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I would like to know the advantages and disadvantages of Visual Basic
and Visual C++. I am planing to create a software similar to Word97.
Which is the best approach? Which is easy, and time consuming?
I know how to program in C++ and VB, but not in Visual C++.
To find out what is better for you check the Forum here in Codeguru, there
are some very detailed discusions. It boils down to VB is 20 times slower
than visual C++ and a lot faster to learn and use. In todays computers
20x is not a big deal for GUIs but is very noticeable for intensive computations
If you decide to go with Visual C++ expect a hard learning curve, on the
upside Visual c++ comes with the code for Wordpad in the cd as an mfc OLE sample
and you really couldnt do much better in terms of code to look at. Wordpad
is very close to Word97 in terms of text handling (missing most of the goodies of course, but uses RichEdit to allow multiple fonts, allows huge text files etc.)
The comments in the Forum on
>VB is 20 times slower than visual C++
are possibly referring to VB pre current version 6. It now uses the same compiler backend as VC++ and on compute intensive tasks benchmarks (not surprisingly) at the same speed.
You can also mix VC++ and VB modules if you like.
It comes down to structure issues etc when selecting a tool to use. VC++ gives you the advantages of C++ structure - inheritance, etc etc. But of course has a longer rampup curve.
Depending on precise needs, there are lots of royalty free redistributable controls around, see eg http://www.becubed.com, RichEdit,
which gives you a quick start with a syntax highlighted editor for VB. [This is not an endorsement - I haven't tried this particular addin, but it's a starting point for your searching.]
Then of course there's the Wordpad source in VC++ freely available as already mentioned in previous response.
Cheers
DaveB