VB - unit test tools, source codes management tools, ActiveX DLL, ActiveX Exes

Hi,

To answer your questions:

1) There are some standard testing tools and methods for free. Any testing method can be used with VB, and some tools are written for VB. One method is unit testing, it is called ComUnit and you can find it http://comunit.sourceforge.net/ at that site. It is free to take and use, and if you are into unit-testing, it is based on JUnit or NUnit. Also, Compuware has a great suite of testing and proofing tools, called DevPartner Studio. The web-site is http://www.compuware.com.

2) There are actually two basic and general sourcecode control systems. One is Visual SourceSafe and is a microsoft product, tightly integrated with the VB IDE. Another one is CVS. Now, SourceSafe is a product you must buy from Microsoft (or if you have the Enterprise Edition of VB, it's included). The biggest difference is that SourceSafe is Server based, meaning that you get life updates from other developers. CVS is client based. That means you take a working copy and work on it, and update the branch of development with your changes, merging with other developers work. For information on SourceSafe, visit Microsoft. For information on CVS, goto http://cvsgui.sourceforge.net/. The great advantage of getting SourceSafe, it comes with documentation. Drawback of CVS, you will need to dig into it before you can set it up and start working with it. Personally, I go with CVS (because it offers client based view, and because it's free and I didn't get budget for SourceSafe). Both systems are good, it's up to you to decide wich one suits your case best.

3) There is a resource editor add-in for VB 6. You can add it with the Add-In manager. Just look for VB 6 Resource Editor and load it into VB. Using the resource is pretty straight forward. Good help is included with the Add-in and in the MSDN library.

4) Working in Client/Server environments can be done in VB. It depends on what type of environment you got, and how deep your knowledge of those systems go. Basically, any design pattern can be used in VB. For basic database access you will probably be using ADO. This question can't be answered by simple answers. It depends greatly on what you are trying to do.

5) The clear cut difference is that a DLL can't be executed stand-alone (doesn't have a gui) and Exe's can be executed stand-alone (has a GUI). Both contain classes you can create and instaniate (DLL as an object in memory, EXE as an object with a GUI you can manipulate). Both the DLL and the Exe can be used to provide back-ground processing of program tasks. You will need to read up on them in the documentation and gain a good understanding before attempting such things.

6) If you want to create objects that you can manipulate and interact with ASP, you will be creating ActiveX Dll's and put those in MTS (Transaction Server) on the web-server. There, you can call CreateObject and create the object of your interest. MTS will take care of processing, and you can interact with it in the same way you interact with the object in VB.

I hope these pointers can guide you to a sound set-up. If there are any questions or if I didn't make myself clear enough, feel free to ask them.

Grtz.©

D.