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Debugging apps that use Visual Basic 6 and VB.NET

Given the popularity and ease of use of Visual Basic 6, it's little surprise that Microsoft makes it easy to build applications that use both Visual Basic 6 and Visual Basic .NET. Developers can write applications in VB .NET and bring legacy Visual Basic objects into the new app, or they can leave existing apps in VB 6 and call into the .NET Framework to take advantage of functionality not native to VB 6.

One concern that arises with these so-called "hybrid" applications is maintaining them.

More on VB 6 and VB.NET

Special Report: VB 6 to VB.NET Migration

Can VB 6 and VB.NET forms coexist?
Debugging is simple for applications written in a single language, but when VB 6 code is calling into VB.NET code, and vice versa, debugging gets a bit more complex. (No matter how complex, though, it is certainly not a process that should be deemphasized.)

A recent MSDN article by Scott Swigart addresses hybrid application debugging. It covers both VB .NET apps that use VB 6 components and VB 6 applications that use VB.NET components. As expected, both processes require a bit of switching between VB 6 and Visual Studio 2005 -- but it's a small price to pay for a bug-free application that offers the best of Visual Basic 6 and Visual Basic .NET.

Read "Debugging Hybrid Visual Basic 6.0/Visual Basic .NET Applications" on MSDN

This was first published in August 2006

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