Forms Packages

Forms Packages

The forms package that you use in Visual Basic 6 to create standard .exe projects or ActiveX control projects is essentially the same package that has been in existence since Visual Basic 1. Visual Basic .NET offers a brand new forms package called Windows Forms. In addition, Visual Basic .NET gives you a second forms package to help in creating Web applications: the Web Forms package.

A Single Standard for Windows Forms

A significant difference between Visual Basic .NET and Visual Basic 6 is that the forms you use with Visual Basic .NET can be used in any type of .NET project. For example, you can use the same forms with both a Visual Basic application and a C# application.

The forms package found in Visual Basic 6 is local to that environment. You can use Visual Basic 6 forms only in Visual Basic 6. Microsoft has tried in the past to create a single, standard forms package that could be shared across multiple products such as Visual Basic, C++, and Office. The initiative, called Forms3 (pronounced Forms Cubed), never realized this goal. Forms3 is alive and well in Office but was never made fully compatible with the Visual Basic forms package.

The Windows Forms package reignites some hope of having a single forms standard applied across various Microsoft products at least for client applications based on the .NET platform. The ideal of having a single, universal forms package, however, will need to wait; Visual Studio .NET also introduces a separate forms package for Web applications.

Two Forms Packages for the Price of One

One of the appealing features of Visual Studio .NET is that you can create a Web application more quickly and easily than you ever have before. This ease stems from the marriage between the Web Forms package and Visual Basic .NET. For the first time, you can create a Web application in the same manner that you create a Windows client application. You drag and drop controls onto a Web form and then write code to handle the form and control events. All of the skills that you use to create Visual Basic Windows applications can now be used to create Web applications.

	The Upgrade Wizard will upgrade your client-based applications to use Windows Forms and will upgrade your WebClasses-based applications to use Web Forms.