WinLab Reviews Software Visual Basic 5.0, Professional
Edition Visual Basic Looks
Better and Better
-- by James E. Powell
From first launch of your Visual Basic app to final compilation,
one thing is clear: Visual Basic (VB) 5.0 is something very
special. In many ways, this professional development tool rivals
those found in a C++ environment.
The package opens with the new Gallery, similar to Microsoft
Office's opening dialog boxes. It lets you choose to build a new
application from existing templates or from scratch. The Gallery's
Application Wizard, the new feature most likely to cut development
time, prompts you to specify which elements to include in your new
app-from a splash screen and About window to data entry forms for
flat-files. The Application Wizard creates single or multiple
document interfaces or an app that resembles Microsoft Explorer. In
our tests, it had no trouble building a simple app that included
three data entry forms for tables in Access 97's Northwind Traders
sample database. VB's Application Wizard created the forms and
skeleton code, including a toolbar and a menu for navigating to each
data entry form, in just 27 seconds on an AST Pentium 166.
When you add a form to an existing project, VB offers another
gallery of standard forms (dialog boxes, Tip of the Day and browser
forms), plus a heavy-duty wizard to tackle a time-consuming
chore-building a master/detail database form.
At long last, VB programmers get a native code compiler based on
VC++ compiler/linker technology. However, the compiler does not
first turn VB code into C++. C programmers may be used to more
extensive alternatives, but the compiler's optimization options do
let you choose between small and fast code, take advantage of a
Pentium Pro chip, and remove array bounds checking or floating point
error checks. The sample database app we created took just 32
seconds to compile. You can choose to create a symbolic debugging
file, then debug your program within the Visual C++ environment (so
you can trace through calls between your VB and C++ executables)
The compiler can be run from the command line. The program
maintains the ability to generate p-code (pseudo code, used by
previous VB releases) when size is more important than speed. P-code
files are about 30 percent smaller.
Microsoft has paid careful attention to the speed of VB forms. In
previous versions, forms containing two dozen or more controls (such
as a data entry screen full of text boxes) seemed to take forever.
Each control would often seem to appear individually. Borland's
Delphi surpassed VB for speedier performance of the app (granted,
having a compiler in Delphi also helped). The trouble was that when
you distributed a VB app, it just did not have the zip of commercial
applications. VB apps, though extremely powerful, were ponderous
performers.
No more. Microsoft says forms can appear more than 17 times
faster, depending on what's contained, and that most controls, such
as the tab control, are also faster in this release. Even working
with our beta version, which may not have been fully optimized, we
can confirm that splash screens, for example, really do make a
splash now.
As you'd expect, this latest version pays homage to the Web.
Besides creating controls that can be placed on a Web page, you can
create an Active Document executable. In a nutshell, an Active
Document program is one that seamlessly runs within Internet
Explorer. If you don't violate the rules of Web interface design,
you need not worry about writing extra code-just run the ActiveX
Document Migration Wizard and choose which parts of your app you
want to run on the Web. Even exceptions are handled gracefully. Now
included is a Web browser OCX for Web-enabling your program.
VB has grown and added more intricate features. Books Online, its
new, comprehensive help system, organizes topics in hierarchical
form similar to Microsoft's Developer Network, a subscription CD
service. Books Online, friendlier in tone than the previously dry
online help, gives real-world examples and explanations that bring
complex concepts to life.
There's much more in the package. The interface is identical to
that of the Control Creation Edition we previously reviewed (see
What's Hot, March). It lets you keep multiple projects open
simultaneously, automatically displays methods and properties in the
code window when you press the "dot" after an object and offers a
debugger that lets you hover over a variable to see its value. You
can view properties alphabetically or by category, while the
enhanced Object Browser offers easy access to project modules and
procedures. In Debug mode, VB5 offers visual clues for breakpoints,
current line of execution, bookmarks and CallStack markers. The
Immediate window has also been updated; now you can run code at
design time and in Break mode. Tools for manipulating objects on a
form (alignment, vertical and horizontal spacing, and consistent
sizing) are a welcome improvement.
Thankfully, the VB environment can occupy the entire screen, not
take up bits and pieces as it has in earlier versions. Now that the
Desktop doesn't show through, the IDE is far less distracting.
Besides the standard executable files, you can create ActiveX
executables, DLLs and controls. The Setup Wizard has been enhanced
to support distribution over the Internet, but it's still a weak
point. You'll do better with a more powerful installation creator,
such as the Wise Installation System from Great Lakes Business
Solutions. Also new is the ability to raise and handle events in
other apps (such as a PercentComplete event) using the WithEvents
variable. Component writers can now include enumerated values in an
ActiveX component's type library, making them available to
developers using the component.
The program also comes in an Enterprise edition best suited to
client/server development. It allows you to encapsulate business
rules into a class, with properties, events and methods, and lets
you set the threads per object (for instance, one thread per object
for printing) and decide whether to use a thread pool. Such options
are useful for, among other things, DLLs that run on a transaction
server.
The Enterprise Edition costs $1,199, which also gets you bundled
copies of Microsoft SQL Server 6.5 Developer Edition, Microsoft
Transaction Server 1.0, Transact SQL Debugger, Microsoft Visual
Database Tools and Microsoft Visual SourceSafe 5.0. Microsoft has
put enhanced distributed component facilities into the package, as
well as data-access features that include Remote Data Objects 2.0,
Data Access Objects 3.5, User Connection Designer and Application
Performance Explorer.
VB's compiler feature and new wizards bring it the ease of use
and rapid development support provided for over a year by Borland's
Delphi 2.0. (Delphi's newest version is just around the corner.)
Gone from this version is 16-bit application development-VB targets
32-bit code only.
Given VB's focus on leading-edge technologies, that's no
surprise, but it's a shame-16-bit application developers don't get
to take advantage of the upgraded interface, speedy compiler and
performance enhancements that put this software on our WinList of
recommended products.
Q UICK
V IEW |
Visual Basic 5.0, Professional
Edition Pros : Compiler; performance improvements
Cons : Cannot use to create 16-bit applications
Strongest rival : Delphi 2.0 Microsoft Corp.
800-426-9400, 206-882-8080 Circle
#682 or visit Winfo Online
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Windows Magazine , May 1997, page 158.
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