You most certainly can. I run VS6 and VS.NET. The nice thing is I can also run MSDN Library CD/DVD for both VS6 and VS.NET.

Good Luck!

Check out www.asp.net and www.windowsforms.com - they are Microsoft websites with lots of information about .NET. They have links to all types of guides.

I really find it interesting nobody seems to ever talk about or care at all about the way APIs (especially kernel level, like you'd need access to in order to talk to hardware) not only aren't supported but their use is "deprecated" under VS.NET because you MIGHT be attempting to "reference UNMANAGED code" since of course all the Microsoft DLLs allocated heap memory (BAD under the new rules) as well as stack (OK because that's automatically handled by the VS.NET "garbage collector"). I spent THREE WEEKS on hold with (Chinese) "tech support" being BERATED for pursuing program objectives which are "out of line with MS corporate development objectives" - like I gaive a DAMN what kind of program THEY want ME to develop?? As an oldtime hardware DESIGNER I tend to think you folks behave more like sheep than programmers, immediately "fawning" over MS every time they let you type three fewer characters per line and considering it a "technological breakthrough". Are you guys really that ignorant? (No wait I can't SAY that, now I'll just get tons of hate mail and NOBODY who even knows what the heck I'm talking about!) Oh well...

Hey Everyone,

I agree a 100% with jlawton is that microsoft is trying to make you guys very dependant on their vb.net which is (people may diagree here) not very good compared to alot of the other fantastic compilers out there for example like tkinter and others which make vb.net look like the joke of the century (or millenium)
thus what i am trying to say is there's more life out there than microsoft. And do not
forget about that huge chunk of .net runtime you have to download. From my experience forget vb.net if you want to make commercially viable software and no you cannot make commercial software with vb.net as if could be done then you could directly compete with microsoft (god forbid that should ever happen wink wink). Vb.net can only be used for learning and nothing else. No serious programmer will ever use vb.net for his projects as it is an insult to the programmer.

Basically what i am trying to say is that if you want to do serious programming use microsoft products only to teach you the basic and not as a tool to feed you as i can gurantee that you will go hungry.

Ps: No i have nothing against microsoft but just to my own professinal opinion microsoft products are not that good.

Live long and In Prosper

Yours Sincerely

Richard West

Without trying to start a feud here, I have to respectfully disagree. In fact, VB.NET is superb for creating business applications, utilities, and (to a significantly lesser degree) small games. And it's perfectly acceptible. I DO agree that other languages allow you more flexibility for performing actions on a lower level (and hence with more control), but when it comes to developing applications on a Microsoft operating system, it is safer (stability-wise) to use Manufacturer-specific techniques. I am a linux user, and I also develop in C++, but the fact of the matter is that right now, the larger majority of software purchasing people (linux people tend to look harder for Free software) use Windows. And Windows development holds the highest chances of making money as a developer. Visual Basic (.NET or 6.0) is not as degrading to a developer if it gets the job done sufficiently. It's not WHICH tools you use that insult you... it's how you use them, or maybe more specific to this topic, your reasoning for NOT using them.

If you people understood the way .NET worked, you would know that a VB.NET program would run just as efficient as a C++.NET or C# program. So, that VB stereotype is false (well, true for VB6 and below). In fact, your VB.NET program can use C# and C++ in it, all because of the beauty of .NET.

And people, stop bitching about the 20mb download for the framework runtime. Once you understand the framework, and see the entire .NET vision, you'll be saying otherwise.

Its lots of changes in .net coding
like in arrys,datatype declaration etc.

If your application object oriented base you shoule move to .net

Among the many great features, Data Handling is impressive and seems to fit the requirements of web developers perfectly.

Regards
Bharati Krishna
http://www.vkinfotek.com

i Agreed with the sentenced .net got POWER POWER POWER
But its not such user friendly like vb6.0