Visual Basic Conversion

Visual Basic to .NET Conversion

You can mix and match several different paths within the .Net framework or you can jump ship and move to a J2EE/Java environment or convert to Web based applications.

For the .Net proponent argument we will start here. Visual Basic .NET is now fully integrated with the other Microsoft Visual Studio .NET languages. Not only can you develop application components in different programming languages, your classes also can now inherit from classes written in other languages using cross-language inheritance. With the unified debugger, you can now debug multiple language applications, irrespective of whether they are running locally or on remote computers. Finally, whatever language you use, the Microsoft .NET Framework provides a rich set of APIs for Microsoft Windows® and the Internet.

The really important differences between C# and VB.NET code are not to be found in their interaction with the runtime system but in the support they offer to the programmer. In short, the syntax, the structure and the clarity of the languages are paramount.

You only have to glance at some C# and VB.NET code to see some of the obvious differences. On the whole, C# is much terser than VB.NET. To take a simple example, consider the way in which the two languages delimit blocks of code. In common with other C-like languages such as C++ and Java, C# uses curly brace delimiters. VB.NET, by contrast, uses various keywords such as End If , End Sub and Next to terminate specific code blocks.

Some people would argue that the more verbose syntax of VB.NET makes the code clearer (more ‘self documenting'). On the other hand, it would equally well be argued that C# has the virtue of consistency, since curly braces are used to delimit everything and the built-in bracket matching tool makes it easy to find the braces at the start and end of each code block. Ultimately, this is a matter of preference, which will likely depend on your teams programming experience.