What is the most important or awaited feature in Visual Studio 2010??
The Historical Debugger. This records what happens during a run, and lets you step backwards and forwards through time in the debugger.
As far as the IDE goes, proper, well-thought-out multi-monitor support is a big one..
Support for parallel development.
It is running on top of WPF.
F# :)
The new text editor written in WPF is very interesting. There is also a new extensibility framework that will make writing add-on for VS much easier (in my opinion the most important new feature). The tools for SharePoint development are nice additions. There is a new debugger that records the debugging process and has greater support for parallel programming.
Usable SharePoint integration...bring it on!
The dynamic language runtime will lead to much more readable code when dealing with COM application and will be interesting to see where it takes staticaly typed languages.
Afair, they promised to include WiX 3.0. Although not perfect tool (built on top of ugly MSI plus some xml hell) but we don't have alternatives (at least from Microsoft), do we (tried their Setup projects)?
Architectural View(Designer) of the Application
This enables the new developers to understand the application flow more quickly.
Improvment of the TDD Good Channel 9 example. It way simpler now with an awesome intelli-sense.
Related
Is there any convenient way to get the Processing language working in Visual Studio?
Haven't used VS much, but do check out this great answer on the Best Java IDE for VS.
I am not fully aware of your setup/needs, but I would say, if Processing is must and you don't find the 'Processing IDE' usable, use eclipse.
If you need to use bits and bobs that Processing has to offer, why not try OpenFrameworks, which is C++ and is very similar to Processing.
Depending on your needs, might be worth having a quick look at Cinder or Polycode which are C++ also. Personally I think OpenFrameworks is the closest to Processing and it's fairly easy to port code from Processing to it.
HTH
I'm writing an add-in for both VS2008 and VS2010 and I'd like to have graphical enhancements that appear on top of the code (similar to Resharper/CodeRush). Doing so in VS2010 is relatively easy using adornments, however, how do I do it in VS2008? Anyone knows a good resource/article for something in that spirit?
I know that DXCore (CodeRush) allows one to do it, however, due to license restriction (I can't bundle DXCore with my addin) I am unable to do so.
Thank you
I've ended up implementing it by myself.
The general idea is to make a transparent form (Winforms or WPF), put the adornment you want in that form, and then overlay the form at the position of the code.
Since the editor was completely rewritten between 2008 and 2010 the technique for this is going to be totally different and it seems unlikely that now, 6 months after 2010 has launched, is a good time to start writing something for 2008, especially something difficult.
That said, a great source of sample code for editor extensions is http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/vsx. This is from the VSX team and has been very helpful to me while working on extensions.
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I hear that Visual Basic 6 is not good.
I want to make very generic program. Would Visual Basic 6 suffice?
The very first reason is that Microsoft no longer offers support for VB6 development. This product is end of life.
http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/?p1=2971
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/ms788708
It worked well in its time, but it doesn't have a simple path forward. If you want to migrate to a newer version of Visual Basic, it can be a fair bit of work. And no new tools are being developed for it.
If your major interest is in a cheap VB development environment, as previously mentioned, the Visual Studio Express editions are free from Microsoft.
I can't think of many good reasons to use VB6 instead of one of the express versions. Also as previously noted whatever VB skills you learn won't be particularly portable and the apps you build won't be able easily to migrate to more up-to-date environments.
I will also have a look at Real Basic. It is a cross-compiler and your applications will run on different platforms. There are many options available in the market. It all depends on what your definition of "generic program" is.
Real Basic
I have ever listen bad comments about Visual Basic 6 programming, I have written thousands of VB6 lines of code, in the same manner I have written code in object oriented languages (C++, C#, Java). But It seems to me that VB6 is a very good programming language, because it allows you to write powerful-simple applications. VB6 syntax is easier that C/C++ syntax but C#/Java aren't so much difficult that VB6. Also developing enterprise application is such new languages (Java, C#, VB.Net, Rubby) is easier that VB6 because they rely on Frameworks, every body can write C#/Java code that function, but it requires, tricks, good practices and some of imagination to write VB6 strong and rehusable code.
Many developers become quickly frustrating by using VB6 and then are happy programmers using C#/Java. All depends on practices and discipline there is no bad language, each language was designed with some purposes on mind, by selecting the appropriate language, problems solving could be easier.
Forget VB6. It's a dead system. No support, no future. Use the Visual Basic Express Edition, as suggested above. It's free, useful, and about as "generic" as it gets anymore.
Or, you could use something even better: Python (www.python.org). Or IronPython. (www.codeplex.com/IronPython).
Much better system.
If you are approaching the programming world, and you want to do some programs, Visual Basic is more than sufficient.
Once you learned it, you will keep to use it.
As Visual Basic Express (which is the version that was before called Visual Basic .NET) is given free from Microsoft, maybe you could be interested in that.
Depending on what you mean by "Generic Programs" there are plenty of other environments/languages that you can create simple apps with, even at no cost.
Visual Basic is old and no longer supported by Microsoft, sounds like you may just have access to a copy.
Yes you certainly can create generic programs with it, but where do you go from there? Is this hobby programming?
I'd say VB6 is still ok for (throw away) prototyping and probably better than VB.NET in that regard. A larger problem is the lack of true inheritance and being able to use the idioms available in .NET. As such it makes writing clean and maintainable code more difficult.
even bill gates wont suggest you to use it!! they stopped its support to make migration to newer versions faster. So now dont go and start a new project in a dead language. also there is no backward compatibility.
Like others have said, Microsoft's support for VB6 has been discontinued. But no company "supports" C, so I would say that's not really a reason inherent to the language.
Another reason is support for objected oriented programming, which may or may not be important to you. To me, it is.
VB6 is handicapped in this area. It doesn't really support interfaces. Also, arrays are some pain to work with. Checking whether an array has been properly intialized (a fairely trivial task, imho) involves some workarounds. It's not as simple as
If myArray Is Not Nothing Then ...
If you already know some Visual Basic syntax, then switching to VB.NET shouldn't be hard. You'll just have learn your way around the framework class library.
If someone tell you for any language the it's "not good" then just erase this person from your contact list.
There no good/bad languages. Horses for the courses.
As for disadvantages - you'll find such in any language.
vb 6 is very good to approach the programmation with object and to know basic structure of programming . If you understand one language you CAN know the other. Is not important only the programm language, but the FLOW of data.
Check out Xojo as a modern replacement for Visual Basic. It is as easy to use as VB6, but also build cross-platform desktop apps, web apps and iOS apps.
As far as beginner programming is concerned, I suggest to start playing around with VB6, for its BASIC programming style, GUI that is not so complicated, and a bunch of code is available online. I myself start coding using VB6.
But honest advice, if you want to find a job, start learning C++, C#, JAVA, HTML, PHP, and better yet, ANDROID DEVELOPMENT.
Even if VB6 is not suitable for our life today, you can still stick to its new generation: VISUAL STUDIO - which offers a more complex GUI, yet more flexible platform. It offers VB.NET, C# and creates your own Database with powerful connection.
Just want to thank VB6 for teaching me how to code!
Some years ago I used to program in VB6, I really liked it because it was very simply and fast, when VB.net came out, I abandoned it because they changed a lot of things.
I wonder if after all this years there's a new language or IDE that helps programming in an easier and faster way than VB6.
I'm not very interested in academic/personal issues like, very high performance, great movility through OSs, open source, etc. I would like to know if there's is something to program small and medium desktop apps. in an very easy and fast way.
Excuse me if my english isn't very clear.
Edit answering Nicholas:
Well, I must admit that I didn't try VB.Net too much, I was a little disappointed because I would had to learn a lot of new things and I've had learned VB6 not so long before (in that moment).
VB.Net is the natural progression of VB6, and has a lot of free tools and resources online to get started. Microsoft even provides a free development environment as well as a free database for development/bundling in your applications.
Check out this website for information and download links on all the free Microsoft software.
Also, you said you tried VB.Net and didn't like it-- I'd be curious to know why? Yes, there's a little learning curve, but the abundance of getting started information on the internet surely can help that. I was a bit overwhelmed by .NET at first (particularly ASP.Net) not seeing the value in switching/learning a new language.
I always felt Microsoft Access was far and away the best for this kind of requirement.
edit - I realize this isn't a politically correct answer. But the total package of a built in DB, a great GUI development package, a great report generator (far superior to crystal reports, for example), the easy development of tables and queries, all put in one friendly package, make it nearly trivial to develop with. For rapid development, it's the best I've used.
FWIW, I do Java, C++, C, VB4/6, ASP, JSP, Perl, PHP, CSS/ DHTML, JavaScript, Pascal, Fortran, Kenemy and Kurtz Basic, BAL, unix shell scripting, Oracle, mySql, RPG III, COBOL, some proprietary stuff, various macros, various distributed technology, Job control language, CPL, etc. etc. I got out of developing in Access because of scalability limitations.
Powerbasic may be to your liking -
http://www.powerbasic.com/
One of the easiest languages to learn and use is Python.
FLEX / AS3 / MXML / AIR (tnx le dorfier) comes very close to that VB6 feel from many years ago. But understands stuff like CSS and produces output that works in browsers on any platform (or desktop with AIR). You write code and run it, the coding cycle is very fast. And AS3 is at least as powerful as VB6 ever was, plus there are myriad add-ons and libraries to support all sorts of applications, all the major web-services, database interface, animation, video, 3D, auto-generation of PHP code, etc.etc.etc...
And Flex Builder 3 is free for students and educators.
alt text http://www.infoworld.com/infoworld/img/17TC-adobe-flex-builder.jpg
Python or Ruby.
Dynamic languages has a number of advantages (and disadvantages) but for what you propose they seem perfect.
I would recommend python or ruby bindings of a high level toolkit as a perfect environment. For instance Qt library gives most functionality you would need and dynamic languages let you easy experimentation
Microsoft has a new dialect of BASIC called Small Basic. From the website:
Small Basic is ... a small and easy to learn
programming language in a friendly and
inviting development environment,
Small Basic makes programming a
breeze. ...
Small Basic derives its inspiration
from the original BASIC programming
language, and is based on the
Microsoft .NET platform. It is really
small with just 15 keywords ...
The Small Basic development
environment ...provides
powerful modern environment features
like Intellisense™ ...
The first two versions of VB.NET had serious shortcomings compared to Visual Basic 6. However most of these issues has been fixed since Visual Studio 2005. Today, for new projects, I feel that everything that made VB6 so easy to use is available with VB.NET plus you get new language constructs, and the .NET framework. There also refactoring, and the VB Power Pak which brings back the older simple to use print engine.
Of course there is a learning curve involved. But no more than the leap from QuickBASIC/PDS to VB 1. If you have to maintain or transfer an older project then the differences between VB6 and VB.NET are much more serious.
Finally there is the Mono Project which support the VB compiler. This provides a degree of relative immunity from Microsoft deciding to break backwards again.
You could try FreeBASIC.
It's syntax is very similar to that of VB and it is an actively worked on open-source project, it is also portable across different platforms.
You can grab a download here and there are several exemplary works that can be found here.
If it already wasn't done I'd recommend python. It's one of the easiest languages to learn.
My first language was Pascal and I think it's also one of the easiest languages and with Delphi getting popular again I think it's a very good alternative to VB6.
I've always found Delphi to be easier than VB despite popular belief.
take a look at Lua
very small core language, the whole documentation is a single (very readable) webpage. you can easily learn the basics in a weekend.
very good (small) books with good tips.
very helpful community.
very fast, both with the standard bytecode VM, and the JIT.
used a lot in games, both because it's fast and easy to embed in the application, and because it's easy to explain to players interested in extending the game.
readable sources.
MIT license, use for whatever you like, no strings attached.
Perhaps Clarion is what you're looking for? Personally, I don't have much experience with it, but you can build some nice apps with virtually no coding skills.
I think C# is a very good language to program GUI apps quick and easy.
While this might not be a complete answer to your question, I would recommend spending some time learning a more complex language (Objective-C, Java, C#, etc). With the experience you learn with OOP design patters etc, in the future you won't have to shop around for the "easiest" language to program with.
visual basic.NET is much more easier and have complete features than VB6 as I've experienced.
I recently messed around with Microsoft Lightswitch and found it extremely VB like. Very fast for binding to a database and generating forms, grids, etc.
More than 10 years after this question was asked, the best answer is...
...to continue using the VB6 programming language.
VB6 still works on Windows 10 and Windows Server 2019. Just as it has since Windows 98.
Microsoft's support policy for VB6 is here VB6 support policy
I have a big application written in Visual Basic 6 and I need to profile it.
Is there something like ANTS Profiler but for COM applications?
I used to use VBWatch. I had a good experience with it and it helped me nail down and resolve some pesky performance problems
Have a look at VTune from Intel it has native profiling as well.
If you're having problems using VTune try AQTime profiler from AutomatedQA instead.
GlowCode is another good tool. I've used it successfully with VB6. The nice part is that you don't need to instrument or recompile your code. All you need is the symbols (.pdb file) that VB6 can already create for you.
Better late than never? VB6 has a "pause" button, right? Not only is it free, and requires no installation, but in my opinion it is by far the best tool for locating performance problems.
AutomatedQA
That's your best bet.