The end for VBA?

My apologies if this topic has already been covered!

I have heard that :
"Microsoft has already announced that VB6 is going away and is being
replaced
with .NET."
Firstly is this true? Does this mean that I will wasting time learning VB?
And how will this affect existing programs written in VB when .NET has
replaced VB.?
Is .NET similar to VB?
And lastly why is microsoft ditching VB?

Interested to hear any comments
thanks Russ

 

Hi Russ,

Whether it is worthwhile learning VB or VBA or .Net depends entirely on what
use you intend to make of the knowledge.

If you propose being a full time AutoCAD programmer right now, then you
would be mad not to learn VB/VBA. Bear in mind that VBA comes free with
AutoCAD, VB is reasonably cheap, .Net means you need your wife's permission
to buy it.

If you propose to write a program some time this year/or may be next year,
then learning could be a waste of time. It would almost certainly be
cheaper to employ someone to write it in their language of choice.

Essentially VBA is the current tool of choice for the typical AutoCAD user
(unless they are already skilled in lisp), who wants to customise some of
the AutoCAD functions and make the system more efficient for their purposes.

Anything you learn will be helpful in understanding .Net and AutoCAD and
when Autodesk release easily useable .Net APIs you will be ready to use
them.

--


Laurie Comerford
CADApps
www.cadapps.com.au

 

Not really. VB6 is still great for line of business apps. Just don't
expect your skills to port to .NET when you make the switch.

Not at all. Keep your copy of VB6 and use it to maintain your legacy
code.

You already can't buy a new copy of VB6. Support for VB6 expires in two
or three years.

Not even close.

It's common practice to place an end of life on previous releases of
software.

--
There are 10 kinds of people. Those who understand binary and those who
don't.

http://code.acadx.com
(Pull the pin to reply)

 

Can someone please explain to me how VB.NET is not VB. Does this mean Visual C++ .NET is not Visual C++?
Regards - Nathan

 

..NET is an object oriented framework and runtime that allows you
to use real OO techniques to develop software. VB is not really
an object oriented language, in spite of the way Microsoft abused
the term 'object' in the product.

VB.NET is just one way to write object oriented .NET applications.
Other ways include C#, Managed C++, J++, ASP.NET, and Delphi.

The syntax of VB is supported in VB.NET via emulation provided by
the .VisualBasic package, and that's what allows you to use some
but not all of the traditional VB syntax in VB.NET.

Regarding Visual C++, you can use that language to build native
Win32 applications, or managed .NET applications. You can also
mix the two. Visual C++ is the only .NET language that supports
creation of 100% native Win32 machine code.

 

"Essentially VBA is the current tool of choice for the typical AutoCAD user
(unless they are already skilled in lisp), who wants to customise some of
the AutoCAD functions and make the system more efficient for their purposes"......I am not sure this is a true statement. I would bet that there are still many, many more LISP progammers than there are VBA when it comes to AutoCAD....SInce I don't link to other programs (EXCEL. ACCESS. etc) I have never seen any reason to use VBA instead of LISP or VLISP....

 

VBA forms mop the floor with DCL and doesn't cost extra like ObjectDCL. No
one tool does it all.

--
There are 10 kinds of people. Those who understand binary and those who
don't.

http://code.acadx.com
(Pull the pin to reply)

 

Hi,

Just read what I said.

If you can drive Lisp now, I'm not advocating you change. If you are
starting from scratch, VB is a far better way to go, if for no other reason
than the sheer difficulty of the DCL process for the user interface.

--


Laurie Comerford
CADApps
www.cadapps.com.au

purposes"......I am not sure this is a true statement. I would bet that
there are still many, many more LISP progammers than there are VBA when it
comes to AutoCAD....SInce I don't link to other programs (EXCEL. ACCESS.
etc) I have never seen any reason to use VBA instead of LISP or VLISP....

 

Laurie's point was to learn vba in leui of lisp if you are just starting
out. I'd take it a step further and say learn c# over both - if, again,
you are just starting out.

You are right that there are far more people using lisp but I wouldn't
say more 'programmers'. Most lispers use it as a macro language and not
as a programming language which is what throws most when trying to make
the leap to vb-based programming.
___________________________
Mike Tuersley
CADalyst's AutoCAD Clinic
Rand IMAGINiT Technologies

 

"VBA forms mop the floor with DCL and doesn't cost extra like ObjectDCL."................I agree. In fact I have thought of changing out alot of my routines that use DCL over to VB Forms, however, the code behind (usually several hundred lines) would need to stay in LISP. It would take several months to convert it all over to VBA, and I'm not sure I would gain much excpet the experience.

 

I started out using LISP. I never really liked VLISP and didn't take the time to learn all the new functions. When VBA came along, I thought it was going to replace LISP and VLISP eventually. I was pleased to see that LISP was not phased out. However, I converted our LISP programs to VBA and found several advantages:
Object oriented is a plus
Easier dialog box programming
Easier database and application connectivity
Easier editing interface
Blazingly fast run times
Sure, some of the VBA model is flawed and requires workarounds. Even the amount of typing hasn't been reduced by much. But for me, the editing and the run times are enough to justify the conversion to VBA. Just my 2 cents.

 

"Object oriented is a plus"....I don't believe VBA (or VB 6) is truly Object Oriented. VB.NET is the first truly object oriented version.
"Easier dialog box programming"......No doubt, but is the interface code any easier?
"Easier database and application connectivity"....Only if you need this is it an issue.
"Easier editing interface"....Not sure here. VLISP editor is pretty good.
"Blazingly fast run times"....? What 2 nanoseconds as compared to 1 nanosecond...Is speed ever really an issue here?.....
If i was just starting out, I would learn VBA, if for no other reason, it will help in other programming applications other than AutoCAD. LISP generally only helps in AutoCAD customization.

 

Yeah, I noticed Tony's post after I had already posted. I still think it was a good move to go with VBA. I just hope it's around 5 or 10 years down the road. As a programmer, I try to get my hands dirty on as many languages as possible. And, when the work is piling on, those nanoseconds start to add up. You have made some good points and I agree. So, I'm going to shut up now.

 

Absolutely. In fact, it's not even close, especially if you consider
how much code you have to write to contend with some of the
abhorrent limitations of DCL. See how long it takes to put a few
thousand entries in a LIST box for example.

Some day you will, and if you're using LISP, you'll quickly hit the wall.

The VLISP editor is a stinking pile of garbage, to the extent that
I gave up on it long before Vital LISP became Visual LISP.

Where is the Intellisense? Code completion? List Parameters and Methods?
and so on? The Visual LISP editor is prehistoric compared to VB and VBA's editor.

1 nanosecond...Is speed ever really an issue here?.....

That's a gross generalization that shouldn't be considered a rule. There
are plenty of things that can be done much faster in a language that uses
arrays (for example, try manipulating a very large list in LISP and compare
it to a comparable operation in VB and you'll quckly see that it's much
faster at manipulating vector/array type data structures).

 

"how much code you have to write to contend with some of the abhorrent limitations of DCL"...I agree here. The error trapping code for DCL is a nightmare. I would think that would be much easier using VBA forms..Your also right about the VLISP Editor vs VBA editor, even though it is ok for me when it comes to writing LISP code....What about handling of images/graphics in VBA forms? Of course in DCL, I always use .SLD files which appear in the DB with very good quality...What is the best method using VBA forms?

 

The learning curve to VB .NET is quite steep and if your a VB/VBA programmer it shouldn't take much to make the switch, especially if you understand the basic concepts of OO programming.

I beleive that in AutoCAD 2005 autodesk is looking to employ a limited native .NET API.