Customer Reviews

Microsoft Visual Basic .NET Standard 2003 [Old Version]

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

All the books I have read on learning VB.NET assume that you really have Visual Studio .NET installed. I keep running into roadblocks on projects I want to try that the standard edition won't support. Very frustrating. I checked out their website before I bought. I won't go so far as to say "deceptive", because when I went back and really dug I was able to find documentation on the differences between editions, but they really make it hard to figure out that the standard edition is so limited. I hope they enjoy my $100, because I sure haven't enjoyed this.

If you want to learn VB, you cant beat getting the standard edition. If you want to write stand alone desktop apps that dont need to connect to remote database servers, your gold.

If you dont need to be able to use your work commercially and are a student, pass this up in favor of the academic version of Visual studio and learn away.

But DO NOT buy the standard edition if you think you are going to use it to make a living with it. I got it because I need to write an app that reads a binary file and then outputs a certain type of script. Then Im pretty much done with it. I know Im not going to try to pay my rent next month with my copy of the standard edition. To make a living nowadays you need the features that the standard edition does not support.

If you know your just learning now, are NOT a student, and cant afford the Visual Studio, you still cant go wrong getting standard now.

You might not be able to connect to a remote SQL server, but you can still do a lot of database programming till you can afford to upgrade, and see your app work locally in the meantime.

So it dosnt compile class libraries in the interface, but the command line program (vbc.exe)that comes with it does. Its not as slick but it works.

You can still write all kinds of very serious applications, after all code is code, but the standard edition is not indended for a real production pipeline that will be profitable in today's world.

I paid $89 for VB Standard 2003 off of Amazon just to write one specific app and I got my money's worth.

This is directed mainly towards the person who couldn't manage to get a class library created.

Google for "Visual Basic .Net Standard Class Library" and there's an About.com article that tells you EXACTLY how to do it. The thing to remember about MS's language products is that there aren't selling you the compiler. Those are free. You can get them directly from MS for any of their .Net languages.

They're selling you their IDE and all the tools that make use of those compilers so you don't have to use the command line to compile everything and so you don't have to reinvent wheels to do things like create a GUI for your app. By paying the $100 you get a great IDE that allows you to drag and drop your application together instead of having to code every little detail yourself.

That said, I think C# trumps Visual Basic. I used to use Visual Basic to do quick and dirty apps since you could throw together a GUI in minutes. But I can do the same in C# now but get all the benefits of a C++ style language.

If you're a Visual Basic programmer, Visual Basic .Net is the way to go. The IDE and especially the debbuger are far superior to Studio 6. I'm not giving this product 5 stars because I think VB overall isn't worth getting for "the fun of it." I'd only recommend this product for those already making a career out of coding in VB who want to keep up with the advances in the language. It's a worthwhile upgrade, but not an essential one.

If you you are not flush with cash, but want to get the nack of the .Net world, then this is for you.

It is NOT intended for serious production. You CAN NOT talk to a database off your machine (unless you know how to link Access to a SQL Server, then you can).

You can learn how to use WinForms and WebForms, i.e. client-server and WEB apps, talking to a database on your development machine. The MSDE (Microsoft Data Engine) is the heart of the SQL Server 2000 database engine.

If you want to see if programming is for you or get an inexpensive look at the JAVA killer, this is the ticket.

I bought VB.Net Standard 2003 shortly after having to learn VB for some advanced MS Access programming. What you basically get is the Visual Studio interface with just the VB.Net language functionality. You also get the MSDN library on 3 CDs which comes in handy. There are, however, limits to its functionality:

1) You don't get the Mobile device programming functionality that you get with full Visual Studio.

2) Windows XP Home Edition users: You won't be able to effectively design ASP.Net applications since Microsoft made XP Home incompatible with IIS. There's a couple ways around this, though: (1) there is an unsupported way to install IIS from a Windows 2000 CD- do a web search to find instructions, or (2) download the free WebMatrix from ASP.Net; a very cool and handy program that has it's own little server.

3) Compiling DLLs is not supported in VB.Net Standard. Although I suspect it's possible to program your own compiler, how to do it is still beyond my abilities.

4) There are SQL limitations as well. From what I've read, I think there are limits when using anything more complicated than MSDE or using remote servers.

5) Also, remember how easy it was to draw graphic lines in the VB6 interface? Well those days are definitely over- you had to become a real programmer sometime.

But if you want to learn and program simple executables, this is definitely the way to go. And being able to program ASP.Net websites using VB.Net code from my applications is way-cool.

For the money, I guess I can't complain. The standard edition is a fraction of the cost of the "full meal deal", but wish that MS wasn't so deceptive with their advertising. Microsoft's web page for VB.Net 2003 standard edtion displays all the features of the full blown version and none of the limitations that are in the standard version are listed. Given that, I would still buy it as this is my only choice. The one big limitation is that the standard edtion will not talk to a real SQL server data base. It will hook up to a MSDE database. I did discover that I can talk to an Access database that has tables linked to a SQL server database, so you can fake it, but I can't do Stored procs.
MS used to have a page that listed the differences between versions, but I can't find it now. I don't think you can develop mobile applications either.

Good luck

Microsoft has once again succeeded in making a fairly uncomplicated programming enviroment, COMPLICATED. That is not, however, my problem with VB .NET, because after all, if you read up, you will quickly adjust to the platform. My problem is that if you don't buy Visual Studio, you will simply not have the tools to build advanced applications. As usual, if you want a robust MS product, get ready to shell out a weeks worth of pay.

I bought the product about 2 months ago just because I was curious to see what kind of things I could do with it. I immedeatly was amazed (I dare say, obsessed) with the amount of functionality this product provides, and how much power is in my hands when I fire up this awesome IDE.
Granted, there are some limitations. The Server Explorer only allows you to connect to the MSDE. BUT, if you are willing to drop $50 for Microsoft SQL Server Developer, install an instance, install Analysis Services, and just add the MSDE DB to your Server list. Problem solved. But if you are getting into connecting to remote servers and developing for mobile devices, then you're way ahead of me, and by then you should have enough saved up to drop $600 for the Studio.
One previous review said that this product is not for someone that does not have any programming experience. Well I have news for them: I am 19 years old (18 when I bought it) and have absolutely no programming experience (except for a couple of macros written in VBA for Excel, but i recorded those anyway), and after 2 months of working with this product, I've sold 3 applications to people in my home town for $50 a pop. And I'm still getting offers. And I'm not bragging about my abilities as a programmer, I'm bragging on this IDE.

(...)

And if nothing else, use up the 1.3GB for the MSDN Library and read the articles in it. If you can't build a simple address book program by then, well, read them again.
This product was the first step into my programming future, and I recommend it for anyone that wants to get started into the wonderful world of VB.NET.

Although this package is cheap, you'll be severely limited. I highly recomend buying the full blown VS.NET package, you'll be glad you did.

Product was incomplete, disc missing. Shipping was a night mare, requested overnight recived 7 days later. Amozon could not help me because they had absolutly no information on the third party I purchased the software from. Buyer beware - do not purchase anything from Amazon from a third party.