows Forms eliminate the need to write complex resize code and
make application deployment as easy as copying files into the target directory. Visual Basic .NET
provides the easiest path to Windows Forms development, enabling Visual Basic developers to use their
existing skills to implement the next generation of the smart client.

Q. What other types of applications does Visual Basic .NET enable me to build?

A. Visual Basic developers have access to a much broader range of applications in Visual Basic .NET than
in previous versions of the Visual Basic tool set. By employing the same skills that you use to develop
Windows-based applications, you can now build broad-reach, thin-client, Web-based applications as well
as applications that target mobile devices. In addition, now Visual Basic .NET developers easily can
create true Microsoft Windows NT® Services using the new Windows Service project template and
applications that target the Windows console using the Console Application project template. In addition,
Visual Basic .NET enables you to visually compose server-side business logic components using the
Server Explorer and Visual Component Designer. Finally, now developers using Visual Basic .NET
easily can build Windows services and console applications using the new application templates.

Q. What are the differences between Visual Basic .NET and Visual C# .NET?
A. Visual Basic .NET and Microsoft Visual C#™ .NET have been designed for the Visual Basic and
Microsoft Visual C++® communities, respectively. Visual Basic .NET was built around the concept of
empowering Visual Basic developers with unprecedented power and productivity in solving today’s
application development problems more effectively and efficiently—from desktop and Web-based
application development to ending deployment and versioning problems, informally referred to as "DLL
hell". Visual C# was driven by developers within the C++ community who wanted more productivity in
building their applications. Visual Basic .NET and Visual C# .NET contain a very similar set of
capabilities, and applications built in these two languages will run at the same speed. However, Visual
Basic .NET and Visual C# .NET differ considerably in their user experiences. Because Visual
Basic .NET targets Visual Basic developers, it incorporates the concepts and constructs familiar to Visual
Basic developers, such as Visual Basic language syntax and semantics, case-insensitive coding, a
powerful background compiler, and the option to do late-binding. Similarly, Visual C# incorporates
features familiar to C++ developers, such as unsafe code.

Q. Will Microsoft produce an unmanaged update to the Visual Basic compiler?

A. Microsoft will continue to release service packs for Visual Basic 6.0 to provide bug fixes and to increase
overall product stability.

Q. What role does Visual InterDev play in Visual Studio .NET?

A. Many of the benefits of Microsoft Visual InterDev® have been incorporated throughout Visual
Studio .NET, enabling developers of all backgrounds to quickly build Web-based applications. In Visual
Studio .NET, existing Visual InterDev and Visual Basic developers can build Web-based applications
using a new forms package called Web Forms. The Web Forms package enables the construction of
Web-based applications using the same drag-and-drop techniques and code-behind forms that Visual
Basic developers have used for years to build rich desktop applications.

Q. Do ActiveX controls run within the context of Visual Basic .NET?

A. Yes. Visual Basic .NET employs a new package for building desktop applications called Windows
Forms. The Windows Forms package was designed to be an excellent container for existing Microsoft
 ActiveX® controls to ensure that current investments will be preserved.

Q. Who is currently using Visual Basic .NET?

A. More and more organizations of all sizes with Visual Basic developers of all skill levels are recognizing
the broadly expanded feature set and new productivity features in Visual Basic .NET and are
implementing their critical software applications using Visual Basic .NET. This was evident even during
the beta release of Visual Basic .NET, with customers such as Verizon Wireless, Zagat Survey,
DataReturn, and many others building XML Web services, thin-client Web-based applications, rich
desktop applications, as well as agile mobile applications using Visual Basic .NET.

Q. How can I set up the environment so that it uses the key bindings I am used to?

A. On the Visual Studio .NET Start Page, click My Profile. Under Profile, select Visual Basic
Developer.

Q. Where are the Professional and Enterprise versions editions of Visual Basic .NET and Microsoft Visual
C++ .NET?

A. The functionality previously available in Professional and Enterprise versions of the individual language
products is now available in the Professional and Enterprise versions of Visual Studio .NET. In addition,
a new Visual Studio .NET Enterprise Architect Edition is available with tools specifically designed for
software architects building enterprise software, including Microsoft Visio® Enterprise Architect
Edition.