Suitability of Visual Studio Standard 2005

Take a look at this [img:31a1l49k]http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdntv/episode.aspx?xml=episodes/en/20060105VBasicJR/manifest.xml[/img:31a1l49k]
<!– m –><a class="postlink" href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdntv/episode.aspx?xml=episo…BasicJR/manifest.xml">http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdntv/episod … nifest.xml</a><!– m –>
and see if I’m being misled. They demo an example where they use .NET functionality from VB6 employing something called a type library. Of course, the demo required a build from VB6.

Oh well, maybe I should just stick to scripts for a while.

Is anyone aware of any reason why the new MS Visual Studio Standard 2005 wouldn’t compile DLLs suitable for 3DC plug-ins? (From Visual Basic source code.)

I’ve seen some discussion in past postings regarding VB6 versus VB7 (.NET), with no clear answers. Many posters seemed to think VB7 wouldn’t work because of its .NET focus. But why wouldn’t a DLL suitable for 3DC result if the project wasn’t set up to use .NET facilities? Also, why wouldn’t Standard work just fine (versus Professional).

I’ve got Visual C++ .NET installed. When it was installed, it automatically replaced VC++ 6. So I can’t go back to VB6.

For academics (faculty, staff, students), the price for Visual Studio Standard 2005 is attractive — $54.

Although I haven’t tried VB.Net, I don’t see a problem with using it to write .dlls for 3DC. NET isn’t backwards compatible with VS 6, so everything has to be converted over to the new version. It has something related to the Common Language feature in NET, I believe.

Maybe Richard B. can do a better job of explaining the differences?

Richard T.

3DC uses COM to run the Plugins. VS.NET should be able to use the COM Interop mode to generate COM DLL’s – you may need to set this option for the project before compiling (not sure about VS 2005)

Thanks Paul and Richard the Other for your inputs.

In the process of reading about Visual Studio 2005, I discovered that they have individual Visual Studio Express Editions (e.g., Visual Basic 2005 Express Edition, Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition). The Express Editions are designed for hobbyists, students, etc. The price is right: ‘Free for 1 year.’ I jumped to conclusions, thinking that meant free for a year and then it shuts down not working any longer. Not so. Reading further, it seems the offer is good for a year from announcement. It expires in November 2006. My reading is that, if you download it before the deadline, it is free forever. See [img:3o5lcaky]http&#58;//msdn&#46;microsoft&#46;com/vstudio/express/[/img:3o5lcaky]
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It’s going to be a week or two before I can try it.

I installed Visual Basic 2005 Express Edition and opened CountUntextured.VBP (3DC Sample). VB2005 migrated the project from VB6. Project built without errors or warnings. Build generated CountUnTextured.dll and three additional DLLs, whose names all start with Interop. … . (Also a CountUnTextured.xml.)

I moved all five of these files to 3DC’s Plugins folder (after moving pre-existing CountUnTextured.dll away for safe-keeping). The experiment was a failure: 3DC did not even identify it as a plug-in. It did not appear in the Tools/Plugins list.

Since I am a babe-in-the-woods with any version of Visual Basic, this is going to be a struggle.

The problem of the dlls not working may be due to the fact that before version 7, 3DC was written in VB6. From what I understand, .NET is not backwards compatible.

Richard T.

The frustrating thing is that, when opening the VB6 project, it tells you that it is migrating the project from VB6. That, plus the fact that the extra DLLs that it built, smell like an interoperability layer. Couple that with what Paul mentioned about interoperability … .

I’ll keep fooling around with it and hoping that someone with a great deal more experience than I have will give it a shot.

I should mention something about the VS2005 Express downloads. The initial download is a setup program that acts as a manager of subsequent downloads. It works fine. However, the effect is that you have no installation files that you can archive to assure that you can re-install perpetually. (If your PC dies after 11/2006, you’ve got nothing to re-install from.)

There’s a manual installation page. They have the files in .img and .iso format. All you’ll need is an image burning program to create some installation disks.

[img:24vx0a1y]http&#58;//msdn&#46;microsoft&#46;com/vstudio/express/support/install/[/img:24vx0a1y]
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Richard

Perhaps I should clarify something… VB6 and VB7 are radically different from each other. I’ve just started toying with .NET and I’ve read that because of the CLR (Common Reference Language) and other new features, you’d have to have the VB6 source code in order to migrate 3DC over to .NET. Correct me if I’m wrong, Richard or Paul.

This incompatibility between the two leads me to believe that everything would have to be written in VB.NET for it all to work together properly. Again, if I’m wrong, I’d appreciate knowing.

Richard T.