VB-.NET Refactoring Tool Adds VS 2017 Support -- Visual Studio Magazine

VB-.NET Refactoring Tool Adds VS 2017 Support

Mobilize.net now has support for Visual Studio 2017 for users of its VB-to-.NET code migration tool.

By Michael Domingo
03/24/2017

Mobilize.net recently upgraded its Visual Basic migration tool, Visual Basic Upgrade Companion, to support Visual Studio 2017.

VBUC 7.2, according to the company, provides 100-percent Visual Basic 6.0 source code refactoring directly to either VB.NET or C#. "VBUC applies additional transformation rules to generate code that looks as if it was originally written in .NET," according to a press release from the company.

The company describes its migration as a "lift and shift" strategy, in which VBUC does its refactoring magic using semantic analysis, which is based on lifting coding patterns of the legacy VB code and shifting, or convering, those patterns into their C# or VB.NET equivalents. That code is then converted to Winforms designer files, which can facilitate the use of VS 2017 tools and widget for further customization.

For converting legacy ActiveX controls, Mobilize.net says VBUC can convert to "inherent .NET components or to newer versions of third-party controls." Likewise for legacy data ADO, RDO, DAO, and ADOR connections, they can be converted to .NET "employing special transformation rules and helper classes (for some specific source/target combinations)."

VBUC also allows, via its ASP Upgrade Companion extension, the migration of mixed ASP and VB6 projects to ASP.NET and VB.NET or C#.

Mobilize.net develops similar "lift and shift" code refactoring and application migration tools for a wide variety of languages besides VB 6 and OSes: PowerBuilder to HTML5, Silverlight to UWP, and Windows XP to more recent Windows OSes, including Windows 10. The company was founded by former Microsoft veteran and VB program manager, Tom Button, and is run by former Microsoft developers and program managers.

For more information, go to http://mobilize.net.

About the Author

Michael Domingo is a long-time software publishing veteran, having started up and managed several developer publications for the Clipper compiler, Microsoft Access, and Visual Basic. He's also managed IT pubs for 1105 Media, including Microsoft Certified Professional Magazine and Virtualization Review before landing his current gig as Visual Studio Magazine Editor in Chief. Besides his publishing life, he's a professional photographer, whose work can be found by Googling domingophoto.

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