Best IDE/compiler for VB6 or VB.net

[OfF3nSiV3]

Hey!

I'm going to start programming Visual Basic and i'd like some alternatives other than the products from Microsoft.

Google hasn't been a friend of mine in this matter nor the search on this forum. =S

So i hope you guys will be my friends! =D

What i'm looking for is a "Bloodshed's Dev-C++" type for Visual Basic.

What do you guys suggest?

Edited March 18, 2006 by OfF3nSiV3

[AltecXP]

far as i know MS is the ONLY ide

[Linkinfamous]

Don't compare vb6 to vb.net. They may share some syntax, but they are two totally different beasts.

For IDEs, You have Visual Studio .NET in its major flavors (The free Express editions are nice.), and you have #Develop (SharpDevelop). Personally, I find that while #develop is nice to keep on a flash drive, it doesn't even come close to Visual Studio. Nothing does, really.

As for compilers, in the background you're really only using Microsoft's compiler...unless you use mono. It's built into both IDEs, but if you want to, you can compile vb.net code on any machine with the .NET Framework. You don't even need the SDK. You'll find VBC.EXE in the Microsoft.NET\Framework\vX.X.XXXX\ directory.

[Winston]

I absolutely agree that nothing comes close to VS, that's so true, it's because MS knows their own technology so well, they've modelled the best tool which integrates with the language.

If you're conscious about downloading warez, you can get the Visual Basic.NET 2005 Express edition for free from the MSDN website.

You could always just download your favourite text editor and code in that, and compiler with vbc in the .NET SDK, remember that if you're intending to do any sort of GUI work, you'll need a good IDE to speed up the process, and Visual Studio is obviously the best candidate.

But i mean if you want to code raw, doing a GUI in .net is the easiest ever, in comparison to Java's Swing API.

[Linkinfamous]

  Winston said:

You could always just download your favourite text editor and code in that, and compiler with vbc in the .NET SDK

Why does everything everywhere (Even microsoft's website) say that vbc is included in the SDK? It's included in a fresh install of the framework itself.

[Leddy]

MS has the best tools hands down. If you don't want to pay, just us VB .NET 2005 Express Edition.

[MoNoXiDe]

Why don't you want to use Visual Studio?

[James123]

  MoNoXiDe said:

Why don't you want to use Visual Studio?

Possibly because it costs ?550+ and he's only just starting to learn the language?

[Linkinfamous]

  James123 said:

Possibly because it costs ?550+ and he's only just starting to learn the language?

That's why Microsoft has the[bfree>[/b]> Express Editions of Visual Studio.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/

[James123]

I was actually meant for VB6 but I guess the express editions are OK for beginners of VB.NET

edit: I'm also curious if you're learning a .NET language why not try C# instead, imo it's better because the syntax is at least a little bit similar to other languages unlike VB.

Edited March 18, 2006 by James123

[Linkinfamous]

  James123 said:

and he's only just starting to learn the language

The express editions don't limit anything you'd need when you are starting out.

Edit:

You beat me to it :D