Visual Studio 2005 & VB.NET....?

I'm just getting started w/ this whole thing and I'm trying to make sense of it all.
Please help.

Is VB.net the same as VB 2005, and are visual studio.net and visual studio 2005 the same.
If not what are the major differences.
I know there is a whole .net architechture, but is this meant to eliminate the previous non-.net languages, or is this just an addition.
Anyway, I'm interested in making windows forms as well as database manipulation. Where should I start?
I already purchased "programming VB.Net 2nd edition from O'Reilly". Great book but it only has one chapter on windows forms. Also it discusses the differences between VB6 compnared to VB.Net. It doesn't mention VB 2005.
I was checking out "Programming VB 2005 from O'Reilly". Seems like a good book. A lot more concentration on windows forms and web forms
Thanks for any help.

Visual Studio 2005 (VS2005) is the all encompassing product that provides a development environment for many .NET programming languages.

VS2005 will let you write Visual Basic.net code. If you are using VS2005, some folks might refer to this as VB2005 (meaning that they are really working with .NET 2.0 and probably are using VS2005).

Because there are two flavours of the .NET framework available (1.1 and 2.0), 1.1 was supported by Visual Studio 2003 (which provided Visual Basic.net) and 2.0 is supported by VS2005 (which also provides Visual Basic.net). Since .NET 2.0 supports additional language features that .NET 1.1 does not, the informal references to VB2003 and VB2005 seem to exist.

It would be better to say, "I'm writing Visual Basic.net using Visual Studio 2005" - this infers that you are developing for .NET 2.0 and are thus using "VB2005"

As for getting started, the books you mention are as good a place as any (cue other folks recommending their favourite Visual Basic book"!) If you are sure that the applications you are planning to develop can be deployed in a .NET 2.0 environment, I would recommend books that are as up-to-date as possible, i.e. those that specifically talk about .NET 2.0 and Visual Studio 2005.

If money is a problem (and when isn't it?) Microsoft have been kind enough to release free version s of their toolset. I would recommend that you start with Visual Basic Express Edition - there's a link below:

Confirmation that the Express Editions will be free, forever:
http://blogs.msdn.com/danielfe/archive/2006/04/19/579109.aspx

Visual Basic Express Edition
http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/vb/default.aspx

1 Reply

Know the answer? Post it — somebody with the same question will find it here.

Craig Murphy20y ago
Visual Studio 2005 (VS2005) is the all encompassing product that provides a development environment for many .NET programming languages.

VS2005 will let you write Visual Basic.net code. If you are using VS2005, some folks might refer to this as VB2005 (meaning that they are really working with .NET 2.0 and probably are using VS2005).

Because there are two flavours of the .NET framework available (1.1 and 2.0), 1.1 was supported by Visual Studio 2003 (which provided Visual Basic.net) and 2.0 is supported by VS2005 (which also provides Visual Basic.net). Since .NET 2.0 supports additional language features that .NET 1.1 does not, the informal references to VB2003 and VB2005 seem to exist.

It would be better to say, "I'm writing Visual Basic.net using Visual Studio 2005" - this infers that you are developing for .NET 2.0 and are thus using "VB2005"

As for getting started, the books you mention are as good a place as any (cue other folks recommending their favourite Visual Basic book"!) If you are sure that the applications you are planning to develop can be deployed in a .NET 2.0 environment, I would recommend books that are as up-to-date as possible, i.e. those that specifically talk about .NET 2.0 and Visual Studio 2005.

If money is a problem (and when isn't it?) Microsoft have been kind enough to release free version s of their toolset. I would recommend that you start with Visual Basic Express Edition - there's a link below:

Confirmation that the Express Editions will be free, forever:
http://blogs.msdn.com/danielfe/archive/2006/04/19/579109.aspx

Visual Basic Express Edition
http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/vb/default.aspx
+1