Visual Basic .NET - Visual Basic (VB) v/s Visual Basic .NET (VB.NET)

Visual Basic (VB) and Visual Basic .NET (VB.NET) are both programming languages developed by Microsoft. VB was first introduced in the 1990s and was widely used for building desktop applications, while VB.NET was introduced in 2002 and is designed to work with the .NET Framework.

Here are some key differences between VB and VB.NET:

• Syntax: VB and VB.NET have different syntax. VB.NET uses a syntax that is more similar to other .NET languages such as C# and Java, while VB uses a syntax that is more similar to classic BASIC.
• Object-Oriented Programming (OOP): VB.NET fully supports OOP, while VB does not. VB.NET allows developers to create classes, interfaces, and other OOP concepts, which makes it easier to build complex applications.
• Garbage Collection: VB.NET includes automatic memory management through the use of garbage collection, which was not present in VB. This means that in VB.NET, developers do not have to manually allocate and deallocate memory.
• Platform Support: VB runs on Windows operating systems, while VB.NET can be used to build applications that run on any operating system that supports the .NET Framework.
• Compatibility: VB.NET is not backward compatible with VB. This means that applications written in VB cannot be directly ported to VB.NET without significant modifications.
• Development Environment: VB.NET uses the Visual Studio development environment, while VB has its own development environment called Visual Basic 6.0.
• Data Types: VB.NET has more data types than VB, including Boolean, Char, Date, and Decimal.
• Security: VB.NET includes a number of security features, such as code access security and role-based security, that were not present in VB.