The advantages and Disadvantages between C++ and VB6 [closed]

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I would like to know the advantages and disadvantages between C++ and VB6. The reason I am asking is because I came across a website where they have source code for various programs that are coded for Windows machines, and they are almost all coded in VB6. However, I do not know a lot about VB6, and am trying to learn C++ at the moment, and I was wondering why people would code in VB6 instead of C++ or how they rank in different areas.

So I would appreciate it if someone could weigh the pros and cons of each language and really give me perspective of the languages.

-Oswald.

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I was wondering why people would code in VB6 instead of C++ or how they rank in different areas.

VB6 is a dead language. It was a Microsoft proprietary language.The VB6 IDE is no longer supported but VB6 applications are supported for at least the lifetime of Windows 8. Most (with many changes) of the syntax lives on in VB.NET (another proprietary language). In addition to the syntax, VB.NET and VB6 share the idea of "canned programming", where the developer just combines existing building blocks to create small applications very easily. VB6 introduced a large number of innovative techniques for this. It became known as RAD, Rapid Application Development or Rabid Application Development, depending on who you ask.

The problem with RAD, that it doesn't scale…

Probably you looked at a very old web site.

C++ is a general programming language standardized by ISO. There are also a great many other general programming languages, and many of them are also standardized. In addition there are general programming languages like Java that are not standardized by some international standards organization, but have sufficient heavy backing that it's almost as if they are open languages, in spite of being technically proprietary.

Going into more details comparing the languages serves no useful purpose.

You might read up on the old C versus Pascal debates to see why (these debates got pretty heated, so called language wars, but resulted in some classic papers such as Brian Kernighan's "Why Pascal is not my favorite language").

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VB6 is antiquated -- the only reason people would code in it these days is if their company had business reasons for not upgrading to something newer (like a large legacy code-base written in VB6). Even then, you'd expect them to be looking to move on.

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VB6 has been obsolete for quite some time now and superseded by VB.NET. C++ and Visual Basic have way too many differences to list here, but if you want to learn C++, it doesn't help much to learn from VB examples. There are plenty of books, tutorials and examples for C++ - in all likelihood, much more than what you would find for VB - so that's what you should be looking for.

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I am learning C++, but only after Python and Java. It is not suggested to learn C++ as a first language (that's what I got online).

I am interested in getting deeper in low-level programming an OSs so C/C++ is what I am aiming for right now.

I would say learn C++

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One reason VB may still be used is that in some companies (such as the one I worked for) we required financial analysts who were good at understand the math behind the business AND be able to produce applications that solved business problems. It turned out (as others have pointed out above) that it was easier for us to hire folks with good functional business knowledge and then get them up-to-speed with VB than C++ or VC++, the latter two being the exclusive domain of the IT-department developers.

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Basically if you are looking for low-level coding that offers more speed then go with C++, however if you are new to programming I wouldn't recommend it. However, there is much more overhead with C++ and coding can take more time. C++ also allows you to be object oriented if you so choose, but it does not force the paradigm.

Visual Basic is a high-level language and is pretty well noob friendly but is slower than C++. Visual Basic has less overhead meaning you can code a lot quicker once you get the hang of it. I'm not sure if VB is object oriented but I don't believe so.

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C++ is a lower-level languagge, thus programs will perform better... everywhere, period.

VB6 is a higher-level languagge, so it'd probably be easrier to learn. Actually it would depend on your previous skills, if you know java you'll have a hard time understanding VB6.

A friend of mine once said, if you know english you can write VB6 :)

Plus, VB6 is no object-oriented, while C++ is

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VB6 has since been superseded by VB.net. VB was and continues to be very "newbie" friendly. VB was easier(depends on what and whom you ask) to code in, whereas C++ allowed access to certain components not available in VB6. C++ was also significantly faster than VB6, though those type of speed differences don't matter much any more.

There are certain sites which continue to host/advocate vb6 code. VB6 support will be completely dropped after Windows 7.

So the main difference is that VB6 is a slower, (becoming unsupported), proprietary language that is easier to learn for programming beginners. C++ is a standardized, supported language that's quite a bit harder to learn, though its faster/more efficient.

For starters, I'd recommend a Basic dialect, be it Microsoft Small Basic (this is a newb's language), VB.net, FreeBasic, RealBasic, Auto-it or maybe even PowerBasic.

Hope this helps.