From VB6 Pro to Visual Studio 2005 Pro Upgrade

From VB6 Pro to Visual Studio 2005 Pro Upgrade

• Look

  Yes, there is a VB6 Professional version. I use it now. Visual Basic as a stand alone product died (at least from a marketing perspective) after VB6. Then there was Visual Studio. The latest iteration is Visual Studio 2005 (VB9, if you will). You can download the Visual Studio Express for Visual Basic. By "free for a year" what is meant is that until Nov 2006 you can download it for free. If you register it, you can use it forever. Nothing happens to you at the end of a year. You can have VS2005 and VB6 installed on the same machine at the same time. This will allow you to compare the products. There is a migration tool with VS2005 that will upgrade your VB6 projects. It will make comments in your code highlighting all the places where changes were, or need to be, made. You will have to look at what VS2005 Express does not have before you can determine whether you need to spend the money for the upgrade or the full package.
  

• mister.manners

  thanks guys for all your input. i much appreciate your response.
  
  i checked with local software distributor in Australia and according to them:
  
  Yes you can upgrade from Visual Basic Pro to Visual Studio 2005 Pro.
  (source: Haris Technology, Australia)
  
  so if someone is in same sitution, its clear now that if you have Visual Basic 6 pro, you can buy only UPGRADE version of Visual Studio Pro 2005.
  
  this will save you almost 40% of your money.
  
  Thanks'n Best Regards
  

• S.Creasey

  i agree with Randy, Microsoft should bring Visual Basic Pro 2005 seperate from visual studio 2005.
  
  people who dont need complete visual studio (like me) should not waste money on whole package, when they are not going to use it.
  
  Visual Basic 2003 was available as a standalone package.
  

• ad_flying

  Is it just me I just don't recall there being a stand alone version of VB 6 for professionals. Perhaps there was, but I can't recall and looking it up went nowhere. For me I bought VB 6 Learning Edition, an extrememe waste of money, truely. if there is such an animal it upgrades to nothing. All stand alone versions of VB that followed are standard and there is no upgrades for them.
  
  But there is good news. There is a stand alone version of visual Basic. It's VB Express 2005. You can get it here http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/vb/
  And it's free for a year. If this doesn't have enough power for you, than your most likely to have to bite the bullet and buy VS Studio. I'm guessing the expression version is not out ranked by the standandard version by all that much, but I don't know that to be fact. Read the guides on what's in each version of the studio. You may find standard is for you. Or maybe Express is all you need.
  
  For express.
  Windows Apps
  Class Librarys.
  
  For More, standard or pro.
  Mobile, web, ASP etc.
  
  Hope this helps.
  
  Randy
  
  

• Limb

  Actually it's VB 8 or VB8, which ever you prefer. I can see where you get confused. Allow me to put it out there so anyone can judge.
  
  VB 6 was the last VB with the version as part of it's name. With 2000 came names with the year as part of it. So VB 2002 is VB 7, but VB 2003 is 7.1. This corresponds to the framework versions 1.0 and 1.1. So VB 8 goes with Framework 2.0. Deity Forbid 2.0 has as many issues as 1.0 to require a 2.1 version, we'll all be scratching our heads near the end of 2006 going "You have what installed "
  
  

  Office 2000	Version 9.0	Year	2000
  Office XP	Version 10.0	Year	2002
  Office 2003	Version 11.0	Year	2003
  Visual Basic .Net 2002	Version 7	Year	2002
  Visual Basic .Net 2003	Version 7.1	Year	2003
  Visual Basic 2005	Version 8	Year	2005

  
  When looking back it sure goes quick! 7 & 7.1 Were sold as stand alone products, I'm one of those people who have them both. Too soon to buy the whole studio on the untested Dot Net Framework though. But I still had to have the newest VB.
  
  7.1 is considered a replacement for 7.0 alongsside the framewrok 1.1 as a replacement for 1.0. They do operate indepently of each other, but it's pointless to run 7.0 if you have 7.1.
  
  Additionally 6,7.1 & 8 all sit nicely sideby side. But I don't recommend running them all at once, even if I've done so. :)
  
  I think they need to bring VB Pro stand alone products back. I wish I had the 6.0, instead I do have the whole VS 6 and it was  budget buster. As long they don't they can count on us to buy the whole studio even if we are only using VB.
  
  Randy
  
• From VB6 Pro to Visual Studio 2005 Pro Upgrade