Campaign to save Visual Basic 6 gathers support (Rapid obsolescence...of workforce?)

InfoWorld ^ | March 10, 2005 | Paul Krill

[baseball_fan]

An online petition gathering signatures to save Microsoft’s Visual Basic 6 programming language will not change the company’s intention to cut free support on March 31, a Microsoft representative said on Thursday afternoon.

Microsoft’s plan to stop support has been discussed for almost three years and the deadline already has been extended once, said the press representative, who requested anonymity. Visual Basic 6 has been supported longer than any other Microsoft product, according to the representative. “Extended” support, which is fee-based, will continue through 2008.

The vendor has spent the past few years encouraging Visual Basic 6 programmers to migrate to the new Visual Basic .Net platform, which has had its share of complications. The Microsoft representative acknowledged that the company “dramatically altered the Visual Basic language-syntax in Visual Basic .Net.”

As of Thursday afternoon, 1,009 signatures had been added to the petition, at http://classicvb.org/Petition/. One signatory interviewed stressed the difficulties in moving to Visual Basic .Net.

“It’s a different language,” said Visual Basic programmer Don Bradner, who has been part of Microsoft’s Most Valuable Programmer community. “It’s like me telling you that you have to write InfoWorld in French.” …

The petition asks that Microsoft further develop Visual Basic 6 and Visual Basic for Applications, continue supporting the language, and allow customers to decide when to migrate code to Visual Basic .Net. An updated version of Visual Basic 6 is requested by the petitioners…

“Microsoft should demonstrate a commitment to the core Visual Basic language. This core should be enhanced and extended, and changes should follow a documented deprecation process,” the petition states.

But all future versions of Visual Basic will be based on Visual Basic .Net…The company has provided “a wide range of resources to help Visual Basic developers make the transition…

[sevry]

are at least going to consider moving to other products

I completely agree. Absolutely. Categorically. That's the actual, the competitive, free market. Some people in this thread seem very slow to catch on. If Microsoft chooses to mess up, other companies should benefit. If they wish to upset their customer base, then their customer might simply go elsewhere. It's not rocket science, as was a subthread here.

[Southack]

"You don't have to throw your old applications out the window, we still have a couple of COM now COM+ apps that do mission critical work. Our most important application though was re-written from the ground up using .NET 1.0..."

Oh brother. No, you don't have to throw out your old applications IF YOU DON'T UPGRADE THEM TO VB.NET! And yes, if you write your new applications from scratch, then VB.Net is fine.

But if you aren't upgrading your old applications, and if you have to move your team to a new environment for your new "from scratch" development, there are other alternatives to VB.Net (e.g. C++ and Java, among others).

What VB.Net fails to do is make a compelling case to "upgrade." That's why it has grown so much more slowly (especially compared to its full potential) than VB 6 did in original corporate acceptance.

[Golden Eagle]

...developers...

Thanks for all the underlines, I actually got a kick out of it. I actually always refer to them as "programmers" when speaking in their company just to see the look on their faces.

For a developer, throwing out old code simply means more job security, after all, that means that more code needs to be re-written.

You're selling my guys short. They write mission critical applications for the Air Force, and have the highest integrity and dedication to the job. Our apps don't work, the planes don't fly, it's as simple as that. And there's a dozen different contractors ready to step in and do the job, if we can't deliver.

[Golden Eagle]

What VB.Net fails to do is make a compelling case to "upgrade." That's why it has grown so much more slowly (especially compared to its full potential) than VB 6 did in original corporate acceptance.

I guess we all have our opinions, mine is .NET seperates the men from the boys some. Just like a lot of the bandwagon NT domain admins can't handle Active Directory. You can still run NT, or VB, you just can't get free support anymore. See ya round.

[Nick Danger]

Buy a sense of humor. I'm sure you can find one on eBay.

[Nick Danger]

Remember tring to sort out SS instructions from the hex dump?

[Nick Danger]

it looks more like whining that Microsoft support will no longer be "free".

Nyaa, some of the biggest whiners are the Gold Star Gurus in the support newsgroups. What they're upset about is that Microsoft won't let them write VB spaghetti-code and put it on the Internet in the .NET framework. There are some really terrible hacks out there practicing the "craft" of VB Programmer®. Microsoft is doing the world a favor by keeping them away.

[Bush2000]

Sure isn't. Did you see that thread yesterday where Bloody Sam coudln't get his Firefox download to work and instantly jumped to the conclusion it was somehow Windows XP Service Pack 2? How in the hell you could ever make that relationship as your first guess, I'll never know.

Yes, I read that thread. But, to Sam's credit, he was gracious and conciliatory after it was pointed out that nobody else was seeing that problem.

[Bush2000]

Forget it. I didn't think it was going to be that difficult for you to figure out...

[Bush2000]

Buy a sense of humor. I'm sure you can find one on eBay.

I don't find your support for the ChiCom's efforts to undermine the U.S. economy funny, Nicky...

[Bush2000]

First, Windows. Now, VB. Dude, you're wasting your time. Stop crying and go open source. You'll be happier. Commercial companies don't have an obligation to hand over their intellectual property.

[Nick Danger]

Well, I don't find your shilling for Microsoft funny either. In fact I send lemurs of destruction to invade your hovel.

[Bush2000]

That's not very nice, Phil.

[sevry]

Forget it.

That's the complaint against Microsoft - that they're saying to their paying customer . . forget you. Well, I'm saying - there are consequences. If Microsoft gives the impression that it's not listening to its customers, provides even worse 'solutions' and support, products inferior in ways to previous products, its customers might seek out a more attentive ear. That's all I'm saying. Call it the competitive free market, as opposed to a fixed or rigged market. The former is preferable. Keeps people honest.

[Bush2000]

Tell me something, Lee Harvey. Are you capable of answering my original question -- or is this just an excuse for an incoherent rant for you?

[longtermmemmory]

so for us non programmers is there something out there that is the equivalent of the old basic? Something that is easy to pick up?

[Bush2000]

Oops ... I meant ... Robert...

[sevry]

an incoherent rant

If you disagree with something I wrote, say what it is. If you don't tell me, you can't expect me to guess what it is.

[Bush2000]

http://basic.mindteq.com/

[Bush2000]

I already have, moron. Move on...