I currently program in Access97 and VB6. I really like the toolset that I see in VB.NET. I am trying to get a feel of how large the learning curve is from VB6 to VB.Net. Also at the company I work for some are thinking Access2002 may be a better route to try?

Any comparison between these products and real world wisdom about developing in them are appreciated.
Thanks.

VB6 = yugo
VB.Net = porche

If you can program in VB6 there's little you need to know to do the same thing in .Net, but there is a whole lot MORE you can do with it.

Peter

That's exactly what I thought but was looking for a comfort level in. I know that VB.Net is structured totally different than VB6 although the designer has remained much the same. I have seen an added level of complexity in data binding in that they have implemented a structure that includes something like an olddb container object, datadefinition object, and a dataset object combined to give you a completed recordset. What is the time required to learn these things? Also I did see you can still use an ADODC control for databinding but I would imagine that is for backward compatibility only and not the recommended approach is this a correct statement?

I would categorize myself as an Intermediate VB6 programmer do you have any thoughts as to how long it may take to learn these skills to be at the same level in VB.NET?

Thanks,
Ben

When I stared with .Net I'd say I had intermediate VB skills and advanced/expert VBScript skills. It didn't take long at all to get into VB.Net as there's not all that much that's not supported from the old versions. That being said, there are loads of better ways to do things in VB.Net so it's just a matter of learning those.

I've now been doing .Net for over a year, and I'm no expert, but I have learned a ton and would say that I'm probably up to intermediate level (4 on a 1 to 10 scale).

Once you get rolling with .Net, you'll find it much faster to build things than it was in VB/Script. If you have VS.Net it's much much better. I never did .Net outside of VS.Net. That's how I learned much of the syntax, by discovering things through intellisense. Also, take a look around a Namespace browser and you'll find things that are very useful.

I think all-in-all, you don't loose much by switching while the gains can come very quickly.

Peter

Thank you for your response that was the exact type of info I needed. Our organization was looking to puchase some additional tools for the VB6 environment and I found that I could get component one tools for .Net on their Recoure CD for free. This actually made it cheaper to switch to .Net than it would have been to upgrade the toolset we had in VB. Knowing that I can basically use all my VB knowledge and slowly learn the .Net advantage w/o incuring a large time expense make .Net a win win.

Thanks again,
Ben