AVR-Chat

I've used Visual Basic (VB6) for years. It's perfect for rapid development
of certain kinds of applications with limited users.

Programs I've written with it, some of which are large and complex, are very
reliable. I have one huge program that runs 24/7 in my home to create TV set
displays of all sorts of home automation devices and to allow website and
family photo archive  viewing using the TV remote. That program is rock
solid. It has a real time task scheduler in it too.

 

So I wrote a fairly complicated bootstrap loader GUI for AVR chips using
VB6. I then decided to "get the religion" and convert it to VB 2005 (VB
.NET). Microsoft now has tools that automate 98% of that. The resultant new
program for VB2005 was running OK after I worked at it for a few hours.
However, I junked the whole thing. Why? The bloated code for the runtime
.NET was way beyond absurd. It starts with a 20MB download of the .NET 2
platform. Then my program runs with that bloat. My poor old AMD 1800+ PC
just crawled to load and run this. With 1GB of RAM. I swear I see dot net
with a ration of ten million to one - where that's .NET overhead versus real
application work. 

 

So I found a way for my VB6 program to take on the look and feel of XP
(.NET) but not have the need for the .NET platform. (see AVRfreaks.net,
academy files, BLIPS 2.1 project).

 

Lastly, VB 2005 aka VB .NET is so different than VB6, you may as well devote
your time to learning C++. Then you MUST learn Micro$oft's C#. 

For what I do, none of this is worth the investment of time and frustration.
I am not alone in this opinion based on what I read in the various forums.

 

Sorry to rant about VB 2005. It's bad medicine force fed by Micro$oft
kiddies who graduate and go there and never work in the real world of
schedules and budgeted projects.

 

  _____  

From: AVR-Chat@yahoogroups.com [mailto:AVR-Chat@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf
Of Ryan
Sent: Thursday, July 13, 2006 3:05 PM
To: AVR-Chat@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [AVR-Chat] "Best" application for a windows GUI?

 

I'm very familiar with visual basic 6.0. I need to create an
application that will allow me to manipulate a simple line graph, and
to get specified points off it (to feed to an AVR... i.e. for like a
LED brightness slope... if you see 1V (x) in A-D input here, put (y)
PWM to the LED) and I need to transmit this via serial to the AVR.

Is VB a good choice? Is visual C++ any better? I do NOT want people to
have to download anything, it should be a self contained
install/program. (I've heard of the .Net platform which apparently
requiers users to download some support file package) Thanks,

Ryan

 



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