John, I concur with the other group comments but would suggest that you seriously look at C# as opposed to VB.Net. The execution speed is much superior and the OOP things you can do bear more of a similarity to VFP than VB.
My comments, so far, apart from the changed language syntax, having written some 20-30 C# applications are as follows: Pro: 1. My main gripe - Data Binding of Objects to UI classes are a pain in VS2005 unless you bind to a Datasource (VFP Cursor equivalent). You can bind an object property quite easily to a textbox for example but the relationship is one way only i.e changing the Control u[dates the object property but NOT Vice versa without a lot of messing about. This has been improved in VS2008 but is still nowhere as easy as in VFP. There is no concept of "Controlsource" as we VFPer's know it. 2. Access to outside data using DataAdapters is easy and you can access VFP, Access, SQL, MySQL with relative ease even if not the speed of native VFP Tables. 3. Debugging in the IDE is superior to VFP in many respects. 4. Applications automatically have that "Vista/Office 2K7 Look" without any additional hard work to tweak the UI components. 3. Any graphics work is a breeze and shows the limitations of VFP - even with the GDI extensions. Using Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) is really neat to design your front end - but once again the learning curve is massive. 4. As with VFP there is always more than one way to "do things". The problem is that there are usually dozens of ways!! 5. Very little blog space seems to concentrate on "desktop applications". Most of the VS info inevitably leads you towards ASP web development. 6. The .Net framework is extremely stable (despite being developed by M$ <grin>. 7. LINQ, if you can get your head around the concept will totally transform the way you code. As VFPer's we have a head start here but implementation of the feature is not easy after mahy years of traditional programming in VFP! Cons: 1. It's simply NOT VFP. If Craig does manage to integrate VFP into the VS IDE, then I for one will certainly use it. 2. Learning the features of the framework is initially a daunting prospect. It is simply too big. Thankfully there are many sites which can help here. Without the Internet you are literally swamped with Framework calls - many of which you will never need, with the ones you do need being very well hidden. 3. Don't try to develop on a low power machine, you will end up chucking it through the window. 4. Each release of VS, and in fact C# can mean large relearning curve as new features are added. Forget about a good old stable VFP type instruction set here. 5. I still can't get used to using a "==" as opposed to a "=" in an if statement and having to use != as opposed to <>. These still screw me up all the time. One other construct that is a pain is the VFP "Do Case" equivalent i.e Switch. You can forget about putting in case <....> statements that refer to any variable/function as you have to reference the variable(s) specified in the initial "Switch" statement. 6. Your wallet will suffer if you go out and buy some good books on C# and VS as I still haven't found one definitive publication that covers the "Things that VFP can do". So far I have purchased about 20 books and I'm still looking. 7. Finally, why oh why don't they have a "with...endwith" construct in C#. This would be a great aid in productivity. This is one of the only features that VB.NET has which make it an attractive prospect. Hope these comments help you on your transition. Good luck. Dave Crozier -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of John Weller Sent: 05 October 2008 15:43 To: [email protected] Subject: [NF] VB.Net Questions I apologise for asking VB questions here but I know some of the team have been dabbling with it and, as always, this seems the best place to get sensible answers. I have been concerned for some time about using VFP for applications for clients. If I were to walk under a bus my clients would be left with applications that they couldn't get maintained easily due to the dearth of VFP programmers in UK so I have been looking at alternatives. I am playing with VB 2008 Express and finding relatively straightforward as it is so similar to VFP in many ways. I do have some fundamental questions though which I hope someone can answer - I've not been able to extract them from the MS sales verbiage! What is the difference between Standard and Professional Editions? Can I create standalone exes for royalty free distribution in a similar manner to VFP? What does the upgrade edition require - I have VFP 9 and Visual Studio 6, would they suffice? I know I can connect to an Access or SQL Server database - can I connect to a VFP or Postgre SQL database? Can I buy VB.Net as a standalone or must I buy the full Visual Studio? Can anyone recommend a suitable forum to ask other questions, ideally as friendly and helpful as Profox or Foxite? TIA John Weller 01380 723235 07976 393631 [excessive quoting removed by server] _______________________________________________ Post Messages to: [email protected] Subscription Maintenance: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profox OT-free version of this list: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profoxtech Searchable Archive: http://leafe.com/archives/search/profox This message: http://leafe.com/archives/byMID/profox/[EMAIL PROTECTED] ** All postings, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are the opinions of the author, and do not constitute legal or medical advice. This statement is added to the messages for those lawyers who are too stupid to see the obvious.
