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Application Advice Needed

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by linda_in_ohio

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I have a client with a very badly written VB 6.0 application that uses an Access 2000 DB. The application was written using no-longer supported widgets and has to be slowed down to run on the faster machines, it doesn't run on others. They have also outgrown the Access DB. They are upgrading to XP. I hear VB is soon to be non-supported by MS; VB.net is the new word. Are there any recommendations/ suggestions from anyone as to what would be a better application, DB and language to rewrite this project in? Cost effectiveness would be a plus. (I know Oracle is great, but don't have that in house. SQL Server is available.) Reuse of forms/ feel would also be a plus. Please give me reasons why your recommendation would be a good idea for my consideration.

3 replies

by erikdr

Well, as of late I am more experienced with the Java development environments than the MS ones but I'll still give it a try as the rest of the situation is quite similar.
1) For DB, SQL Server is the logical development route from Access2000. It is among the top-3 in the DBMS market and if your organisation is Windows-centric it's a reasonable choice.
2) VB.Net as _execution_ language looks okay, though you could also go for C#. However I'd be very hesitating to recommend VB or C# (or Java) as the _development_ language, especially as the app seems to be UI-intensive.
There are quite a few of VisualStudio-compliant code generators around, which let you develop in a 4GL-like toolkit and then generate the VB or C# 3GL. Big advantage, next to easier code maintenance and higher productivity, is that these tools will also generate to the next MS development tool which will make VB.Net unsupported in 5 years from now or so.
Sorry that I don't have names, the ads in magazines/sites like VBAdvisor should give you plenty.

Hope this helps,

- The Netherlands

by linda_in_ohio

Thank you for your input. It was somewhat helpful in that it reinforced my leanings toward SQL Server for the database but it gave me more questions than answers for the language decision that I still have to make. I am already aware of Visual Studio being available for C# or VB.net type languages. Thanks again.

by tech_wiz03

You can port your vb6 app to vb.net (enterprise edition) with basically full functionality. vb.net will readin and translate the major part of code directly and keep look and feel. Then write a basic engine to port accross the access2000 data into an sql database.(this can be assigned as just a transpose option in the main program) Visual studio encompasses VB.net asp.net c#.net C++.net as a common IDE enviroment allowing you to use any of the lanaguges interchangeably.

I am new to vb.net so the intinsic suttleties i'm still learning. SQL is the way to go for a robust database, vb6 to vb.net is the way to go for keeping forms/feel and the least amount of cost overhead as a result. The improved IDE will allow you to concetrate on targeting just the code needed to improve for lost widgets/bad app programing etc.

rick
http://alltechdevelopment.netfirms.com

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