Visual .NET 2005

I am in the process of teaching myself Visual Basic 6. I know that VB6 is "old news" given the latest VB development package is .NET 2005. Should I continue learning VB6 or forget the whole thing and start learning .NET 2005? How much knowledge of VB6 can be tranfered to .NET 2005?

 

VB6 is probably the most widely used programming language of all time. Its an excellent starting point. I maintain a VB6 install in parellel to nt VS.net tree so i can build from either.

Almost 100% of the vb6 skills you learn are transferable to .net, just note that .net is a superset of vb, meaning when you move over you have more to learn.

If you have access to vs2005, i'd recommend installing it as well. Start cross training early. Practice migrating your apps from vb6 to 2005. You might find that its easier to just use 2005 for most of your code.

I'd also like to plug C# as an alternitive to VB.net. I dont know what your programming goals are, but I like to encourage people to at least try C# out. C is what the win32 world is based on, and C# is a good way to get started with C without having to get too bogged down in the details.

 

C# is featured promanently in MS .NET framework. But what is X# that I read about with .NET 2005? Does MS try to improve or replace C# with X#?

My interest in programming is that I want to create programs that are database oriented. Many of my frirends and clients are road warriors. Laptops are great to do one's work on the road, but that is still one piece of equipment they have to lug around and with Internet cafes springing up like wildfires these days, it's more efficient to use these Web-based apps that they can have access to on the road using nothing more than a rent PC with a Net connection, basically turning the rented PC into a thin client.