So you want to go for it and plunge into the .NET world with VB.NET?
Fear not! VB.NET has been around long enough now to assure you that it’s actually pretty good and a solid candidate to replace the reigning champion, VB 6.Not everyone appreciates the advantages of VB.NET. See this article for some of the reasons why it might not be a good idea. Or try this article for a more balanced view of the pro’s and con’s of upgrading. But there is one really important feature of VB.NET that may help you jump in without concerns. You don’t have to abandon your ‘old reliable’ VB 6 environment when you do it!
Yep. You heard right. You can install VB.NET right alongside VB 6 and both will run as smoothly together as a ballroom dancing team. A Microsoft web page puts it this way: “It's important to note that .NET can be run side-by-side with previous code; it's not a complete replacement of the existing machine configuration. This allows for easy testing and the gradual rollout of this technology."
You can upgrade by acquiring the new Visual Studio .NET for the “everything including the kitchen sink" approach to upgrading. Or you can get just VB.NET. The best way to do that is to order the Microsoft Press boxed book and software set, Visual Basic .NET Deluxe Learning Edition. Save money. Get more. 'More' in this case is a book that starts you right at the very beginning. Experienced programmers may find it a bit elementary, but you save money on the software in any case.
Training for VB.NET
There is one very good thing about something really big like VB.NET. There’s lots of information available. In fact, there’s so much information that one of the big problems is sifting through it and finding the good stuff. That’s where we come in. The links here represent a complete short course in VB.NET.First Steps
One of the very best, and totally free, tutorials on VB.NET comes to us from our good friends at Microsoft through their little known Academic Alliance web portal. You can find that here. Simply work entirely through this complete tutorial to get started. If you’ve never seen the ‘quick sort’ algorithm before, it’s a good introduction to that, too.
Objects in Two Parts
Using software objects correctly is the next step to take after learning the basics. You really can’t do much that is really useful without including objects in your code. A good two part introduction to VB.NET and object oriented programming can be found here in Part 1 and Part 2.
ASP
Once you get up to speed on VB.NET, it’s time to try out some of the closely related technologies. One of the most important is Microsoft’s web server programming technology, ASP.NET. A great tutorial on that can be found here.
ADO Data Access and VB.NET
ADO, Microsoft’s flagship data access method, is another key .NET technology that a new VB.NET programmer needs to know about. A good introduction to that topic can be found here.
