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Readers respond to "Where has VB gone?"

June 26, 2006

My posting "Where as VB gone" generated numerous e-mails in addition to the comments posted by readers. Clearly, VB lives on. Here are some comments. (I've removed the names to protect the guilty.)

Here's a reader who certainly likes VB
"I use vb6 for 90% of my testing. If I need to use C, I make a dll and call it from vb."

This one echoes Kevin C.:
"The test engineering group still uses VB6 for test applications (along with other automation applications).  We want to make the transition to .Net, but haven't had either the time or the need to pursue it yet.  Most of the market still supports VB6 and until that changes (or we find some spare time) we will continue to use VB6."

Another reader reminds us:
"Teradyne uses VB as the language for their Integra ATE series (750, Flex, Micro Flex, Ultra Flex) - IGXL Software. So by default all their users use it for test programming on Integra(s) used in IC chip production testing. Actually it's the VB imbedded in Excel, since Excel if the basis of IGXL. The big problem with VB on ATE is simply learning all the Object stuff which can get a bit obscure at times, at least for those of us more use to a C like language on ATE." (The read doesn't work for Teradyne.)

VB is the upgrade path for engineers using code written in QBasic and Rocky Mountain Basic, as this reader has found.
"VB4, 5 & 6 are alive and well in the upgrade of old test equipment which were programmed in one version or another of Basic. The old Basic code  typically imports into VB quite nicely and VB gives the added bonus of a GUI operator interface which event driven so they can jump around or start testing anywhere in the program after a failure. VB4, 5 & 6 will also run on older hardware without having to have 10 gazillion megs of ram and huge HD, etc. It makes life much simpler. VB.NET is a bahemoth."

Others worry about the future...
"We are continuing to support VB 6 applications as well as some other sources for our test equipment.  But we are now at a juncture where we want to define our standard platform for the next few years and we are strongly leaning toward VB .NET."

Some have even abnadoned VB. This person uses Delphi.
"Sorry, we went away from VB a long time ago, for us we use Borland Delphi, mostly because of having to switch to Windows OS a long time ago after using Pascal. We are thinking of going to C/C++ because of the number of engineers that use the language in development, so that we can reuse code from the development lads."

Finally, one reader asked why use VB at all?
"Compared to LabVIEW:

It's more difficult to see program flow in VB apps.

I think they take longer to debug.

You spend more time defining variables in VB.

VB doesn't support hardware the way NI does.

One man's opinion maybe, but I've used and fought with both.  Yes, VB is cheaper, but the NI product makes life easier."
(The comment came from a reader who doesn't work for National Instruments nor its affilates.)

So, VB lives on. .NET may have many useful features, but the investment is rewriting code can be high

Posted by Martin Rowe on June 26, 2006 | Comments (2)