Object Libraries and Namespaces for Visual Basic 6.0 Users

  • Article

Namespaces may at first seem to be a new concept in Visual Basic 2008. However, conceptually, they are similar to object libraries in Visual Basic 6.0.

In Visual Basic 6.0, various libraries contain objects that are used to build an application. For example, the Visual Basic library contains the form objects and intrinsic control objects that were the foundation of a Windows-based application. You could see the objects contained in a given library by viewing it in the Object Browser.

In Visual Basic 2008, objects are contained in assemblies that are part of the .NET Framework class library. Each assembly represents a namespace. For example, form and control objects are contained in the System.Windows.Forms namespace. As in Visual Basic 6.0, namespaces can be inspected in the Object Browser.

Tip

Of special interest to Visual Basic 6.0 users is the Microsoft.VisualBasic namespace, which contains many objects and constants that allow you to continue using Visual Basic 6.0 syntax in Visual Basic 2008.

See Also

Concepts

Introduction to the .NET Framework Class Library in Visual Studio