[NeoTifa]

I hear a lot of people saying VisualBasic is dead or dying, but VBA is based off of VB6, and the macro scene doesn't seem to be dying out from what I've seen. What you do guys think?

[SixOfEleven]

Visual Basic 6, as its own stand alone language, should not, at least in my opinion, be considered as a language for development. It is for Windows only and if you want to use VB for development you would be much better to migrate to VB.NET. Microsoft doesn't really support it that well anymore, if at all, and in the next release of Windows, if not Windows 7, you will not be able to run VB6 programs period.

VB6 had its kick at the cat. The world has moved on, let it go the way of the dinosaurs.

[shezzy]

I still use VB script for writing bots for games I play. However, I wouldn't use it for any stand alone windows app.

[KYA]

VB6 is dead in the way that COBOL is dead.

There's a "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" mentality. Couple that with quite a bit of money spent on developing a system, the decision maker(s) might be wary of a transformation: i.e time and money.

[NeoTifa]

But do you think that MS is still going to keep it around for a while, or try to wean the office-kiddies onto some other application-based scripting language?

[KYA]

They already are [trying]. Microsoft can't force a company to upgrade their VB6 system. They could "persuade them vigilantly", i.e. no more updates, support, so on and so forth, but it ultimately up to the person(s) in charge of the system(s) in question.

Edward Jones still runs a large COBOL backend. Why? Certainly not because COBOL is the bees knees. It costs less to hire/train people to maintain what exists then to implement/or upgrade to an entirely new system. At running the risk of repeating myself: time and money are the factors...the only factors.

[SixOfEleven]

I was of the understanding MS was moving the use VB.NET for scripting where VBA was concerned. I may be wrong in that, been out of that loop for some time now. VBA and VBScirpt are variations of VB6 but are not stand alone VB6.

[no2pencil]

Microsoft will always have something "Visual" & "Basic". Right now that's VB.NET. I don't believe that they currently sell or support anything VB6 related.

[baavgai]

VB6 isn't just dead, it's undead. It's a fucking zombie monster that won't stay down no matter how many shot gun blasts it takes. Hmm... Microsoft has made a few of those. Bill Gates as Frankenstein; it all kinda makes sense.

Official "extended" support for VB6 stopped over two years ago. There is no sane reason or justification to write anything new using it. And shame on the VB necrophiliacs for not coming to grips with that.

Visual Basic, however, ain't dead. Interestingly, when Microsoft stopped support on VB6, they followed up the death blow by rebranding VB.NET as "Visual Basic". The .NET dropped from the name, this is the only VB MS currently recognizes. Microsoft itself has tried hard to eliminated all references to it's now now shambling creation. They can't entirely put it to rest either; which says something.

VB6, like COBOL, has become the herpes of programming languages.

Permutations of VB syntax, like the current .NET version, VBScript, and a myriad of scripting knock offs, shouldn't be confused with their now deceased relative. VB syntax, gods helps us, is alive and well.

[raziel_]

that is because it rocks

no rly i enjoy writing on it. i still don`t get the whole ";" at the end of almost every line in C and why is that worth it. Simple and useful for making small (and not so small) programs best GUI ever etc etc. Feel free to down vote me as much as you want i like VB and nothing can change this.

[SixOfEleven]

The ; at the end of lines makes parsing the program easier. I would hate to see the parser for VB languages compared to C-style languages.

[raziel_]

by who?

Edit: i know something that no one (except Neo) can deny on VB6 it is easy to learn.

This post has been edited by NoBrain: 28 June 2010 - 10:40 AM

[baavgai]

The ; also avoids all those charming little underscores (_) for VB line continuation. By extension, they give a visual cue for the end of a logic phrase.

I agreed that parsing VB wouldn't be a whole lot of fun.

[raziel_]

that is true baavgai but think how many times you use multi lines in your codes.

[SixOfEleven]

Use it quite frequently when creating objects that require a lot of paramters. Instead of having a line that would go across the screen, have each paramater on a line of its own.