Is there a way to compile VB6 in 2018? - compilation

The reason I need this is I'm porting a VB6 app and I'm getting a very small difference in the arithmetic between VB6 and C#. I just need to test a couple calculations. The one I'm most interested in is how this comes out:
Round(2.24984, 1)
If that comes out to 2.3 in VB6 I'm done, it's figured out. But if not there are a couple steps leading up to that which could also be the problem.
An online VB6 fiddle would be ideal but I can install a virtual machine if I have to.

No, you cannot compile a VB6 project directly in Visual Studio 2017.
What you can do is open the project in Visual Studio 2008 and migrate it to VB.Net using the Visual Basic Update Wizard. (The migrated code will likely have errors you will have to fix yourself.) Once this is done, you can open the migrated project in Visual Studio 2017 (the current production release of Visual Studio).

Related

migrating VS project from 2005 to 2008

I have a visual studio project that was originally built with Visual Studio 2005 Professional. It makes use of some features like crystal reports and building MSI files that are no available in the freely available Visual Studio 2008. I lost my 2005 license so I opted to download the free 2008 edition, and I migrated the project. Predictably, it tells me that certain parts of the project could not be migrated, but it does allow me to work with the other parts (which is totally fine with me). The problem is, because the migration "failed" it wants me to migrate the project every single time I try to open the project.
Can someone show me the break statement for this loop?
Hope this helps Don't sweat migrating legacy .NET projects to Visual Studio 2008
Here is some information to try even doesn't help.
Make sure you open the converted project file.

Development Environment For VBP FIles

I come from a C# background but we have an app that is written a long time ago and is a vbp project file
What development enviroment will open that file - I know cls and frm files are class and form files but have never used vbp projects
This is a Visual Basic project file for vb6. Visual Studio should be able to open this file but you will need the VB6 IDE.
Update: As of Visual Studio 2010, VB6 projects are no longer supported. VB6 is still supported by Microsoft, but you will need the specific IDE for it to perform project updates. As of 9 February 2018, this can be found on the VB6 support site.
You need the original VB6 IDE.
Versions of Visual Studio from 2003 - 2010 will attempt to migrate the VB6 to VB.Net, but this usually introduces significant errors which are difficult to fix.
If you have an MSDN subscription, you can download Visual Basic 6 free.
Otherwise try somewhere like eBay, although VB6 is often surprisingly expensive.
Once you have obtained the VB6 IDE, look at the VB6 IDE tools-and-tricks question for some good tips and free add-ins for improving the development experience.
Visual Basic 6 creates projects which have the extension vbp. I think it stands for Visual Basic Project (obviously).
As Joel suggested in his answer, you can use the VB6 IDE to open the file.
Since you stated that you have a C# background, I take the liberty to assume that you're using Visual Studio. If that's the case, you can open the project with visual studio and it will be automatically upgraded for you.
You must note, however, that the project will be 'upgraded' to VB.NET.
If the project was large and fairly complicated, you'll have to be prepared for quite some time correcting errors. VB6 and VB.NET are quite different you know.
Plus, unless you fix all the errors in the upgraded project, you can't convert the code to C# or any other .NET language.
You need the VB 6 IDE Microsoft Visual studio

Can I use Visual Studio 2010 without breaking my 2008 apps?

Now Visual Studio 2010 is out can I use Visual Studio 2010 without breaking my 2008 apps? Can I still compile to .Net 2.0 etc?
Thanks
Steven
Yes, you can still target framework 2.0 in VS2010. And you can also run VS2008 alongside VS2010.
Basically, yes, but there are a few things that get changed, for instance:
Testing projects always get converted to .NET 4.0
Project files get stored in "VS 2010" format.
So downgrading back to VS 2008 is not directly possible (in 99% of all cases it's still not a problem by hand-editing the files, takes just a few seconds).
However, usually, this is not an issue though. Your deployment capabilities are not limited by that. You can still target any framework.
Additionally, I found that running VS 2008 alongside 2010 made no problems at all. Including 2008 projects in a 2010 solution works fine and does not change the project file. It's very easy to slowly transmit to the new version step-by-step.

Running Visual Studio 2005, 2008, and 2010 on same system

I have around 50 projects in Visual Studio 2005 that I am building a new development machine for and I'd like to slowly move those projects to VS 2008 but also have 2010 available for select new projects.
Can this work? Are there any gotchas for this sort of setup? Any general advice for running multiple versions of Visual Studio on the same system would be greatly appreciated. Specifically related to managing a controlled migration of projects to new versions but being able to selectively keep some on old versions.
I've got 7.1, 8, and 9 installed at the same time (well, and VB part of 6 as well) and I've not really had a problem opening projects file in the wrong version. The Visual Studio Solution files is "associated" with a particular version even if they all have the same extension of .sln, as you can see from its little icon. Microsoft Visual Studio Version Selector seems to handle individual project files (.vcproj) fine as well.
The only thing I've had is the individual source code files not opening up in the latest version like I want, but that's easily fixed with the click of a little button in VS Opions.
Microsoft have this to say:
Visual Studio supports the installation of Visual Studio .NET 2002, 2003, ... on the same computer.
In general, you should install the earliest release of Visual Studio first, and then install subsequent versions of Visual Studio in the order in which they were released.
Make sure when you open up the 2005 files you're doing it in 2005. To open them in another would require a conversion which would render them incompatible with the older compiler set-up. To aid this, structure whatever workspace you're using into 2005, 2008, and 2010 so as to minimize accidental chance of this.
Second, when you double click to open the projects, it will invariably attempt to open them with 2010. You'll have to start with VS#### instead of the solution/project unless you're in the 2010 workspace.
I have VC6, VB6, VS 2008, and VS2010 RC installed on Windows Vista. I cannot double click on the VC6 dsp files without VS2010 opening and asking to perform the conversion. The 2008 C# projects open in 2008 as long as I use the solution file. The 2008 project file opens in 2010 instead of 2008 even though the version selector is the default program. Most of the time I try to remember to open the desired version of Visual Studio and then open the project.
You can mitigate some of these issues by changing the default program associations in the control panel or the registry.
Update: This setup works on Windows 7 x64, with the addition of VS2013.
Yes it can work. I'm not sure if you have to install them in a particular order... but install them in order of the versions... 2005, 2008, 2010. Should be good to go.
I can't speak for 2010, but I have run 2005 and 2008 at the same time on my system without any fuss.
And I made the double-click mistake that wheaties warns about more than once :(
I have VS2005 & VS2008 running without any issues. I have had problems when working with betas, express editions & am assuming you don't have them.
I would say refrain from making too many changes to the setup of these editions, it should be fine.
I also had the same doubt. I work at my company which is still on VS 2008 and I want to personally use the VS 2010 and not risk the 2008. I installed the 2010 and it worked fine with the 2008. Just make sure you note the projects that are in 2005 and open them with the same accordingly.
The reason why it works is simple: if you open your solution file in Notepad, you'll see which version of VS is related to your project.

Are there reasons to use Visual Studio 2005 when 2008 is available?

What reasons are there for continuing to run Visual Studio 2005 when 2008 is available?
I work on a project where the environment is dictated to be Visual Studio 2005. Are there good technical reasons for this? Can I use Visual Studio 2008 and build an app that is 100% indistinguishable from the same app build with Visual Studio 2005?
I think there are two questions here
Can I use VS2008 to create apps compatible with VS2005
Generally speaking the answer is yes. I do this frequently with several internal and external hobby projects with great success. You may encounter an odd ball tooling issue but so far none has cropped up for me.
Is there any reason not to use VS2008 over VS2005
The best reason I can think of is a large developer environment. Once you make the switch to using VS2008, it will upgrade all of the projects in your solution to the new format. This will no longer be usable for anyone using VS2005. They will be forced to upgrade or maintain parrallel versions of the project file. In general, I find it's best to upgrade in groups rather than individuals.
We are currently migrating from 2005 to 2008. If you open and save a project while in VS2008, you will not be able to open that solution/project in VS2005 (at least we couldn't find a way easily). If the rest of your team is still in 2005, you should stay there. You CAN, however set up a project in 2008 and keep it compatible with 2005... as long as everyone opening it is using 2008. You keep the .NET version at 2.5, and don't convert most of the stuff that it wants you to convert.
The only time you CAN'T migrate to 2008 is if you are using a report project and SQL Server 2005. VS2008 will only let you integrate a report project with SQL Server 2008. What did we do?
We migrated to 2008 and all the Team Server stuff, except for the database and reporting. Those we kept on 2005, and so I end up having to open both versions on a daily basis... but that's why they pay me the (somewhat??) big bucks!
Not really, the new version of Visual Studio has the compilers for the new language versions and all the libraries for .NET 3.5. Since they all target the 2.0 CLR and Visual Studio 2008 allows you to target previous versions of the framework I don't see any reason to stick with 2005.
The obvious answer is: No license for Visual Studio 2008.
My company is "saving money" but not upgrading...
One reason might be interaction with existing products.
I write code for AutoCAD in C#.
They (Autodesk) "officially" support VS 2005 but I've been using 2008 since...well 2008.

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