Introduction

...or what to do if VB reaches its limits

VB is a very powerful language that supports nearly all modern technologies. What makes VB so powerful? I think, that there are three major reasons for that:

1. It is the easy syntax of Basic itself. If someone ever tried C/C++, you will see that the syntax of C/C++ is more abstract than Basic. If you take the time and really learn C/C++ it will become as handy as Basic, but the beginning is easier with Basic.

2. The creation of GUI is very simple. Have you ever created an application, that heavily used GUI and then tried to port it to C/C++? Have fun with it =(

3. VB is very expandable through its strictly used COM concept. Every component,that you use in VB (ActiveX controls, COM-DLLs(/components), VB classes etc.) are based on the COM technology. COM-Components can be created with nearly any modern language also with VB. Most of the COM-components VB consists of are written in C++.

Using components written in other languages lets you use the vigorousnesses of these languages with VB.

The main criticism to VB is, that the native VB language commands are processed slower than in other languages (e.g. C++, Delphi, Smalltalk etc.) But, hey, why not use VB as framework for your application and write time critical functions in another language? This could make your VB application rock. Take my GameAI-Lib as a living example for such a task.

In this article, I will show you, how you can create a COM-component using Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 and how you can use it within your VB application. The only things you need are the compilers (VB and VC) and a little C++ knowledge. You will see, it will be very easy.