Rob Windsor's Weblog

TechEd BOF Session: Strategies for Moving Your Microsoft Visual Basic 6 Investments to .NET

If you're not familiar with the concept, a Birds-of-a-Feather (BOF) session is an open discussion lead by a moderator who is not a Microsoft employee. The sessions are not presentations, there are no projectors. Unlike the Keynotes and Breakout sessions which are mostly one to many communication, Birds-of-a-Feather sessions are many to many communication and don't necessarily focus on Microsoft products or technology.  They are about people talking with people - connecting, sharing, networking, and creating community.

This year I'd like to do a BOF session at TechEd Developer. From my expereince with the community at user groups and conferences it's pretty clear that there are lots of developers who still work with classic VB code at least part of the time. Many are still questioning what to do with this legacy code and how to move it forward or integrate it with .NET. So I've proposed the following:

Strategies for Moving Your Microsoft Visual Basic 6 Investments to .NET: For years Visual Basic 6 (VB 6) was used by organizations world-wide to build key line-of-business applications and components. Now they have thousands to millions of lines of code representing a significant organizational investment. Many have struggled in the past trying to move this legacy code base to .NET, many are just starting that journey. The path from VB 6 to .NET has not always been clear - there are options but there is no one size fits all approach. One option is to rewrite your applications so you can re-architect and take advantage of all the features .NET has to offer. Another is to migrate the applications so automated tools like the Code Advisor and the Migration Wizard can assist you. Finally, you can use COM Interop and the Interop Forms Toolkit to continue leveraging existing working assets while phasing in new features built on the .NET Framework. In this session we will discuss all three options and explore the pros and cons of each. The goal is raise awareness of the choices and the tools available so you will be able to pick the best strategy for your organization going forward.

So, if you're going to TechEd and you'd like to join in on the discussion, please head on over to the BOF voting page and add your vote. Voting closes on April 7. 

Update:
The BOF was selected. It's running on Wednesday, June 4 from 8:30 to 9:45 AM. I think to room is S330 EF but I'm not positive. If you're planning on attending please let me know the subject(s) you'd like to discuss by adding a comment.

Update (April 28, 2008):
The BOF was selected. It's BOF806 and is running Thursday, June 5 from 1:00 to 2:15 pm. If you're planning on attending please let me know the subject(s) you'd like to discuss by adding a comment.

See you then.

Un-Mix 2008

It was an experiment. Hanging out in Vegas during Mix without actually attending Mix.

The Experiment
It had been over a year since I'd been to Vegas and I was feeling the itch. I hadn't been to Mix in previous years so I considered giving it a shot. The problem was that I'd already decided to go to Tech Ed and was seriously considering the PDC so, while VISA would be very happy for me to shell out for Mix, my accountant would chase me down and beat me with her abacus. The solution I came up with was to use travel rewards points for the flight and hotel and then to beg everyone I knew for a conference pass. The first part worked out just fine but it turns out that getting a pass for Mix is harder than getting Steve Ballmer to make Google his default search engine. Thus, the experiment.

I've always thought that networking is a major part of the value of a conference so I decided to see how much I could do by just hanging out at the Venetian for two days. I was confident that I could find someone to attach myself to so I could get invited to dinner, drinks or some kind of influencer party. Three of my colleagues from ObjectSharp were there as well so hanging out with them was an option if I couldn't find someone better.  :)

Un-Mix - Day 0
I did an architecture talk at the Vancouver Heroes Happen {Here} event the day before the conference started so I didn't arrive until about midnight. I briefly considered heading over the the conference hotel to see if anyone was there but I was pretty beat and decided to stay at my hotel and lose some money at the Craps table instead.

Un-Mix - Day 1
The keynotes were streamed live so I started the day in my room checking out what Ray Ozzie, Scott Guthrie and the gang had to say.  This was definitely one of the better keynotes I've seen. I've been down on WPF since it came out (not because of the technology itself but because of the state of the tooling around it) but seeing NBC's Olympics app, Circ de Soleil's recruiting app, and the Hard Rock Cafe Memorabilia app gave me pause. Maybe it's time to learn XAML after all.

After the keynote I headed over to the Venetian to find the conference. I just looked for people with badges and walked in opposite direction. Before I got though the casino I bumped into Richard Campbell, Steven Fotre, and Steve Smith on the hunt for a Starbucks. We walked around for a bit, found the Starbucks in Harrah's and then headed back to the Venetian. As we got into the conference area I looked for a place in a common area to settle down and use some free wifi.

I've been to the conference center at Mandaly Bay before and there is a wide area with a couple shops and places to sit just below the escalators to the conference rooms. I was hoping to find the same thing at the Venetian but as we got closer I realized it wasn't to be. I kept following my three companions up a couple escalators and down a hall realizing that I'd stepped over the border into Mixville - the Open Spaces room to be exact.

At this point I had a decision to make, head back downstairs or stay where I was and be inconspicuous - I chose the latter. I plopped myself down in a white canvas chair (wondering if I was ever going to get my developer sized butt out of the thing) and hung out with the guys. Mark Dunn was there and so was a slightly "tired" Miguel Castro. About five minutes after we got there, Carl Franklin came over and busted out his guitar.

Now, if you want to do some networking, hanging out with Carl and Richard is the place to be. They are definitely people magnets. I had a chance to catch up with a bunch of people I only get to see at conferences and had a great time. At one point Josh Holmes came over and asked me to follow him. I saw Josh doing video interviews earlier so I was concerned that he wanted to interview me. It turned out that he just wanted to hook me up with a guy who was looking for information on user groups in the Toronto area. After we spoke though, Josh did come over and interview the people I was hanging out with. Luckily he started with Carl who was opposite me so I kept my mouth shut hoping Josh wouldn't swing the camera my way - he didn't. It turns out that it was a mute point anyway because at the same time someone else was doing an interview about 10 feet away with me clearly in the background. So much for staying inconspicuous.

Microsoft Regional Directors React to the Keynote
http://www.visitmix.com/blogs/OpenSpace/Microsoft-Regional-Directors-React-to-the-Keynote/

On IE8, Silverlight and the Keynote
http://www.visitmix.com/blogs/OpenSpace/On-IE8-Silverlight-and-the-Keynote/

Towards the end of the day I spent some time with Derek Hatchard and made plans to sit down with him the next day to record some audio for his podcast. As the day waned people started heading out to get ready for the attendee party. I wasn't ballsy enough to try and crash that so I headed back to my hotel for some dinner and to give away some more of my money to the delightful people at the Craps table.

Un-Mix - Day 2
After pressing my luck the previous day I decided to spend most of day two in my room catching up on email and relaxing. I'd made plans to meet Derek in the late afternoon to record the podcast and then had an official invite to a Canadian attendee gathering at the V-Bar. 

I met Derek about 6:00 and we found a quiet place in a hallway to record. We talked about WCF and the goings on at Mix for more than an hour. I'm certain it would have been recorded in the annals of time as the greatest podcast ever but Derek decided to format the hard drive in his laptop without backing up the files first. We'll be re-recording tomorrow.

My final bit of Un-Mix 2008 was spent at the party at the V-Bar. I had a chance to catch up with my ObjectSharp colleagues and meet some people over drinks. The most interesting part of the night was watching the servers. It was very obvious that they were anxious for the geeks to leave so the swanky, jet-set crowd could come in and start tipping.

Summary
All-in-all it was a good time but I'm not sure if I'm going to do Un-Mix 2009. If I do, I need to get a decent area to hang out at the bottom of the escalator. I'll also podcast/videocast my experience.

Webcast: Migrating Your Visual Basic 6 Investments to .NET

I'll be doing my first webcast tomorrow with Beth Massi on VB 6.0 to .NET integration and migration.

Visual Basic (VB) 6 was used by millions of developers world-wide to build applications ranging from thousands to millions of lines of code representing significant organizational investments. The path from VB 6 to .NET has not always been clear, there is no one size fits all approach. We’ll cut to the chase, exploring the pros and cons of each option using real world examples. You will leave this webcast with the framework and tools to develop the right strategy for your organization to leverage your existing investments while taking advantage of the power and productivity the .NET Framework provides.

The webcast starts at Noon EST, hope to see you there.

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032371436&EventCategory=4&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US

"How Do I" Videos on the VB Developer Center

The VB Team has added about 50 "How Do I" videos to the VB Developer Center. The topics include Forms over Data, Windows Development, Office Development, Security, and so on. Most of the videos are 20 minutes or less so there a great way to get up to speed on a topic really quickly.

You can check them out at:

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/vbasic/bb466226.aspx