API Programming Options

Hi all,

I've been learning API programming via the VBA macro tools in
SolidWorks and was wanting to "expand" my horizon somewhat and go up
to the next step which is full blown VB programming. I went looking
to buy a copy of VB and it doesn't exist any longer :<. The only
thing I could find was used copies on e-Bay and I'm not certain I want
to deal with the licensing issues.

How viable an alternative is Visual Basic.net for SWx API programming?
I've heard that VB 6.0 and VB.net bear little resemblance to each
other so some learning curve may be in order. The good part is there
is a VB.net Standard edition available for around $100 vs the VB 6.0
Professional which I never saw for less than $300.

If VB.net isn't viable (or if the learning curve is going to be
significant), how about some of the other available programming
options, ala;

Python
Java (I know Jim Sculley was working on an interface, Jim?)
4GL
Delphi
C#
etc, etc, etc.

I guess I'm throwing this out there looking for advise. Certainly
others have to be in the same boat. I e-mailed Microsoft about the
availability of VB 6.0 and was told that it is not and will not be
available. It seems odd to abandon a user base as large as the VB
user base is. Quite a gamble in my eyes.

Thanks in advance,

Chris

 

(Chris Dubea) wrote in

It works fine. I've heard that SW 2004 will even have a VS.NET wizard
for writing SW add-ins.

There was also a VB6 Standard edition which was probably priced the same
as VB.NET standard. If you have any of those traveling computer shows
coming to your area (e.g. www.pcshow.com) you can usually find older
software like this there for cheap money.

VB and VB.NET are very different. I'm in the midst of trying to adjust
to VB.NET and it's quite an adjustment. Just trying to get acclimated to
the .NET framework is a little overwhelming. For someone with little
background in VB6 it might not be that bad.

However, there's no reason not to use VB6. It'll be a viable programming
platform for quite some time (unless a new MS OS somehow breaks the VB
runtimes). Plus all of the current API examples found on SW's site are
either C++ or VB6 and any tutorials/documentation you find will be
written for VB6.

I think C# will offer the same hurdles as VB.NET unless you've programmed
C++ before.

Can you still buy SolidWorks 2001 anywhere?

They haven't abandoned them. They just expect those users to move on to
VB.NET. Nothing new. You can't really expect MS to keep selling old
technology expecially when they've invested so much time and money in the
..NET initiative. .NET hasn't rendered all those millions of copies of
VB5/6 useless--they can still pump out programs.

Joel Moore

 

I'll certainly be sticking with it. I'm just amazed at the immensity of
the Framework but it's also thrilling to discover all of the things you can
do.

Have you seen the MS reference manuals for .NET?!? Back up the forklift!