I then turned to Dan Appleman for advice. Dan could think of two reasons why VB.NET would be faster:
- From a purely computational perspective, VB .NET should prove faster than VB 6. This is because VB .NET is benefiting from a highly optimized JIT compiler that it shares with all other .NET languages. Contrary to some rumors, VB .NET does compile to native code (it just doesn't do it all at once, completing the process at load time).
- VB .NET's free threading model will allow better performance and scalability under certain scenarios.
And one reason why it might sometimes run slower:
- VB.NET's use of garbage collection will lead to intermittent slow downs as an application runs under certain scenarios.
But I still didn't have a solid way to answer Jeff's basic question: Will a given executable for VB 6 run faster or slower than VB.NET?
By the way ... Dan also suggested that you try the Desaware Licensing System. Dan said that, "I wrote most of it, and it's our most interesting product at the moment (and, it's written entirely in VB .NET)."
