Migrating to .NET
.NET takes advantage of the best of all the technologies you have used to
date, and it improves upon them. If you have an existing application in
Visual Basic 6.0, you can attempt to migrate to Visual Basic .NET. There
are several methods you can use to migrate, including simply reusing any
COM components you already have developed, creating new components in .NET
and using them from your VB 6.0 applications, or using the Migration Wizard.
Migration Tools
NET allows you to leverage your existing code by providing a nice interface
to your COM components. With just a couple mouse clicks within the Visual
Studio environment, you can bring in your COM component and use it just as
if it were a class library you developed in .NET.
The Migration Wizard will help you migrate from an existing Visual Basic
6.0 application to a VB .NET application. The Migration Wizard will convert
many common elements of your Visual Basic 6.0 applications, but it cannot
convert everything. You will still need to make many changes to your code
by hand. You may also need to rewrite certain sections to take full
advantage of new tools.
The Migration Wizard will also attempt to convert common ActiveX controls
into .NET controls. In those cases where there is no equivalent, it will
attempt to use the ActiveX control on the Windows Form (WinForm) in .NET.
Many ActiveX controls will work on a .NET WinForm, but there are no
guarantees.
Reasons to Migrate
The .NET Framework includes many interlanguage integration features, such
as inheritance, debugging, common data types, and Windows and Web Forms.
Creating Web applications has never been easier, and cross-platform
capabilities using XML Web Services makes communication with non-Windows
applications a breeze.
The installation and removal of programs is much easier now that .NET
applications no longer have to be registered like previous COM applications
did. Installations can be done by using a simple copy command, and
uninstalling is as simple as deleting the files. Of course, this assumes
that the .NET Framework and the CLR are already installed.
SHOULD YOU REWRITE?
In most cases, you might want to leave your older applications in their
original language. But if you find that an application that started out as
a departmental-level application now needs to be an enterprise-wide
application, you might want to rewrite.
The Internet has changed society and business as we know it. You now need
to think about all programs as being "global" and "distributed." Doing this
with the tools before .NET was not easy; in global distribution cases, you
will probably want to migrate your old applications. In most cases, you
will probably find that you can remove large sections of your code and
replace them with just a few objects in the new .NET Framework