VB6 programmer Mort is scared by the news he reads about the complexity of VB migrations and he is filled with mixed feelings about Microsoft.  How could Microsoft have abandoned me?  How am I going to transition my skills and my applications to .NET without completely disrupting my life?  The only solution available is either to stay behind of the technology curve or start an enormous effort to re-write my applications!!

A lot of Visual Basic programmers have posed themselves some of the questions above and feel frustrated about the situation.  The frustration is often based on a lack of understanding of the alternatives that exist to smoothly migrate Visual Basic 6 application and skills to .NET.

The myths about Visual Basic migration make it easy to play the “blame” game instead of trying to understand the issue.  Often, in making the wrong assumptions, we “write off” some alternatives without even considering them.  However, with training, support from automatic migration products and the use of a comprehensive migration methodology, the migration is not only possible using a fraction of the resources required for a rewrite, but it is also the right choice to reduce the Total Cost of Operation and prepare applications to maximize their future business value.

To help continue the realization of the value of an application when it transitions to VB6 to .NET we must first learn the facts about the proper way of executing automatically assisted migrations.

·         It is false that to move an application to .NET the only alternative is to re-write it. (This is the core of the myth I am chasing!)

·         It is false that Microsoft has abandoned the Visual Basic 6 programmers (Links to many available resources will be posted in this BLOG).

·         It is true that a proven methodology exists to migrate applications to .NET in an automatically assisted way (This methodology will be covered in future posts).

·         It is true that the Visual Basic 6 programmers CAN make the transition to .NET and they will obtain many advantages from it.

This is the first post and I think it is good enough to start the discussion.  I plan to post a lot of evidence to support the thesis presented above and erase once and for all the Visual Basic migration myth.

Do you relate to this story?  Do you agree with my comments?  I would like to hear from you.

Do you disagree with my comments?  I would like to start a discussion and chase the Visual Basic 6 migration myth until it disappears.

Help me in this quest for the truth!