DevCity.NET :: Evolving to VB.NET. Part 5 - Creating YOUR Top 10 Reasons to Adopt Visual Basic .NET

This article was orginally published in our newsletter. Subscribe to DevCity.NET newsletter to stay up to date.

This is the fifth installment of an article which discusses evolving to VB.NET from a previous version of Visual Basic. This article continues where part four left off - presenting even more .NET features that MAY be of use to you. Read Part three of this article to understand why these features are being presented.

.NET Technology	Feature	Example Benefit
.NET Framework	Generate cryptographic random numbers with the RNGCryptoServiceProvider from the .NET Frameworks Cryptography namespace.	Create powerful encryption keys encrypting your application's data.
Visual Basic	Use the 'When' clause in a Visual Basic exception handling block to conditionally catch application exceptions.	Create dynamic exception handlers that catch and handle exceptions based on conditions in your application - not just because an application exception occurs.
.NET Framework	Perform administrative functions on a Windows Active Directory with the .NET DirectoryServices namespace.	Programmatically administer user accounts.
Visual Basic	Visual Basic's unique background compilation provides squigglies - error detection feedback - as you enter code.	Be a more efficient programmer. Write correct code the first time without having to compile and backtrack to find errors.
Visual Basic	Use Visual Basic, the most readable and easy-to-write programming language available, to learn and use object-oriented programming (OOP).	Learn and user object-oriented programming faster with Visual Basic's readable OOP keywords.
.NET Framework	Create your own collections from the .NET Framework's generic collections classes.	Create faster collections with less code. (Visual Basic 2005)
Visual Basic	Use the My feature of Visual Basic to write applications faster.	Find and use functionality from the .NET Framework faster with the My feature 'shortcuts'. (Visual Basic 2005)
.NET Framework	Perform aspect-oriented programming (AOP) with the .NET Framework.	Create a feature - such as logging - you can apply to any object in your application.
Application Configuration Files	Use a .NET configuration file to store and retrieve an encrypted database connection string.	Protect your database.
Microsoft .NET Application Blocks	Use the free Microsoft Security application block to implement security in your .NET application.	Use this professionally written and tested code to check authentication, authorization, role membership and access profile information. Use 'as is' or modify - source code is included.
.NET	Create reusable code with inheritance.	Create a base class containing common functionality and properties then use it to create one or many new classes.
.NET CLR	Create and execute managed code to prevent many common application exploits.	Prevent buffer overflow exploits in your application.