Nearly 500 pages of .NET tutorials available on vbmigration.com

clock November 10, 2009 04:59
Today we've open a new Book Chapters section, that gathers links to the PDF version of chapters excerpted from the books I wrote or co-authored in these years.It's a bunch of 11 chapters for a total of nearly 500 printed pages. It's like having an entire book for free!

This new material nearly doubles the information already available in our Resources section, with details on the many differences between VB6 and VB.NET.

If you are a VB6 developer wondering what VB.NET has to offer you, you might want to check the chapters on Generics, Reflection, and Custom Attributes.



[WHITEPAPER] Support library and code maintainability

clock November 6, 2009 10:31

We have just published a new whitepaper:

Support library and code maintainability
In addition to providing 100% functional equivalence with the original VB6 code, VB Migration Partner’s extensive support library is the key for generating code that is readable and easily maintainable. This whitepaper busts a few false myths about support libraries by comparing the concise source code that VB Migration Partner generates with the code produced by other tools that don’t rely on an equally extensive library.

Happy reading!



"Programming Visual Basic 6" 10-year anniversary edition

clock November 5, 2009 06:24

In 1999 Microsoft Press published by first English book, "Programming Visual Basic 6". It was a 1,200 page book that covered virtually every single facet of VB6, the most popular Windows programming language at that time. It was also one of the few books that didn't treat VB-ers as second-class developers who highest aspiration was to put a bunch of controls on a form and write some code in a button's Click event.

The book has had an incredible success, far higher than even Microsoft Press expected, and quickly became the "VB6 Bible" for many developers all around the world. It was translated to 5 or 6 different languages. In Italy alone it sold over 60,000 copies (counting the standard and the pocket edition) and after all these years no other programming book has topped that number here in Italy. According to my calculations, it sold between 200,000 and 250,000 copies all over the world.

Frankly I don't know whether Programming Visual Basic 6 has been the most successful VB6 book every published, but I am rather sure that it has been the one which has sold for longer. In fact, I still receive royalties from this book, which is truly unbeliavable given that Microsoft discontinued VB6 seven years ago.

To face the demand from readers and to celebrate the success of the book, my Italian publisher Mondadori just published "Programmare Visual Basic 6 - 10-year Anniversary Edition". It is a pocket book with a beautiful, golden hard cover. At least here in Italy only another computer book was successful enough to deserve a 10-year special edition. 

Wow! Cool



My speech at Microsoft Western Europe Partners Summit

clock November 4, 2009 05:16

Yesterday I spoke at Microsoft Western Europe Inner Circle Partners Summit with a session of - you guessed it right! - Code Architects' VB Migration Partner. The conference was held in Rome and we could watch many interesting sessions from Microsoft people and other MS partners.

It was a short but dense, not very technical, presentation that focused on business opportunities for Microsoft Partners who will to operate in this narrow but growing market niche.

We got in touch with many companies located in Spain, Belgium, Netherlands, Ireland, and other countries. We hope to establish a partnership with these companies very soon, which means that all our European nations will have the opportunity to work with a qualified partner for all their migration needs.