At one time or another, most applications have to determine when a certain subroutine or function is executed and inform the user when an important event or an error occurred. Over the years, clever developers created different methods for these kinds of notifications. At some point in time, just about every Visual Basic programmer has tried using a...   Read Article.

As developers in the 1990s, we became accustomed to migrating applications from one version of VB to the next. We expected Microsoft to continually provide new VB releases that addressed feedback from the developer community (also known as 'identified bugs'), made VB software developers more productive, and took another step toward 'true'...   Read Article.

Last month (Vol. 2, issue 9), I gave an executive overview of the conversion process, and started looking at converting general VB6 code to VB.NET. This month I will finish general conversions, including DLLs, then start on database conversions. Next month, in the final segment, I will cover converting ASP.NET Web pages, and look at converting to VB.NET...   Read Article.

Hewlett-Packard, IBM, and Microsoft are all licensees of the same patents that Kodak is successfully suing Sun Microsystems for infringing, the Eastman Kodak Co. revealed yesterday....   Read Article.

This is the third and final installment in a three-part series. In the first installment (.NETDJ, Vol. 2, issue 9), I covered general conversion issues, in the second installment (Vol. 2, issue 10), I finished general conversion issues, and covered issues associated with database conversions. In this final installment, I will cover ASP Web page conversions,...   Read Article.

If you're one of the many who have VB6 code, you have three basic options: stay with VB6, convert to .NET, or rewrite from scratch. In this article, we will look at converting VB6 code to VB.NET and C#. I'll discuss when it makes sense to convert versus staying with VB6 or rewriting from scratch. I will cover what converts well and what does not,...   Read Article.

Sooner or later you'll probably find it useful to be able to create and manipulate combinations programmatically. By far the most useful kinds of combinations are string combinations. A string combination of order (n, k) is a subset of k strings chosen from a set of n strings, where order doesn't matter....   Read Article.

Sooner or later you'll probably find it useful to be able to create and manipulate combinations programmatically. By far the most useful kinds of combinations are string combinations. A string combination of order (n, k) is a subset of k strings chosen from a set of n strings, where order doesn't matter....   Read Article.

Sooner or later you'll probably find it useful to be able to create and manipulate combinations programmatically. By far the most useful kinds of combinations are string combinations. A string combination of order (n, k) is a subset of k strings chosen from a set of n strings, where order doesn't matter....   Read Article.

In this sample chapter from Effective Visual Basic: How to Improve Your VB/COM+ Applications, you'll learn 9 rules governing COM techniques....   Read Article.

Visual Basic 6.0 retains remnants of its BASIC origins, including line numbers, GoTo, and GoSub. Although most of these are now curiosities, some can be used effectively. Here, Scott Loban demonstrates a use for line numbers and the Erl function....   Read Article.

Visual Basic 6.0's standard string-concatenation tools are not the most efficient ways to concatenate many smaller strings. Scott Loban looks at a better way to handle this task....   Read Article.

Developers can improve the performance of their in-process COM components by assigning appropriate DLL base addresses. Scott Loban describes a strategy for Visual Basic 6.0 developers....   Read Article.

Just as in the pre-.NET world, expect Visual Studio.NET and the languages it supports to be the dominant choices for Windows developers in the future....   Read Article.

Get a feel for the C language and walk through the basics, while comparing it to elements in Visual Basic....   Read Article.

Database projects are special types of Visual Studio.NET projects which help you create and manage SQL database scripts. The Visual Database tools allow you to view, design, modify, and test database objects without needing to use a different toolset. This chapter shows how to use Visual Database tools in a VS.NET database project....   Read Article.

.NET Remoting is among the most advanced .NET subjects. In addition to replacing DCOM and being relevant to distributed application development, remoting involves threading, Singletons, security, networking, Reflection, AppDomains, the differences between marshaling by reference and by value, SOAP, XML, serialization, interfaces, and more. Paul Kimmel...   Read Article.

Instrumenting (adding self-diagnostic) code as you program can make a huge difference in the finished product. In this article, Paul Kimmel demonstrates the use of Microsoft's Exception Management Application Block (EMAB) to help you build bulletproof solutions....   Read Article.

The use of inheritance in VB.NET (or, really, any other) programming increases your responsibilities, during both the design phase and the coding phase. If you decide to create a class from which other classes will inherit, you must make several extra design decisions. This sample book chapter from Building Applications and Components with Visual Basic...   Read Article.

Inheritance is a powerful way of expressing the relationships between types and reusing code across multiple types. Paul Vick focuses on how to build a hierarchy of related classes in VB.NET and to reuse functionality defined in existing classes....   Read Article.