Updated: July 14, 2020 (July 28, 2004)
Charts & IllustrationsVisual Basic Developer Stacks
VB 6 is the last stage of classic VB before a major leap to .NET. Shown here are some of the key APIs available to VB developers. Almost every API that was part of the Classic VB stack was replaced in the move to VB.NET, illustrating the magnitude of the changes developers face. In contrast, relatively few changes are being made between VB.NET, VB 2003, and VB 2005, and the few changes are not wholesale rearchitectures like those that characterized the previous transition.
| Classic VB | VB.NET and VB 2003 |
VB 2005 | |
| IDE | VB 6.0 and earlier
(Required) |
VB.NET and VB 2003 (Optional) |
VB 2005 “Whidbey”
(Optional) |
| Language | VB | VB.NET | |
| Data Access | DAO RDO ADO |
ADO.NET 1.0 & 1.1 | ADO.NET 2.0 |
| UI Libraries | Ruby | Win Forms Web Forms ASP.NET 1.0 & 1.1 |
Win Forms Web Forms ASP.NET 2.0 |
| Other APIs | VB Intrinsics | .NET Base Class Library | |
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