VB: 6 vs. .NET

[red_Marvin]

What's the difference between VB6 and VB.NET also what's
this .NET thing anyway...

I'm take a programming class now (For all speaking swedish: programmering A)
and we program VB, and I am thinking about buying VB myself.
But the only verision I have found so far is .NET, so I wonder what's
the difference?

Also can I implement stuff like OGL and/or DX in VB?

EDIT:: If so how is the performance comparing to C++?

[Sterling Christensen]

Definitely slower than C++, but not too bad.

The .NET version of VB has some weird syntax changes, and VB 6 uses the traditional VB syntax, so you'll probably want to get whichever one your class is using unless you'd like to learn both.

C# and VB.NET both compile to the same intermediary .NET language, so VB.NET should be just as fast as C sharp. People cannot run your VB.NET programs unless they have the .NET framework installed (comes with XP and downloadable via Windows Update for Win98 I think).

VB 6 doesn't require or even use the .NET framework. It compiles native executables (like C++) that require only a dll file (I think the dll file's name is something like VBRUN60.DLL). I don't know how fast it is, but I know that you can do DirectX/OpenGL etc.

[relsoft]

FlingMaster made a nice zelda game in VB6+DX, you should ask him how.

[adosorken]

The runtime is called MSVBVM60.DLL, but it also requires the OLE Automation DLL (which is usually already installed). XP comes with all of that pre-installed, so no need to distribute runtimes for XP users (thankfully). VB.NET is proclaimed to be quite a bit faster, but it's so convulted that it's difficult to even call it BASIC anymore...