[Mono-list] Visual Basic 6 Support

[marco.ridoni@virgilio.it]

>It's possible that mbas could be extended to support VB6 syntax, but I
>don't know how feasible/practical that is.  It might be better to fork
>mbas for VB6 support, assuming that it's practical to do that.
>

The problem with VB6 is that it is built on a very old foundation, dating=

back to the days of QuickBasic. While MS tried to shave off many of its
quirks and plain weirdness in its recent evolutions to version 6.0, the
"old" VB6 remains a language which can't be easily adapted to CLI/CLR, be=
cause
many assumptions about data types, conversions, declarations, etc. are no=

longer valid. It's not the big issues (classes, inheritance, module decla=
rations)
which are problematic, but the more subtle ones. Then there is a complete=
ly
different issue: given the low learning and usage threshold of VB6 (which=

is a positive fact) many VB6 developers are simply unable to grasp and co=
pe
with more advanced concepts like OOP, delegates, etc. 

Personally I'm glad that VB has achieved the status of first-class langua=
ge,
instead of being considered, as it happened too often in the past, a seco=
nd-choice
language for sleazy programmers (not my point of view). In other words:
it's not worth the effort; I have many VB6 applications which I'd like to=

convert to VB.NET and, possibly to mbas. But when you're done with that,
you still have an old application, which can't exploit the more advanced
features of the .NET/Mono architecture (OOP and assembly separation, just=

to name a couple). It's good to be able to transition an old app from VB6=

to VB.NET with a few touches and the help of MS'Upgrade Wizard, but event=
ually,
if you plan on upgrading and mantaining your app, you should move at leas=
t
portions of it under .NET, and not rely on old programming models.

All if this of course, IMHO


Marco Ridoni