I worked on several similar projects a few years ago where the orginal applications were written in VB6 and I had to re-right/fix them. While I will agree with many other posters that the UI portions were very easy to write/integrate/change and use, the backend code was a different beast. (it you are using VB.Net then many this doesn't apply?)
VB6 wants to use a lot of variants.. big slow memory structures for a lot of variables that it passed between functions. For one example I had an array of numbers stored as text in a file that I had to change to integers, flip the array, and save. While my 10 lines VB code were crunching away, I wrote the same code in C, ran it, and was written and done before the VB app finished processing one file. Of course I likely could have optimized my VB code but my point is that simple data munipulation can end up being extremly slow if you are not careful, more so than in any other language I've used.
If all your VB code does is UI stuff and very little backend or data processing then it's probably fine given that your client usings VB now and doesn't seem to have any cross platform problems. I would however suggest that you interface with as much non VB code as possible for doing any sort of heavy processing.
Although I didn't go to Acadia many of my friends did during the first several years after they started the Acadia Advantage program (required laptops for all students). It was not a widely sucessful program at first like many of the press releases made it seem. There were the typical early adaptor pains like insufficiant web access, slow support, relaibilty, but then were others issues that would still be chanllenging anywhere.
Professors at the university were days away from going on strike (in 2000 I think) over some of the adminissration's "Advantage" usage policies. Acadia thought that since they were requiring ALL students to get a laptop that ALL students better get use out of it. Professors were required to integrate the laptops into some part of their class. This was not much of an issue in programs like engineering, CS, physics, etc... but Drama? Fine Arts? yes possible, but not necessary. Academics don't exactly like being told how to instruct and what teaching aids to use. Most of the school benefits from the laptops but students in some programs end up with a $1000+ computer tax and I wonder if those programs enrollment suffers because of it? What kind of art programs are at the school?
Did anyone else read Phil Shapiro's article that was linked to this post? Does anyone else see a problem with stirring ocean water?
Lets ignore the technical fesiblity of pulling a 1/4 mile stir stick at 15 miles per hour. (I don't care if you use a nuclear tub boat.. you're talking about a HUGE anount drag here).
Stirring the top layer of ocean water to make it 2-3 degrees colded would kill nearly all of the plankton and other microorganizes that rely on the fragile thermalclines (layers of different temperature water) to survive. Killing this life would be like killing all plants on land and would wipe out a huge percentage of all ocean life... sounds like a great plan to me.
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I worked on several similar projects a few years ago where the orginal applications were written in VB6 and I had to re-right/fix them. While I will agree with many other posters that the UI portions were very easy to write/integrate/change and use, the backend code was a different beast. (it you are using VB.Net then many this doesn't apply?) VB6 wants to use a lot of variants.. big slow memory structures for a lot of variables that it passed between functions. For one example I had an array of numbers stored as text in a file that I had to change to integers, flip the array, and save. While my 10 lines VB code were crunching away, I wrote the same code in C, ran it, and was written and done before the VB app finished processing one file. Of course I likely could have optimized my VB code but my point is that simple data munipulation can end up being extremly slow if you are not careful, more so than in any other language I've used. If all your VB code does is UI stuff and very little backend or data processing then it's probably fine given that your client usings VB now and doesn't seem to have any cross platform problems. I would however suggest that you interface with as much non VB code as possible for doing any sort of heavy processing.
Although I didn't go to Acadia many of my friends did during the first several years after they started the Acadia Advantage program (required laptops for all students). It was not a widely sucessful program at first like many of the press releases made it seem. There were the typical early adaptor pains like insufficiant web access, slow support, relaibilty, but then were others issues that would still be chanllenging anywhere. Professors at the university were days away from going on strike (in 2000 I think) over some of the adminissration's "Advantage" usage policies. Acadia thought that since they were requiring ALL students to get a laptop that ALL students better get use out of it. Professors were required to integrate the laptops into some part of their class. This was not much of an issue in programs like engineering, CS, physics, etc... but Drama? Fine Arts? yes possible, but not necessary. Academics don't exactly like being told how to instruct and what teaching aids to use. Most of the school benefits from the laptops but students in some programs end up with a $1000+ computer tax and I wonder if those programs enrollment suffers because of it? What kind of art programs are at the school?
Did anyone else read Phil Shapiro's article that was linked to this post? Does anyone else see a problem with stirring ocean water? Lets ignore the technical fesiblity of pulling a 1/4 mile stir stick at 15 miles per hour. (I don't care if you use a nuclear tub boat.. you're talking about a HUGE anount drag here). Stirring the top layer of ocean water to make it 2-3 degrees colded would kill nearly all of the plankton and other microorganizes that rely on the fragile thermalclines (layers of different temperature water) to survive. Killing this life would be like killing all plants on land and would wipe out a huge percentage of all ocean life... sounds like a great plan to me.