The advantages of Visual Basic:

1) It's simple language. Things that may be difficult to program with other language
can be done in Visual Basic very easily.
2) Because Visual Basic is so popular, There are many good resources (Books,
Web sites, News groups and more) that can help you learn the language.
You can find the answers to your programming problems much more easily
than other programming languages.
3) You can find many tools (Sharewares and Free wares) on the internet that will
Spare you some programming time.
For example, if you want to ping a user over the internet in your program,
Instead of writing the ping function yourself, you can download a control
that does it, and use it in your program.
Compare to other languages, Visual Basic have the widest variety of tools
.that you can download on the internet and use in your programs

E: What are the advantages of Visual Basic ?

1) VB is a rapid application Tool to develop applications faster

2) Flexibility in design time

3) Debugging the source code

4) .(dot) operator for objects to expose its properties and methods

5) plug and play wizards to connect databases

Let's first discuss about some good pros of Visual Basic.

USER FRIENDLY & INTERACTIVE

This is the most common feature of Visual Basic. As a user you will find very few
complain about its user friendliness. You have readymade controls and excellent
MSDN (Microsoft Developer Network) help for technical doubts. You have various
window sections like Immediate Window, Watch Window etc. to help in coding,
testing and debugging during the entire phase of software development life cycle. The
great thing about Visual Basic is "Intellisense". You type of the desired word by half
and pres CNTRL + SPACE keys, you will get list of all related properties, methods
and objects. Like other languages, Visual Basic is not case sensitive.

SIMPLE AND EASY

Visual Basic is event driven. This concept makes it easy to program and write logic
pertaining to respective events. Since the code executes based on user actions and
corresponding events, things get simpler. There is no need to think sequentially and to
track the code starting from the beginning to the end of source code file. Lot of code
gets reduced as Microsoft has already provided inbuilt controls and container
interface.

RAPID DEVELOPMENT
As things are simpler and easier, Visual Basic is exceptionally handy in developing
the software program in a speedy manner. With ready-made controls and user friendly
IDE (Microsoft Visual Studio Integrated Development Environment) tools and
utilities, you can create and deploy your project in very less timeframe. As you have
debug facility, you can analyze and resolve any pending issues very quickly.

POWERFUL FRONT-END TOOL

Event driven concept equipped with advance features of object oriented programming
along with user friendly IDE makes Visual Basic a powerful programming and front-
end tool. Visual Basic can accomplish simple to complex business requirements in
very effective and efficient manner. It has wonderful chemistry with multiple
databases including DBMS (Database Management System) like Microsoft Access,
RDBMS (Relational Database Management System) like Microsoft SQL Server and
Sybase, and ORDBMS (Object Relational Database Management System) like
Oracle. It can also work with Flat Text file and Microsoft Excel data files.

MULTIPLE VENDOR SUPPORT

Visual Basic shows excellent coordination withhird party vendor products viz.
Sheridian Controls, Crystal Report tool, Farpoint Controls and Active Reports tool
etc. Visual Basic consumes works and gel well with their respective reporting and
GUI (Graphical User Interface) controls during efficient software development.

STANDALONE & DISTRIBUTED APPLICATIONS

You can create standalone as well as distributed application with Visual Basic.
Standalone refers to a program which runs on your single desktop and your machine
acts server and client both. In distributed types, you can install multiple copies of your
program or work with single installation in COM+ environment on corporate
network.

SCRIPTING LANGUAGE

Visual Basic can be used with server side programming language i.e. ASP (Active
Server Pages) in web development. Visual Basic acts as scripting language on client
side and terms as VBScript. Although ASP supports other scripting language like
JavaScript, but VBScript is used as default client side scripting language. It is also
used in customizing the functionality of DTS packages in Microsoft SQL Server
database.

ACT AS VBA

Visual Basic has another very important role as VBA (Visual Basic for Microsoft
Applications). You can create customized macros and program Microsoft Office
products viz. Microsoft Access, Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Outlook etc. Some
relevant functions, involved in programming these Microsoft products, are available
only respective product DDL libraries which need to be included in the
REFERENCES section of Visual Basic code editor.
There are still more Visual Basic advantages but now lets move on to its cons and
limitations.

DLL ISSUE

The most common issue of Visual Basic is handling large number of DLLs and their
versions in Windows Registry. You can have multiple other software installed on
your machine. Their DLLs having same conflicting names and versions can produce
undesired results after installation or reinstallations

MEMORY LEAKAGE

As Visual Basic is object oriented, you deal with lots of objects. There is no proper
automatic mechanism to handle untreated hanging objects which go out of scope.
These objects can lead to memory leaks. It normally occurs when one object
internally calls, creates or refers another object of same or other class type and
disposal part is not properly handled.

INHERITANCE UNDEVELOPED

Visual Basic is object oriented but the concept of inheritance is not fully supported.
You cannot implement multiple class level inheritance. In Visual Basic inheritance is
only supported through interfaces.

INEFFICIENT WEB DEVELOPMENT

There number of limitations in Visual Basic, if you want to create web application. It
needs more advanced features considering web development requirements.

PASSING VALUE BY REFERENCE

In Visual Basic, arguments or parameters are passed by reference by default in

procedures and functions. If not taken care properly, then this feature can
unknowingly produce undesirable output.

ONLY FOR WINDOWS

Microsoft products are mostly designed to work mostly in Windows environment.

Visual Basic is also exclusively used in Windows environment.

SLUGGISH PERFORMANCE

Though Visual Basic supports very flexible and rapid development and has proved to
be very powerful programming tool, but sometimes Visual Basic programs shows
sluggish performance. As the number of users increases for client application along
with network traffic and more transaction volume, the program start taking more time
to process and generate the desired results.
hird party vendor products viz. Sheridian Controls, Crystal Report tool, Farpoint
Controls and Active Reports tool etc. Visual Basic consumes works and gel well with
their respective reporting and GUI (Graphical User Interface) controls during efficient
software development.

STANDALONE & DISTRIBUTED APPLICATIONS

You can create standalone as well as distributed application with Visual Basic.
Standalone refers to a program which runs on your single desktop and your machine
acts server and client both. In distributed types, you can install multiple copies of your
program or work with single installation in COM+ environment on corporate
network.

Visual Basic Code Library

Open Source Code Snippet Library. Free Community for Developers.
www.daniweb.com/code

Windows 7 Programming
Programming tips from MS insiders. Ribbon. Task bar. Annimation. Go!
ddj.com

More Reuse of Embedded SW

Ressource-saving software component technology for microcontrollers
www.softcomponents.com

SCRIPTING LANGUAGE

Visual Basic can be used with server side programming language i.e. ASP (Active
Server Pages) in web development. Visual Basic acts as scripting language on client
side and terms as VBScript. Although ASP supports other scripting language like
JavaScript, but VBScript is used as default client side scripting language. It is also
used in customizing the functionality of DTS packages in Microsoft SQL Server
database.

ACT AS VBA

Visual Basic has another very important role as VBA (Visual Basic for Microsoft
Applications). You can create customized macros and program Microsoft Office
products viz. Microsoft Access, Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Outlook etc. Some
relevant functions, involved in programming these Microsoft products, are available
only respective product DDL libraries which need to be included in the
REFERENCES section of Visual Basic code editor.

There are still more Visual Basic advantages but now lets move on to its cons and
limitations.

DLL ISSUE
The most common issue of Visual Basic is handling large number of DLLs and their
versions in Windows Registry. You can have multiple other software installed on
your machine. Their DLLs having same conflicting names and versions can produce
undesired results after installation or reinstallations

MEMORY LEAKAGE

As Visual Basic is object oriented, you deal with lots of objects. There is no proper
automatic mechanism to handle untreated hanging objects which go out of scope.
These objects can lead to memory leaks. It normally occurs when one object
internally calls, creates or refers another object of same or other class type and
disposal part is not properly handled.

INHERITANCE UNDEVELOPED

Visual Basic is object oriented but the concept of inheritance is not fully supported.
You cannot implement multiple class level inheritance. In Visual Basic inheritance is
only supported through interfaces.

INEFFICIENT WEB DEVELOPMENT

There number of limitations in Visual Basic, if you want to create web application. It
needs more advanced features considering web development requirements.

PASSING VALUE BY REFERENCE

In Visual Basic, arguments or parameters are passed by reference by default in

procedures and functions. If not taken care properly, then this feature can
unknowingly produce undesirable output.

ONLY FOR WINDOWS

Microsoft products are mostly designed to work mostly in Windows environment.

Visual Basic is also exclusively used in Windows environment.

SLUGGISH PERFORMANCE

Though Visual Basic supports very flexible and rapid development and has proved to
be very powerful programming tool, but sometimes Visual Basic programs shows
sluggish performance. As the number of users increases for client application along
with network traffic and more transaction volume, the program start taking more time
to process and generate the desired results.