Derivative Languages
Microsoft has developed derivatives of Visual Basic for use in scripting. Visual Basic itself is derived heavily from BASIC, and subsequently has been replaced with a .NET platform version.
Some of the derived languages are:
- Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) is included in many Microsoft applications (Microsoft Office), and also in many third-party products like SolidWorks, AutoCAD, WordPerfect Office 2002, ArcGIS, Sage 300 ERP, and Business Objects Desktop Intelligence. There are small inconsistencies in the way VBA is implemented in different applications, but it is largely the same language as VB6 and uses the same runtime library. Although Visual Basic development ended with 6.0, in 2010 Microsoft introduced VBA 7 to provide extended features and 64-bit support for VBA.
- VBScript is the default language for Active Server Pages. It can be used in Windows scripting and client-side web page scripting. Although it resembles VB in syntax, it is a separate language and it is executed by vbscript.dll as opposed to the VB runtime. ASP and VBScript should not be confused with ASP.NET which uses the .NET Framework for compiled web pages.
- Visual Basic .NET is Microsoft's designated successor to Visual Basic 6.0, and is part of Microsoft's .NET platform. Visual Basic.Net compiles and runs using the .NET Framework. It is not backwards compatible with VB6. An automated conversion tool exists, but fully automated conversion for most projects is impossible.
- StarOffice Basic is a Visual Basic compatible interpreter included in StarOffice suite, developed by Sun Microsystems.
- Gambas is a Visual Basic inspired free software programming language. It is not a clone of Visual Basic, but it does have the ability to convert Visual Basic programs to Gambas.
Read more about this topic: Visual Basic
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