Difference between VB 2005 and VB.NET

[RomoR]

What is the difference between VB 2005 and VB.NET? When I went to buy the
study material for VB.NET from Keystone Learning site and I happened to see
that there
is VB 2005: Building Windows Applications and VB.NET

Can anyone explain to me please?


RomoR

 

[Scott M.]

Visual Basic .NET (VB.NET) is a programming language that runs within the
context of the Microsoft .NET Framework. Visual Basic (the programming
language) has gone through several revisions in the last few years. Some
revisions have been major revamps and overhauls of the language and some
have been minor adjustments to the language (with new built in keywords and
functions added, for example).

Visual Basic 6.0:
Was the version of VB that was in use PRIOR to the release of .NET (1997 -
2002).

Visual Basic.NET (2002):
Was the overhauled version of the VB programming languague and was first
introduced with the first version of the Visual Studio .NET development
environment (VS.NET 2002).

Visual Basic.NET (2003):
Was a revised version of the VB.NET programming languague and was first
introduced with the second version of the Visual Studio .NET development
environment (VS.NET 2003). In all actuality, not much changed with the
language in this version, but the underlying Framework it ran on had some
changes.

Visual Basic.NET (2005)
Was a revised version of the VB.NET programming languague and was first
introduced with the third version of the Visual Studio .NET development
environment (VS.NET 2005). There were some new language featured added in
this version.

So the bottom line is that when someone talks about VB and a year (VB 2003,
for example) they are referring to the version of the Visual Basic language
you would use with Visual Studio (VS.NET 2003, for example).

 

[RomoR]

Thank you so much for the reply.

If you say VB 2005 is same as VS .NET 2005, why do they have to seperate it
in their website. Even the VB 2005 book shows in their website is different
than for VB.NET
(http://store.keystonelearning.com/WinAppsVB05.aspx#Products)

RomoR

 

[Scott M.]

Well, you can buy either the full Visual Studio 2005 (which let's you
program in any of the 4 .NET languages) or you can buy a version of VS.NET
2005, that allows you to work in just one of the languages (in this case
VB.NET). It's like the difference between buying MS Office or just buying
Word.

But, after looking at the link you provided, I have to say that it looks
like what they are selling is just lessons on working with the VB.NET (the
2005 version). They are not selling the actual .NET software, just lessons
on using it.

If I were just to say VB.NET to you, you wouldn't know whether I meant the
2003 version (which is still widely used) or the 2005 version of the
language, which has some new features 2003 doesn't have. So, when people
talk about VB.NET, they ususally throw the year on the end to let others
know what, specific version they are talking about. When the year is not
attached, it is generally because people are just talking about VB.NET in
general.

 

[RomoR]

Yeah its much clear for me now. I appreciate your help scott. Thanks

RomoR