.Net vs Browser apps

[StormbringerX]

Hi everyone,

It's been a while. Hope everyone is doing well.

My company has been maintaining VB6 software for several years now and it's about time for us to re-imagine/re-write our software. Other companies with less experience but slicker-looking (translation: more modern) software have begun to attract the eye of customers that we've had for 20 years or more.

Unfortunately, the VB6 has required a LOT of attention and I've lost some edge on new technologies, etc...

While this question may not be suited for this forum in particular, I'm hoping that someone here more knowledgable than I can point me in a direction.

One of our new competitors are touting that their software is browser-based which I assume to mean simply that the user interface is accessible through IE or Firefox (or whatever), though what the underlying software is, I don't know.

Another is .Net running on a Vista machine. I assume (again) that we are talking about a more modern look than the VB6, but the intricacies are a little beyond me.

Basically, a regular installation for us is 25 to 30 client PC's, probably half that many printers, and a single server running MS SQL. In some instances there are client PCs in different buildings or even in a different city. Currently, the software is installed on each PC using WISE installer and data access is accomplished using ADO, opening and closing the connection as needed to decrease traffic.

My question is: Where can I find information on the pros and cons of new software development types? Has anyone here gone through something similar? I've googled, searched FAQ's and the only luck I have is finding companies that provide software, but I haven't been able to find an un-biased opinion of one type of development versus another based on the needs of the user.

Thanks for listening and any help would be appreciated.

Dave

 

[RiverGuy]

This forum is a good place for questions like these. Here's some info to get this thread started:

* Yes, in my opinion, .Net WinForms generally look more modern than VB6

* One other thing to look at is Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF).

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/netframework/aa663321.aspx.

You can make some slick looking apps, however I don't have experience with it, so someone else feel free to expand this part.

* Web based apps provide the advantage of easier upgrades if on your web server. Otherwise, if your clients are running an internal site you built, you still have potential deployment headaches.

* ASP.Net allows you to write business logic and code in "normal" VB (or C#), to work with .aspx web pages. However, you still have the fact that HTML controls are much less rich than Windows controls.

* For simple apps, Click-once deployment is something to look at for an easy way to do auto updates and easy installs for a thick client application.

 

[StormbringerX]

Thanks so much, Riverguy.

That's exactly the kind of input that I was looking/hoping for!

I do need rich controls - our software is very much data entry oriented, so we have to be very interactive in our data verification and presentation. We can't have the user typing in 200 fields, pressing Submit, and then do the checking and alert them if something is wrong. We attempt to verify on each field since a single entry can determine how we validate remaining fields.

Deployment is also a huge consideration. We are at a central location, but out clients are spread out all over the State.