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VB Forum / General / July 2009VB Express and VB files
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 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. -- -- > 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 [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > > Can anyone help? Thanks, Alan Thanks! ... > 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... :) -- > 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 mayayana, Are there any free IDEs for VB6? Thanks, Alan > 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. 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. > Are there any free IDEs for VB6? > > Thanks, Alan > As "Nobody" said, there isn't really a free > IDE. VB6 also runs in Visual Studio (VS6) [quoted text clipped - 39 lines] > 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...  SignatureTom Shelton >You obviously didn't look to much at powerbasic if you feel taht way... So what's the story about Powerbasic? Webbiz >> 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/> -- > 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. >> You obviously didn't look to much at >> powerbasic if you feel taht way... [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > 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.... SignatureTom Shelton ... > ... 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... -- > 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 [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > 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. ... ... > It does seem a bit pricey, though. The $200 base price > is not unreasonable, but it's hard to tell how much [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > 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> -- 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 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 SignatureRichard 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. |
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