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From: Bee on 13 Jan 2009 02:47 Me - diehard VB6 user. My friends - wanting to learn to program apps for Windows. So what about RealBasic Delphi PowerBasic What would be easiest for me (in case I get involved in the other language) to provide sample VB6 source to them and have them learn from my examples in one of the three mentioned or for that matter any other non-MS product? Which one is sophisticated enough to support complex applications? i.e. something worth really getting into. Thanks.
From: "Bill McCarthy" TPASoft.com Are Identity on 13 Jan 2009 07:27 hi Bee, "Bee" <Bee(a)discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:5F4A713D-F6B7-4FB3-AD26-9A1BB4A23DAF(a)microsoft.com... > Me - diehard VB6 user. > My friends - wanting to learn to program apps for Windows. > So what about > RealBasic > Delphi > PowerBasic Of those three I would pick Delphi as it is the most advanced and most enterprise ready compared to RealBasic and PowerBasic. I don't like RealBasic but it is better than PowerBasic as far as UI stuff goes. PowerBasic for example has no real support for activex controls, so you are delving into a limited market. you can use them in it, just not a design time experience. > What would be easiest for me (in case I get involved in the other > language) > to provide sample VB6 source to them and have them learn from my examples > in > one of the three mentioned or for that matter any other non-MS product? Of those three, probably PowerBasic. > Which one is sophisticated enough to support complex applications? > i.e. something worth really getting into. Of those three, Delphi is miles ahead of the other two. Vb.Net of course provides the same power and much of what you use in VB6 can be used in VB.NET: as in comparatively of the three you mentioned and VB.NET, VB.NET will be the easiest for you to help them with. But really, in any of them, you need to learn the languages and their implementations. Delphi is a very different language. Even in VB.NET, although much of it is similar, the advice isn't always the best because it has features you don't have in VB6, threading, inside instance subclassing, inheritance, generics, etc. So advice such as use a Collection isn't really good if there are better suited containers such as a generic dictionary. Likewise advice about subclassing needs to focus more on why you are subclassing not the mechanics of it, because usually the WndProc is exposed or accessible. My recommendation would be VB.NET, Delphi would be the next choice.
From: "Bill McCarthy" TPASoft.com Are Identity on 13 Jan 2009 08:42 "Micheal Williams'" <McCarthy is a Liar.com> wrote in message news:Oz4gVGYdJHA.1916(a)TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl... Still changing your email alias. What a troll.
From: Mike Williams on 13 Jan 2009 09:55 "Bill McCarthy" <TPASoft.com Are Identity Thieves> wrote in message news:O0bnVTYdJHA.1336(a)TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl... > Still changing your email alias. What a troll. You keep changing yours, so what's the difference. What a troll.
From: mayayana on 13 Jan 2009 10:06
> Me - diehard VB6 user. > My friends - wanting to learn to program apps for Windows. Wouldn't it depend on your friends' aptitude and longterm interests? Someone who's very focused on it might do well with C++. And they could take that to Linux. At the other extreme, VBScript can do a remarkable range of things, taking advantage of COM components and providing a GUI through HTAs. That might be more than adequate for many people. Maybe the best help would just be to help your friends navigate the confusing landscape so that they can discover what really appeals to them. Some people raise the support issue, but for Microsoft support -- or lack of it -- is only a marketing tool and means little. The real support is whether the software will run. In that sense, for the forseeable future VB seems to have the most extensive support on all Windows versions. If one avoids ActiveX controls then VB can usually be run without installing on everything from Win95 up. I don't think any other "RAD" tool has that ability, other than VC6. If it were me I'd encourage my friend to find a copy of VB online, though that's more a matter of opinion and personal preference than of experience. I haven't looked into the other Basics very much because when I have looked at them there seems to be too much focus on "RAD". To me the beauty of VB is that it provides RAD for GUI aspects and training wheels for Win32 API programming -- the best of both worlds. I figure that the core code should be lean and wrapper-free, as much as possible, but that there's no sense spending a lot of time coding basic GUI elements when that's really not necessary. On the other hand, if someone wants to program on Windows, isn't writing software for distribution, and really doesn't care about gradually improving their skills and the efficiency of their code -- if they just want to build their own desktop trinkets, personalized music indexers, etc. -- then maybe that's a case for VB.Net? They can do that for free (if you don't count the requirement to "register" with Microsoft), and they only have to learn the object hierarchy, never needing to learn about how Windows works. VB.Net seems to be what MS originally meant VB to be: Lincoln Log programming for hobbyists and corporate RAD practitioners who need to crank out a database front-end quickly, without extensive training. It's a tough question. I think about the same issues with Windows. It's become a situation where the older the MS product is, the better it's likely to be. It used to be that I would strongly encourage people to stick with Win98. I can't *recommend* XP to anyone. On the other hand, at this point it takes expertise to run Win98, given the increasing lack of support in both hardware and software. Macs are limited and grossly overpriced. And it's really not realistic to recommend Linux. (Though I know that hundreds of Slashdotters would rabidly disagree with me on that point. :) So I'm left saying, "Try to get XP. It's crappy, bloated, restrictive spyware, but Vista's worse on all of those scores and the next version will undoubtedly be worse still." > So what about > RealBasic > Delphi > PowerBasic > What would be easiest for me (in case I get involved in the other language) > to provide sample VB6 source to them and have them learn from my examples in > one of the three mentioned or for that matter any other non-MS product? > Which one is sophisticated enough to support complex applications? > i.e. something worth really getting into. > Thanks. > |