VB has taken a lot of slack, because it's a language which gives a lot of slack. You are free to write really bad code, and VB won't complain about compiling or running it. ActiveX provides a really useable interface for components (libraries and widgets) which makes deployment quite easy, and coding in parts easily attainable. That being said, it comes at a performance cost, which I wouldn't want to incur if I didn't have to (for instance, using the ActiveX ADO controls penalises you by as much as 1500%, over writing code that talks to the ADO libraries directly).
VB6 is, and, in my opinion, for a long time will be, a very good platform for building database-driven applications for the win32 environment. Also, WINE has no problems with VB6 stuff, so a deployment method for "alternate" clients is the WINE route, though I don't personally offer that as an enterprise solution -- it's a work-around. But there are a lot of software houses that are quite happy providing solutions only for the win32 environment..NET has a lot to offer -- and I don't think you will lose on the performance side, because, as someone earlier forgot to mention, although.NET is compiled to an intermediatary language which is interpreted, so, to an extent, is VB. Which is why the IDE provides such an easy-to-use debugger with relative ease. Trust me, the VB6 ide beats the Delphi6 one hands down, especially with respect to real-time debugging (you can actually change your code and carry on debugging without a recompile, for example).
The move from VB6 to.NET isn't minor, as someone else would suggest. For one thing,.NET kind of forces you to go OO, where VB hid that from you if you didn't want to know about it. VB.NET isn't a simple hop from VB6 -- yes, the syntax is nearly exactly the same, but you have to learn the underlying libraries and code structure as well. There is a curve there, but it may well be worth it because of the compile-once-run-anywhere concept of.NET.
All of this doesn't really make that much difference when I don't know your exact target. But I'm assuming that it's not a 3D fps, since that would be just nasty to code in VB (: . If it's database-driven, then VB isn't really your enemy -- but it would be worth the "free cross-platform power" to learn the VB.NET route. I think your boss probably wants to keep in on the action, and moving to a totally foreign language and library base may be a very diffcult move. I faced something similar at a pervious job, where I tried to show the merits of PHP versus regular old ASP (not.NET). I originally met with postivity, and showed a migration route, even taking the time to put together and lecture notes on what one needed to know to migrate from ASP to PHP. I even built a mechanism for sharing the session between ASP and PHP pages with relative ease, so that a hybrid environment could exist. And after some time, because my boss didn't take it on, my fellow workers didn't bother. I know that today, they are even looking at re-writing a system I wrote in ASP, now that they have more clearly defined the requirements of the system, and realised that I built something far too complex for them. The point is, they weren't willing to move because it was too new and foreign, and they didn't have a driving force (ie. a boss with determination) to enforce the change.
Whatever you run with, you have to get your boss to take it on first. Selling it to your team mates may be a waste of time. I would also urge you to choose something cross-platform, just because the way of the world is tending more towards open platforms. I could push any of the seven languages that I use on a (fairly) regular basis, but I don't think this is the place to start a sales pitch. If you would like to discuss this further, feel free to contact me. I think I've seen a lot of what you're talking about before, and I may be able to give you a more objective approach.
The question I have to ask is if you actually live in Africa. Because then you would know that the statement
"Majority of people in africa have running water and have electricity."
is actually quite wrong. For large portions of South Africa, as well as the more urbanised centers of places like Nigeria, this can be true. But you just have to drive 3 hours outside of Durban, to the Sodwana area, for a glimpse of what life is like for so many africans: small children pushing barrels of water down the road, because if they don't, then they don't eat or have anything to drink for the night.
As much as it's difficult for someone who lives in the Johannesburg, Durban, or Cape Town metro areas to accept, running water is a rare commodity for the average African. Electricity even more so. But for the African who has these things, who is on the upswing of the technological scale, free software is a bonus. Because that software doesn't incorporate the exchange rate, or the tiers of reseller profit margins or import duties. It's just free.
Free software isn't the band-aid that will soothe all of Africa's sores. But it certainly isn't rendered useless by the capabilities of the African people. That's my problem with the original article post. The original article is just another way Microsoft is trying to sweep their exhorbatent pricing under the carpet, all the mean while lokcing people in to MS platforms so that when there is some money to be spent, they will be there to collect it like the vultures they are.
Yes, food support isn't the solution either -- it's a temporary fix. But it's a temporary fix that some people need, especially whilst countries try to get their economies up so they can support their own needy people.
Thanks again, Microsoft, for providing more ammunition for the people who despise your business tactics and your complete disregard for your clients and potential clients.
Apparently, over here in Africa, whilst we are too poor to afford the exhorbatent prices of software (windows XP Pro costs about R1000 (+-$150) here, for a dealer, and more for the average Joe), we would also be too stupid to use it anyways, so it doesn't matter.
Yes, there are countries which need food. Certainly, for them, there is a more dire need than free (or even just reasonably priced) software. But people must remember that Africa is a rainbow blend of the complete have-nots, the have-some's and the have-everything-that-other-people-used-to-have's. There are rural areas where "running water" means the stream 5 kilometers away, and technological centers where IT forms the backbone of communications and business. The former couldn't care less about IT, free or not. The latter often incorporates small to medium businesses who are severely set back by exhorbatent software prices.
This is exactly why initiatives like Ubuntu Linux are fantastic. Ubuntu provides a lot of what a small to medium enterprise (SME) needs on a desktop, and it's all free (and even delivered to you free on a cd!). That coupled with an initiative we are trying to get together to provide the necessary business tools for a starting company for little or (preferably, if we can get enough sponsorship) no cost to the company are some of the counterweights that will help to swing the African continent out of its ruts. Because, at the end of the day, Africa belongs to the Africans, and the businesses which prosper are continually putting back into the community.
It's all about that "give a man a fish" idea. We're trying to enable fishers over here, not give handouts. And people who think that free software won't help are the same people who don't have to pay the oppressive price for software over here. Walk a mile in an African's shoes before deciding what he needs.
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VB has taken a lot of slack, because it's a language which gives a lot of slack. You are free to write really bad code, and VB won't complain about compiling or running it. ActiveX provides a really useable interface for components (libraries and widgets) which makes deployment quite easy, and coding in parts easily attainable. That being said, it comes at a performance cost, which I wouldn't want to incur if I didn't have to (for instance, using the ActiveX ADO controls penalises you by as much as 1500%, over writing code that talks to the ADO libraries directly).
.NET has a lot to offer -- and I don't think you will lose on the performance side, because, as someone earlier forgot to mention, although .NET is compiled to an intermediatary language which is interpreted, so, to an extent, is VB. Which is why the IDE provides such an easy-to-use debugger with relative ease. Trust me, the VB6 ide beats the Delphi6 one hands down, especially with respect to real-time debugging (you can actually change your code and carry on debugging without a recompile, for example).
.NET isn't minor, as someone else would suggest. For one thing, .NET kind of forces you to go OO, where VB hid that from you if you didn't want to know about it. VB.NET isn't a simple hop from VB6 -- yes, the syntax is nearly exactly the same, but you have to learn the underlying libraries and code structure as well. There is a curve there, but it may well be worth it because of the compile-once-run-anywhere concept of .NET.
.NET). I originally met with postivity, and showed a migration route, even taking the time to put together and lecture notes on what one needed to know to migrate from ASP to PHP. I even built a mechanism for sharing the session between ASP and PHP pages with relative ease, so that a hybrid environment could exist. And after some time, because my boss didn't take it on, my fellow workers didn't bother. I know that today, they are even looking at re-writing a system I wrote in ASP, now that they have more clearly defined the requirements of the system, and realised that I built something far too complex for them. The point is, they weren't willing to move because it was too new and foreign, and they didn't have a driving force (ie. a boss with determination) to enforce the change.
VB6 is, and, in my opinion, for a long time will be, a very good platform for building database-driven applications for the win32 environment. Also, WINE has no problems with VB6 stuff, so a deployment method for "alternate" clients is the WINE route, though I don't personally offer that as an enterprise solution -- it's a work-around. But there are a lot of software houses that are quite happy providing solutions only for the win32 environment.
The move from VB6 to
All of this doesn't really make that much difference when I don't know your exact target. But I'm assuming that it's not a 3D fps, since that would be just nasty to code in VB (: . If it's database-driven, then VB isn't really your enemy -- but it would be worth the "free cross-platform power" to learn the VB.NET route. I think your boss probably wants to keep in on the action, and moving to a totally foreign language and library base may be a very diffcult move. I faced something similar at a pervious job, where I tried to show the merits of PHP versus regular old ASP (not
Whatever you run with, you have to get your boss to take it on first. Selling it to your team mates may be a waste of time. I would also urge you to choose something cross-platform, just because the way of the world is tending more towards open platforms. I could push any of the seven languages that I use on a (fairly) regular basis, but I don't think this is the place to start a sales pitch. If you would like to discuss this further, feel free to contact me. I think I've seen a lot of what you're talking about before, and I may be able to give you a more objective approach.
The question I have to ask is if you actually live in Africa. Because then you would know that the statement
"Majority of people in africa have running water and have electricity."
is actually quite wrong. For large portions of South Africa, as well as the more urbanised centers of places like Nigeria, this can be true. But you just have to drive 3 hours outside of Durban, to the Sodwana area, for a glimpse of what life is like for so many africans: small children pushing barrels of water down the road, because if they don't, then they don't eat or have anything to drink for the night.
As much as it's difficult for someone who lives in the Johannesburg, Durban, or Cape Town metro areas to accept, running water is a rare commodity for the average African. Electricity even more so. But for the African who has these things, who is on the upswing of the technological scale, free software is a bonus. Because that software doesn't incorporate the exchange rate, or the tiers of reseller profit margins or import duties. It's just free.
Free software isn't the band-aid that will soothe all of Africa's sores. But it certainly isn't rendered useless by the capabilities of the African people. That's my problem with the original article post. The original article is just another way Microsoft is trying to sweep their exhorbatent pricing under the carpet, all the mean while lokcing people in to MS platforms so that when there is some money to be spent, they will be there to collect it like the vultures they are.
Yes, food support isn't the solution either -- it's a temporary fix. But it's a temporary fix that some people need, especially whilst countries try to get their economies up so they can support their own needy people.
Thanks again, Microsoft, for providing more ammunition for the people who despise your business tactics and your complete disregard for your clients and potential clients.
Apparently, over here in Africa, whilst we are too poor to afford the exhorbatent prices of software (windows XP Pro costs about R1000 (+-$150) here, for a dealer, and more for the average Joe), we would also be too stupid to use it anyways, so it doesn't matter.
Yes, there are countries which need food. Certainly, for them, there is a more dire need than free (or even just reasonably priced) software. But people must remember that Africa is a rainbow blend of the complete have-nots, the have-some's and the have-everything-that-other-people-used-to-have's. There are rural areas where "running water" means the stream 5 kilometers away, and technological centers where IT forms the backbone of communications and business. The former couldn't care less about IT, free or not. The latter often incorporates small to medium businesses who are severely set back by exhorbatent software prices.
This is exactly why initiatives like Ubuntu Linux are fantastic. Ubuntu provides a lot of what a small to medium enterprise (SME) needs on a desktop, and it's all free (and even delivered to you free on a cd!). That coupled with an initiative we are trying to get together to provide the necessary business tools for a starting company for little or (preferably, if we can get enough sponsorship) no cost to the company are some of the counterweights that will help to swing the African continent out of its ruts. Because, at the end of the day, Africa belongs to the Africans, and the businesses which prosper are continually putting back into the community.
It's all about that "give a man a fish" idea. We're trying to enable fishers over here, not give handouts. And people who think that free software won't help are the same people who don't have to pay the oppressive price for software over here. Walk a mile in an African's shoes before deciding what he needs.