CODEWITHSUNDEEP
winforms.net-corevb6vb6-migration
Sam Nasr
Sam Nasr

Reputation: 33

Converting VB6 Forms to .Net Core WinForms

I have a VB6 Forms application and want to convert to .Net Core WinForms. I know conversion tools are available that make that claim. However, I'm looking for recommendations or first hand experience in doing this.

Upvotes: -2

Views: 4016

Answers (2)

A. Niese
A. Niese

Reputation: 409

Manual may be best, but if you're looking for an automated route, I would suggest

  1. VB6 to VB.NET WinForms (.NET Framework)
  2. VB.NET to C# (.NET Framework)
  3. Upgrade to .NET Core

I do not have any experience with #1, VB6 to VB.NET.

For #2 check out this project https://github.com/icsharpcode/CodeConverter. It works very well.

For #3, Microsoft has a try-convert project to upgrade .NET Framework projects to .NET Core. It has worked flawlessly for me. https://github.com/dotnet/try-convert

Upvotes: 1

Kim
Kim

Reputation: 191

I just converted a decent sized app from VB6 to C#. The biggest challenge for me was the third party controls. Most tools can't manage those as most old controls are either discontinued or the interfaces are so wildly different it made no sense to use a tool.

I ended up just recreating all the forms using modern controls first. I would then just paste the old VB6 code where is made sense and worked my way through converting the logic to C#. In some cases I literally printed files to paper and read through them and typed in the C# code.

I wanted to take advantage of the .net programming model so I rewrote a lot and improved the function and readability of the code.

I have used tools and while they do help, I didn't feel it really saved me a lot of time. My "brute force" method helped me understand the application much better and helped me sort through errors and bugs easier.

In my experience it's worth the effort doing it manually. There really is no shortcut if you want to do a proper job.

Upvotes: 0

Related Questions