Visual studio questions

[tedsmith]

1. Can someone enlighten me in plain English as to what actually is Visual Studio 2013?
Is it a small or large variant of vbnet? Or is it something completely different?
As usual all the Microsoft stuff on it is a pile of gobbledegook even though I thought I could have understood it by now. A lot of it they say you have to pay a subscription to Microsoft to be able to even read info on it!

2. If I was going to scrap vb6 and write all new apps in a new language would VS be the best way to go?

3. There doesn't seem to be a specific VS category in this forum so would the posts in VBNet be applicable?

 

[dilettante]

Ever since version 6.0, Visual Studio has been a suite of development tools. It has also come in various Editions, each of which include more or fewer features. There have been popular freebie "Express Editions" for some time, usually stripped down to provide tooling for a single language or design environment (e.g. Web Developer Express).

VS 6.0 contained VB6, VC++6, VFP6, VJ++6, VI6, and many associated tools. Most of the languages use the VS IDE, though VB6 had its own for historical reasons. After VS6, VB was ripped out and replaced by VB.Net, VI more or less went away, C# was added to replace VJ++, etc.

The "best" anything is almost entirely subjective. What is the "best" milk? Fat-free? 2%? Amish hormone-free raw milk? So much depends on your target platforms, what sorts of applications you intend to create, and a lot of other factors.

If you are writing C# then use the C# forums. VB.Net use the VB.Net forums. As VS trundled along post-6.0 various minority languages have come and gone (e.g. F#, JScript.Net, etc.).

 

[tedsmith]

Thanks. You have reassured me.
I knew Visual Studio originally referred to a "suite" as you say but I got the impression that Microsoft had scrapped VB.Net and replaced it with something new and different like vb1000 they now called "Visual Studio". They have a lot of guff about "seamlessly integrating" this and that whatever that means.
I was probably led astray by a third party site somewhere.
Looks like vb.net is the go for me although I don't like their convoluted lack of screen control indexing.

Of course I must try out the VB1000 Esthetic Beauty Stimulator for $7,995.00, a VB1000 vibration analyser, a VB1000 voltage blocker, not forgetting the 好評スタンダードタイプ。 セキュリティ用途にも最適なシステムテーブル。
I can hardly wait to try them all!

 

[dilettante]

Well in theory "VB.Net" (er, which version?) still lives. But lots of it as well as C# are on life support.

Things like Silverlight, WinForms, WPF, and many more .Net technologies are now in legacy support mode. They fix bugs, you can certainly use them, IDEs support them, but further develoment has pretty much stopped in favor of WinRT alternatives.

 

[tedsmith]

So then what do YOU suggest.
Basically most of my programming is around quickly using data from databases, manipulating this data and displaying results in various graphical forms on remote workstations.
Also receiving data from numerous remote GPS devices, mechanical sensors and cameras via the LAN or USB and using this to seek the appropriate database data. Also I have operator's workstations to monitor and manually control operations.

 

[dilettante]

Using anything that isn't from Microsoft can be a bit of an uphill battle when targeting Windows.

For example Java should be an almost ideal solution. But the tempetuous path Anders Hejlsberg took them on (and got them sued over) means Microsoft exerts about as close to zero effort as possible to make make it easy for Java to get close to hardware. So while it works fine for many things, you're often left standing hat in hand if you need to work at the JNI level.

Of course any time you're dealing with oddball devices you face some battles.

So you are pretty much left where everyone else is: use one legacy technology or the other. Your applications don't appear to be a good fit for the "current developer path" Microsoft wants people on: WinRT.

Yes, you can still use .Net WinForms, WPF, etc. just as you can still use VB6. This will probably continue for years, and before any of them are dead WinRT may be gone and replaced by something else.

 

[tedsmith]

Gloom gloom!

 

[dilettante]

The problem is there just isn't any one tool for all purposes, and Microsoft itself is going through a bit of an identity crisis.

But the good news is it won't cost you anything but time to explore either .Net or Java development.