Customer Reviews

Microsoft Visual Basic .NET Standard [Old Version]

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

I'm not sure why everyone is complaining about Visual Basic .NET (VB.NET), when this software is so powerful.

First, let me say that it's true VB.NET Standard Edition is somewhat crippled in that it doesn't let you create DLL's or mobile apps for WinCE devices. Nor does it include Crystal Reports, or some other features you'd find in VB.NET Professional/Enterprise. However, it's perfect for making small utilities/applications.

Most of my programming experience has been with Perl, PHP, Java, C, C++. I had a little exposure to Visual Basic in college, but I had forgotten everything I had learned about it. With VB.NET standard and _Visual Basic .NET Step by Step_ (ISBN: 0-7356-1374-5) I was able to write a fully functional and moderately complex application (and distribute it with the included Windows installer) in about 2 weeks time. I was astounded by the low learning curve.

There are two different types of programs you can create with VB.NET, those based on Windows forms and those based on Web forms. Windows forms would be your traditional type of Windows application, while Web forms are designed to work through the Internet. I have no VB.NET experience creating Web forms, but the features look promising.

VB.NET is different than earlier versions of VB because it is built around the .NET framework. The .NET framework works more like Java. Your programs are converted to bytecode which runs on the .NET framework (which your users must install to run your apps). That would probably explain why it is slower than older VB compilers.

In the past, applications created with Visual C++ would run faster than those made with VB. This is no longer the case. All Visual Studio Languages (C#, C++ and VB) all compile to .NET bytecode. Because the resulting bytecode is the same, you choose the language whose syntax you are most familiar with.

I feel the benefits of switching to .NET are worth the performance loss. Because .NET is Microsoft's answer to Java, everything is now heavily dependant on Objects. OO programming with VB.NET is incredibly simple. Chances are any structure or function/method you'd like to use is already written - you just need to find the proper namespace in the .NET framework, import it into your code and then create an instance of the object you want. It's OO at its best.

I would definitely not recommend VB.NET to people who have no programming experience. You need to get your feet wet with something else before delving into this.

Just to clarify compatibility issues; VB.NET requires WinNT, Win2k, or WinXP Professional. It's my understanding that it will work on WinXP Home for applications, but you need XP Pro for creating/testing Web forms.

I purchased Microsoft Visual Basic.NET Standard under the misinformation that I was getting an actual functioning development package. I also purchased a book to help me get started "Using MS Visual Basic.NET" from Que. It was only after I attempted to work through the web application example did I find the problem. I only received a small portion of the program, which did not even let me work though the simple examples in the book.

Not only did I need the "Professional" version to perform any of the examples shown in the book; I needed to upgrade my operating system from XP Home Edition to XP Professional. This fact was well hidden in the documentation. In fact, it was only when I tried to install some missing files did I find that I could not create web applications. I could not create DLL's. I couldn't do a lot of the basic functions.

So in order to just use the program as advertised, I would need to spend another [$]+ to upgrade to the Professional version of VB and another [$] for XP Professional. Sure with rebate, it is "only" [$], but I am already into it for [$] for the VB.NET Standard.

The advertisement on the box states that I can upgrade my VB 6 applications, create XML documents, create class libraries. I can't even work through the simple examples, because the tools are not included.

Don't bother purchasing this edition. It may be a great product for the professional programer, but it is priced out of the league for the rest of us mortals.

First of all, don't even waste your time or money on the standard edition. There's nothing standard about it, it's more like a trial version then anything else. Second, I'm not sure why Microsoft is calling this Visual Basic because it's a near complete different language. They have revamped VB to be more like Java. VB.net is purely interpreted with it's own VM and memory manager/garbage collector. The complied VB.net apps run much more slowly than VB 6 apps. Quite honest, with all the new changes, I don't see any incentives of using VB for windows apps anymore. I can get the same performance and functionality using Java now, plus Java is platform independent.

Visual Basic.NET Standard is the best buy for the money. For all the people that think this version is crippled. It's not, you just have to do a little more work with it.

This is not a trial version, the people that made that complaint are either too lazy to learn to code and are dependant on wizards ( scary ) or just lazy. You can do alot with this package and for the money like I said before this is
an excellent buy.

As Far as not being able to compile dll's yes you can if you write your own project wizard, like I did :)

Things VB.NET Standard CAN DO
Windows Apps
Web Apps
Console Apps
Web Services

AND Yes Class Libraries if you know what you are doing.

I'm a student in an advanced VB class and I've only had one problem with this software so far. I haven't worked with web pages yet, so for a student this is pretty fair. If you want to include a database in your projects, make sure you have Microsoft Office or the full version of Access 2000 or greater. I have Microsoft Works (which doesn't include Access or .mdb files) which is not supported by VB.NET. Now I have to buy yet another Microsoft product!!! I have the XP Home Edition, which has supported VB.NET very well, opposed to some of the reviews that stated they had problems with the compatibility of the two.

I've been a professional developer with VB6 Pro for years and found it to be a widely useful product. People accused it of being a "toy language" but with a little ingenuity and a few Windows API calls you can do nearly anything a C/C++ programmer can do, in a fifth the time.

But this edition of Visual Basic is a downgrade. Don't get me wrong, I like the changes Microsoft has made to the language, but the VB.NET Standard package is a hamstrung dog. You can't use it to create DLLs or custom controls, so modularized code goes out the window. They only give you part of the web package, so all the claims about web development are just a lure.

The most irritating thing is that if you buy the next edition up you're paying for C# as well, even though the two languages are using the same libraries and the same runtime and are completely functionally equivalent. I like the design choice, but the no one needs both languages, so why isn't there a Visual Basic.NET Professional edition?

Par for course, Microsoft is stacking redundant features in one box to raise the price. It's just that in this case, the programming language itself has become a mere feature.

This product does not include the upgrade wizard for visual basic 6.0 scripts. In order to get the upgrade wizard you must buy the whole visual studio package which costs [much] more. Just another way to make a little more money!!

I bought VB.NET in a recent visit to the US. It works well and handles windows forms, ASP.NET projects and Web services, as well as building great console apps and distribution and deployment apps using Windows Installer (why buy Installshield or Wise?). If you want to build winform components then, this is not for you, but otherwise it does what most developers want. Despite comments by other reviewers about mail-in benefits and the purchase of VS.NET, VS.NET is not available internationally (nor to the visitor to the US) at anything like the price of VB.NET (in New Zealand it's $US1100 versus VB.NET at $90). I've now converted several major VB6 projects to VB.NET and they work well and the IDE is stable and bug-free. Highly recommended, providing you can get your head around the object orientation of the latest .NET products!

I wrote a small program consisting of several forms. You'd think it would be easy to deploy using the wizard, right? No. You can't just click a few buttons and create a program file that will run on any Windows Machine.

I went to the exe file that was in my programs folder and moved it to my desktop. Guess what? You can't even move the exe file and have a program run like a normal exe file. Creating your own programs for fun that you can share with others is not doable with this product, which is what I wanted.

My advice is, stick to VB 6 if you don't need this for work or school and haven't upgraded to Windows XP,

First: Be aware you must have Windows XP Pro, not the home edition.(or one of the other OS's listed).
This is an OK system. I only bought it because I could not get Visual Basic 6.
This is nothing like the earlier BASIC systems. For example: it take a full page of code just to print one line to a printer.
Somewhere along the line Microsoft has forgotten the concept that BASIC stands for Beginners All purpose Symbolic Instruction Code. This is a complex language intended to produce Web XML pages. It integrates Microsofts TOTAL demand to stick to windows and windows forms.
This also comes with ZERO documentation. There is a small book to get you started on a simple project, but the on-line reference is useless.
Plan on spending [money] on books including a language reference to even do the simplest things.