Could someone give me an opinion on how good a tool VB.net is for simple two
tier client/server database applications?  I understand it is now
considerably more robust (complex <grin>) but it would be worth it to me to
jump through those hoops, if it's a good client/server tool, just because of
what I expect VB's market share to be.

That is, I have been waiting quite a long time to see if some tool would
come along that would become the defacto industry standard for Client/Server
applications.  Even though VB.net is geared toward the Internet, it appears
to me that VB.net may be that tool.  I started in this field 15 years ago
using Paradox. Dabbled a little in Delphi, made a major leap to
PowerBuilder, and am now considering VB.net.  Since it is so new I'm
thinking this is as good a time as any to jump into it because it will be
new to others too.  The tool I am currently using is fine in terms of what
it does for my client, but I would like to supply the client with something
that is still going to be here in the future and that can more easily be
supported by myself, or someone else, if need be, in the future.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

I would say not yet but hopefully it will get there soon. It has a few too
many rough edges to beat out VB6, IMHO, for this type of application
especially if it needs to be done relatively soon. You actually have an
advantage in not knowing VB6, if I understand your note, so it might not be
a painful for you to switch now.

Once the first SP is out and it has Edit and Continue debugging, as does VB6
and I think
PowerBuilder, then I would dive right in.

Mark Lewis
President
Mark D. Lewis Inc.

Mark,

    Thank you for your response.

I think you may be right.  I wonder about my ability to pick it up within a
reasonable amount of time, but then, PowerBuilder is quite robust (complex)
and I am able to do reasonably well with it.

VB6... then I would dive right in.

I have seen some reference to this elsewhere.  I am not clear on what's
being said.  Are you saying there is no debugging option right now, or that
what is in place in insufficient, woefully lacking or what?

Thank You

VB's powerful (and popular) Edit & Continue -- where you can change code
while in debug mode and continue executation of the program -- does not
exist in the current version of .NET (and won't be in v1.0).

There's talk of it being added for the next version, but it's just
rumors.

--
Patrick Steele
Microsoft .NET MVP

From one PB Developer to Another, I don't think VB will ever be quite as
"easy" a development language as PB for straight client/server database
applications.  PB was designed from the ground up for Database Client/Server
application development and with the Datawindow it's very hard to compete
with.  However, like you I too am concerned with the future and do to it's
narrower market slice (precisely because of it original narrow focus) I have
always keep tabs on the other tools.  VB before VB.net just couldn't be
taken as a serious development tool (please don't flame me, that's my
opinion and was generally supported in the shops I've worked in).  C++ was
just to cumbersome to work with for major projects (especially with PB
available) though I did write a lot of utility applications to support PB
with it.  Delphi was a really good product but again because it was
"general" in nature it just couldn't compete with PB for productivity in
development of DB Client/Server apps.  I really liked Delphi and would have
switch presently to it if it had a larger developer base but I was really
concerned with getting to comfortable with a tool that theoretically could
die at an moment).  All this rambling does have a point, which is, when .NET
was announced I immediately starting looking at what it meant and have now
been working with both VB.net and C#.net for a solid 6 months.  I have to
say I am totally sold on VB.net it is EXTREMELY easy to use (there was
barely a learning curve at all between it and PB other than data access
options).  The current set of Data Access tools are feature rich and quite
powerful (still no match for the datawindow) but the next best thing if you
can't use PB.  For now I'm sharing my development time between the two
languages (PB and VB).  I've been using PB for 7 years and that language
will be around for quite a while (though I think it's market share is
shrinking incredibly fast) and from my limited experience with VB think it
will be a serious tool in the future and of course expanded skill sets are
always a thing to be desired.  Well I didn't mean to write a dissertation
but needed to let you know while I don't have a great deal of experience
with VB.net I think it worth your time to get to know it.  If you need a
good book recommendation I found Beginning Visual Basic .NET from wrox press
to be the best (a little redundancy since OOP is not new to PB) but
excellent in getting you up-to-speed quickly.

Good Luck

James Knowlton

P.S. feel free to correspond via e-mail if desired.