Upgrading ActiveX Controls and Components

Chapter 13

Upgrading ActiveX Controls and Components

If you re on old hand at Microsoft Visual Basic programming, you likely have vivid memories of the last great migration the one between Visual Basic 3 and 4. It involved the great leap forward from 16 bits to 32 bits and the introduction of OLE components now known as ActiveX components.

The transition from Visual Basic 6 to Visual Basic .NET is reminiscent of those days, but on a much grander scale. Once again Microsoft is introducing a new component model to open doors to a whole new world of applications: Web applications and XML Web services. This new component model is the foundation for the .NET Framework.

This is all fine and wonderful, you might say, but are you kidding me? Do I need to update all of my ActiveX controls to .NET controls, just as I was required to replace all of my VBXs in Visual Basic 4 32 bit? Fortunately, the answer is no to both questions. You can still use your existing ActiveX components with Visual Basic .NET.