What Framework should I use to edit VB6 Projects? - visual-studio

I have a VB6 project that I need to edit. I have downloaded the Visual Studio 2010, but I have read that I need VB6. I have googled but I can't find where I can download VB6.
It is possible to edit this VB6 project with Visual Studio 2010? If not, what can I do?
Best Regards,

You can't just download the older versions of Visual Studio that are used to edit VB6 projects, AFAIK there has never been an Express edition put out for the older version.
Your best bet may be to:
pick up a second hand copy from online, i.e. eBay
use VS2008 or VS2010 and upgrade the VB6 project to .Net
enrol in the BizSpark program if you are eligible

Related

Opening Different Visual Studio projects

OK, can't find a solution to this.
A client sent me his Microsoft Visual Studio Express 2012 for Web project. I have Microsoft Visual Studio Ultimate 2010 installed.
I get an error when I try to open his project saying "this project is not compatible with the current version of visual studio".
We'll be passing the project back & forth quite a bit, so I need a solution that meets that need please.
So, I figure I may be able to modify the project with a text editor to let me open it. If so, do I have to re-edit it back when I send it back to him?
Can I install VS Express 2012 for Web on a machine that already has VS Ultimate 2010 on it without any conflicts? Can I open it if I install VS 2012 Ultimate (keeping 2010 as well)?
I have another client that uses 2010, so whatever I do, I need to be able to still support him.
If I can't have 2 versions installed at the same time, and can't easily edit a file to make it compatible, then I guess my last option is a virtual machine.
Thanks in advance for any advice.
Microsoft Visual Studio has backwards compatibility since the version 2010 SP1.
So in this case you just need update your Visual Studio 2010 to SP1 and it will understand the new way files are versioned.
Based on my experience:
You do can edit it with a text file and send it back, but it's not compiled yet so it's your partners job.
Maybe, just maybe, you can edit the .sln and .(whatever the project file extension is) file to meet your VS10 env (I think it's going to be a bumpy road though)
Yes, I'm pretty sure you can have VS 10 and VS 12 installed on same machine, note that you have to have .Net 4.0 and .Net 4.5

TFS and VS 2010

I attempted to open a solution today at my new job and it said I need to convert it because it was made in an earlier version of Visual Studio. It also said that the solution would automatically be checked out in source control.
Obviously I do not want to do anything that messes anything up. Is it possible to just change my target framework in Visual Studio and not have to deal with any conversion stuff, or should I just install Visual Studio 2008?
If ANY developers are still using VS 2008, do not upgrade the solution. You can create a new solution and have it sit "side by side" or you can branch the code. But if you overwrite the solution with a VS 2010 solution, they will not be able to work on it again.
It will break compatibility with Visual Studio 2008. Keep your company's solutions the same format as you get them unless directed to change them.
You can change your target framework, but that will not stop the conversion. The issue is with the project and solution files. The are XML based MSBUILD. What is happening is an upgrade of MSBUILD, not the .NET framework.
You should install VS2008 and use it until all possible team members are upgraded to VS2010. Once you upgrade, members using VS2008 will not be able to open the solution. There are some was to hack around MSBUILD upgrades, but I don't recommend them.

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

Will Visual Studio 2010 still be able to use all the plugins for Visual Studio 2008?

I use Visual Studio 2k8 Pro Edition at home and I have loaded it with a lot of important addins customised for my development.
If I get VS2010 Pro Edition, would all of these plugins fail to work? Is this a plugin-related matter or down to Visual Studio itself? E.g. Visual Studio 2010 may just be based on the 2008 version but with enhancements (is it?).
Thanks
You can always download the beta and try them out.
Impossible to say without seeing it in practice. Seriously. We don't know which plug-ins you're using so we've no idea how they're going to react to a new VS version...
But even you had told us, you'd save yourself a lot of time just installing VS 2010 in a VM and trying your plug-ins out.
Nope at least Resharper 4.5 is not working in VS2010
No. Unmanaged addins are COM objects that are tied to the version of the IDE environment. For the most part, the addins just need to be rebuilt with only minor changes though.
EDIT: Addins that go beyond using the standard addin interfaces though will probably require retooling for the VS2010 environment.
EDIT 2: Managed addins are typically deployed using .addin files which are sometimes located in "%APPDATA%\Microsoft\MSEnvShared\Addins". The .addin file is an xml file that can be edited by hand. You can try adding a new HostApplication element to the file for a particular managed addin - and specify version 10.0.
Here is the info on the resharper compatibility:
http://blogs.jetbrains.com/dotnet/2009/05/preview-of-resharper-for-visual-studio-2010-coming-soon/
(Basically they will have a preview release in June)

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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