Sunday April 03, 2005
Sunday April 03, 2005
End of an era
The day that many Visual Basic developers have dreaded has now occurred. As of March 31st, Microsoft has stopped its free support for Visual Basic 6, a move that is obviously not sitting well with the large number of Visual Basic developers who still code (or need to code / support) the pre-.Net versions of the popular language. According to Evans Data Corp, the majority of VB developers in North America still use version 6 or earlier rather than make the switch to the .Net variety.
Unfortunately for those developers, the two languages (and supporting runtimes) are so fundamentally different that migration is difficult if not downright impossible. As a result the applications have to be completely re-written for the newer .Net variant of the language. The obvious question is whether this is the right time to contemplate moving to a platform that provides unparalleled security, portability and power: the Java platform. Something else to consider as a considerable value is whether you, the developer, want to (just perhaps) not put yourself in the same situation again, where a vendor who owns a given platform and language can decide to change the foundation your house is built on ...
Windows has gone through any number of changes over the years, a number of them incompatible enough that rewriting is fairly common (look at COM, COM+, ActiveX, etc.) ... the "Visual *" languages aren't much different in that regard. Java has changed as well, but rather than in a revolutionary fashion, it has done so in an evolutionary one, a managed change and moreover one that's been under the control of a standards body.
(To borrow a heavily overused phrase, Java has to answer to a higher authority ... namely the community at large under the guidance and authority of the JCP.)
The question developers should be asking themselves right now is whether this is the time to move to a platform which provides stability, maturity, advanced technology and is available on the platform that matters the most ... namely whatever one you need it to be on. Unlike Java and the Java platform, applications written in Visual Basic only run on Windows, which is the only platform Microsoft wants you to be on. Posted by brewin Apr 03 2005, 08:52:58 PM PDT Permalink Comments [6]