My First Bot in VB.net

[Antichrist]

Well, I'm familiar with the Visual Basic environment. I've half created a calculator using Visual Basic 6, but school ended before I got to finish it. At home I'm using Visual Basic .net Version 2003. I've been told, and I can see, that the coding are different in both languages. I can see alot of topics bases on REALBasic, and other Basic languages, but I can't find .Net. If anyone could help me with either refeering me to topics, sites, or helping me with the code itself I would be eternally grateful. Thanks.

[BaDDBLooD]

I Have been working on a .NET Version of my Bot along with MyndFyre any a few other people.  It's quite a bit different than vb6!

[LordNevar]

I would advise going out and purchasing it, and if you did than you should of gotten a 6173 page book on how to use it. Atleast I did when I got it. If you did not get this book than I would be calling someone and demanding it, considering .Net is $100.00 and the actual software is only $45.00, the other $55.00 is the cost for that book. Now granit it doesn't have a section in the book designed for Battle.net Bot Dev. but it does cover just about everything you need to know about the basics of .net and a transition from VBE. There is also a book called VBE - .Net in 24 hours or something like that, it is also a big help and does only cost $19.95 at just about any book store.

[Banana fanna fo fanna]

I've half created a calculator using Visual Basic 6,

You need more experience before attempting a bot.

[Antichrist]

Oh, yeah i totally know I need more expierence than that in order to create a bot. I currently have a book title: SAMS Teach Yourself Visual Basic 6 in 24 Hours; I bought it before I bought Visual Basic, and as it turns out I could only find .Net in the stores. I'm probably going to get the same book, but .Net instead of 6. I've checked out a very source codes for current bots out there now just for an idea of what is going on in them. When I bought .Net I got a trimmed down version of that book you mentioned LordNevar.. mine's around 70 pages, I've seen the full book, it's 100x larger than my book. I found this option in .Net where you can convert a VB6 project into a .Net project. I've used that option so I'm not trying to figure out useless VB6 code. I'll check around the site for more .Net questions/answers.

[Falcon[anti-yL]]

I currently have a book title: SAMS Teach Yourself Visual Basic 6 in 24 Hours

I've read that book too except mine was in 21 days.

[Antichrist]

Yes, I know there is a 21 day edition, that I might purchase aswell. I would like to ask, has it taught you (in your opinion, obviously) a good amount, or would you suggest me looking elsewhere?

[hismajesty]

Start off with writing a bot that uses a CHAT connection instead of binary. It shouldn't take very long, the hardest thing would probably be adapting to the new Sockets class. However, if you want, VB.NET still supports the winsock control and can be added through the COM addition screen thingy . Although I have a legal copy of 2003, I still prefer 2005 over it - which can be downloaded here. I also have a book from Microsoft Press entitled "Destination .NET: Migrating From Visual Basic 6 to Visual Basic.NET." It wouldn't be a bad move to read that, as it's geared towards people who already know VB6 and want to upgrade.

[Falcon[anti-yL]]

Yes, I know there is a 21 day edition, that I might purchase aswell. I would like to ask, has it taught you (in your opinion, obviously) a good amount, or would you suggest me looking elsewhere?

Yes it is a very good book that contains alot of information about VB6 and is really easy to understand. I recommend it.

[Blaze]

http://lab.msdn.microsoft.com/express/vbasic/default.aspx <-- The new vb.net BETA...

Modifyed for HisMajesty

[hismajesty]

http://lab.msdn.microsoft.com/express/vbasic/default.aspx <-- The new vb.net BETA... Free for all you penny crunchers...

I already posted a link to the Express main page, and I don't think you should direct it towards "penny crunchers." As, for example, I own 2003 and 2005 both legally - they just need people to test their software, and 2005 has many nifty/useful additions. The only problem is even less people have the new framework than 1.1 so it's a bit more complicated to distribute an application. But once they finish ClickOnce that will be a sinch.

[Blaze]

but developers that install .net get the frame work so thats one less person to worry about...

[Yegg]

Another thing you could do is get used to reading vb code written in other bots so that u'll get used to it. After reading a 60-70 page tutorial it helped me a lot. instead of just seeing letetrs and numbers, i understood wut some of it meant.

[OnlyMeat]

I Have been working on a .NET Version of my Bot along with MyndFyre any a few other people.  It's quite a bit different than vb6!

I have found from personal experience using vb4,vb5,vb6 and finally vb.net that .net is'nt actually that much different syntax wise, but more that the fundamental paradigm has shifted more in the direction of c++, gone are the days when you need to place a control on your forms to enable sockets etc now instead you have a well structured library that you can use.

Just create an instance of a framework class and you can do pretty much anything i mean you now have true parameter accepting constructors!!, this was defiantly a smart move by microsoft.

Now you might say well .net is slow and not as efficient as it's predecessors but actually speed wise it's quite fast, i would even go further and say it appears faster than vb 6.0 although dont hold me on that as i have'nt tested it.

.Net is anyway you look at it an interrputed language just as java is, it uses a jit at runtime to provide native support compiling the pseudo assembly code generated by the framework.

There maybe some additional burden on memory using .net but this does'nt pose a problem as most machines now are in excess of 1 gig ram ( mine is ).

Final thought yes .net is different but the benefits you gain using it outweigh the disadvantages.

[Antichrist]

Well, I'd like to thank everyone for their opinions, advice, and other statements. I've used VB6, and I personally think the VB.Net layout and menus, toolbars, etc (although not that different from VB6) is better. I'll be purchasing the SAMS 21 day VB.net book due to high recommendations, thank you.

Thanks again!