Okay, after reading that title you probably thought "Oh no... another idiot that knows NOTHING about anything programming related". But really... I've made a few applications or so and tought myself a bit of VB, but i never really looked into what VB.NET actually is... what's the difference between that and VB?
This is a complete stab in the dark, but I get the feeling it is basically the same as VB but you can implement the applications into an online document (a simple website) rather than using other languages such as PHP etc? I wouldn't be surprised if I'm a million miles off to be honest but I'd appreciate it if anyone can put me straight?
Thanks,
Mike

You're close...

VB.NET is a programming language of the .NET Framework. The .NET Framework is the latest programming platform from Microsoft. .NET makes a lot of common tasks very easy, and comes with a whole load of usefull assemblies to do common tasks such as working with the file system, e-mail, the internet, databases, etc.

.NET can be used for both web applications (ASP.NET, which replaces standard ASP) and Windows applications. Both can be created easily with Visual Studio, or if you can't afford that there's a number of free platforms out there, or you can code in something like Notepad and use the compilers that come with the SDK.

VB.NET is one of the languages that can be used to program in the .NET Framework. C# (C Sharp) is the other main one, but lots of languages can be used to code in .NET (J#, Cobol, C++, and I think Delphi 8 onwards is .NET based) however you will find that most examples on the net are VB.NET or C#.

VB6 is getting old now, and you are reccomended to upgrade to .NET. The VB.NET Syntax is obviously very simular to that of standard VB, but there are a couple of .NET differences.

For more info see www.asp.net and www.windowsforms.net

- Mina

Thanks a lot Minaki, you cleared up a lot of confusion for me... but what's the .NET Framework?

The .NET framework is the latest programming platform from Microsoft. Here's their description:

http://www.microsoft.com/net/basics.mspx

Basically, you need the framework to be able to do anything in .NET - you can download it from Microsoft. (There's 2 main versions at the moment, v1.1 and 2.0 - they're both widely used but all new development should be done in 2.0, it's quickly replacing v1.1.) It includes all the things you need to run .NET applications, mainly all the built in namespaces like System.Net.Mail, System.Data, System.Drawing, etc. (If running web applications, it integrates with IIS so .aspx files are executed through .NET)

Basically, with VB you'd probably use a COM object to send e-mail (such as CDOSYS). With .NET, you just add the System.Net.Mail namespace to your project and then you can use the MailMessage and SmtpClient objects to create and send the message. There's all sorts of stuff included in .NET to make these common tasks easy, so no more messing with COM.

I thought .NET was open source and Bill & Co jumped on the band wagon (amazingly now .NET is WIndows associated) "how does this happen".

Also its quick upgrades to new versions is giving me shudders just like java did. I would be realy disapointed if my last years apps needed to be sorted out just to keep with the current standard. And to top that off if its fololowing java's neat little updates you will find naff all works any more becuase they changed the method calls etc.

I suppose though when you have VS this is all transparent to you, but as a hand coding type of chap i would be realy f offed should sysntax change between v1 and 2 (like java kept doing).

But most of all what will .NET be in 5 years.

My guess is replaced. And before you all start chirping I will simply point you to Corba or java (the best things since sliced bread) and where do they sit these days?

Certainly not at the front, which is 1 major reason why I stuck to Linux Apache and php.


Ibbo

Actually the syntax of the languages themselves haven't chaged at all AFAIK. .NET v2.0 introduced some new things, but it's fully backward compatible with v1.1 - you can use all your old 1.1 code on the 2.0 framework.

Some things have been updated - like ConfigurationSettings has been replaced with the ConfigurationManager. ConfigurationSettings still works, but VS.NET 2005 underlines for you the outdated code and if you hover over it it tells you what you need to replace it with.

I wouldn't say 'quick upgrades' to a new version. v1.1 was out years before v2. And as I said, you don't even need to 'sort out' your old apps cos it's backward compatible. Hey, you don't even need to sort out old ASP applications. They still run.

Well thats an improvement over java where a 1.1 would not run under 1.2 etc. (nightmare). I thought VS would somehow box it off.

Thanks for the info.

Ibbo

The .Net framework is Microsoft all the way. They have a shared source license deal that can be accessed from here