Conclusion

Conclusion

This chapter has covered the general types of differences between Visual Basic 6 and Visual Basic .NET that you will encounter. For example, it looked at how property model differences and differences in technology play out in your upgraded Visual Basic .NET application. In addition, it looked at how form-related issues such as event ordering and lifetime can lead to subtle differences in the execution of your upgraded application. We have offered solutions to help you move your Visual Basic 6 code to Visual Basic .NET. Solutions are available even when the technology is no longer supported or the components and language statements that provide the support have changed drastically.

The characteristics that make up a Visual Basic form have remained largely constant since the inception of Visual Basic in 1988. The form is based on a Windows window in which a form designer allows you to drag and drop controls and set properties. The way you create a form and the behavior you expect from your form in a compiled application have also remained unchanged over the years. The Visual Basic .NET form is no exception. You create and interact with Visual Basic .NET forms in pretty much the same way as you do Visual Basic 6 forms. Differences become noticeable when you start using Visual Basic .NET forms on a more granular level. For example, properties do not always jive between Visual Basic 6 and Visual Basic .NET.

Figuring out the mapping between Visual Basic 6 and Visual Basic .NET properties is a matter of learning such details as that Caption always maps to Text or that OLEStartDrag maps to DoDragDrop. Most of these mappings can be looked up or memorized from a table. Appendix A of this book provides such a table. It should serve as your technical reference for mapping Visual Basic 6 objects and statements to their Visual Basic .NET equivalents.