Comment VB is not as bad as you all think. (Score 1) 356
I use VB for a significant amount of my work, most of which consists of connecting to some form of database backend. I find COM to be a very useful model to work with.
Using VB I can build a small DLL to do any processing I need in no time at all. If performance is really important, I can do it in VC++ as well..., or any other lanuage that can create COM DLL's. I build a couple stored procedures for that DLL to work with in the database, and put together a GUI in no time with VB. The GUI calls the DLL, which calls the database. Instant 2-tier application. Depending on the backend (anything from MS Access ugh..., to SQL Server on NT or Oracle on linux, or a giant mainframe..., whatever), can support a damned lot of users. Drop another NT box in with MTS, change 1 config setting on the client, and it's a 3-tier app. Add another NT box with IIS, make a couple calls to that DLL from ASP, and now you have a WWW interface to your data. The ASP code would be almost the same as the GUI, almost no development time. I don't know of any other languages that can do that as quickly.
Now I admit that VB is severly limited for a lot of things, and that there are most definatly places where it shouldn't be used. The moment you get very far into the Win32 API, things start to get ugly, especially if you ever have to deal with pointers. It can be done, but yer better off moving to a C++ app, or at least a C++ DLL to call from the VB GUI.
The other great thing about VB, is that it is pretty much the standard for anything on windows. It's a programming language with VB, a scripting language in MS Office and other apps, as well as a web scripting language. It's the language to script the OS to do stuff (WSH, though it can also use other languages if they have COM objects to parse them) If you know VB, you can automate any MS windows app there is, as well as a lot of other windows apps, there are a LOT of other companies that have licensed VBA to use as their scripting languages.
Anyways..., I look forward to the day I can use VB under linux, and await the flames I forsee I will get for posting pro-MS stuff here. I don't like MS, but that doesn't mean they don't have some good products.
Using VB I can build a small DLL to do any processing I need in no time at all. If performance is really important, I can do it in VC++ as well..., or any other lanuage that can create COM DLL's. I build a couple stored procedures for that DLL to work with in the database, and put together a GUI in no time with VB. The GUI calls the DLL, which calls the database. Instant 2-tier application. Depending on the backend (anything from MS Access ugh..., to SQL Server on NT or Oracle on linux, or a giant mainframe..., whatever), can support a damned lot of users. Drop another NT box in with MTS, change 1 config setting on the client, and it's a 3-tier app. Add another NT box with IIS, make a couple calls to that DLL from ASP, and now you have a WWW interface to your data. The ASP code would be almost the same as the GUI, almost no development time. I don't know of any other languages that can do that as quickly.
Now I admit that VB is severly limited for a lot of things, and that there are most definatly places where it shouldn't be used. The moment you get very far into the Win32 API, things start to get ugly, especially if you ever have to deal with pointers. It can be done, but yer better off moving to a C++ app, or at least a C++ DLL to call from the VB GUI.
The other great thing about VB, is that it is pretty much the standard for anything on windows. It's a programming language with VB, a scripting language in MS Office and other apps, as well as a web scripting language. It's the language to script the OS to do stuff (WSH, though it can also use other languages if they have COM objects to parse them) If you know VB, you can automate any MS windows app there is, as well as a lot of other windows apps, there are a LOT of other companies that have licensed VBA to use as their scripting languages.
Anyways..., I look forward to the day I can use VB under linux, and await the flames I forsee I will get for posting pro-MS stuff here. I don't like MS, but that doesn't mean they don't have some good products.
