Error "Editor doesn't support the extension of file .VB"?

Question

I converted VB6 project to VB.NET in Visual Studio 2008 but not able to open it in VS2010. Getting error

"Editor doesn't support the extension of file .VB"

Any pointers in this will be helpful.

Solution 1

As far as I know, even if you do a conversion, it will never be compatible. 2008 could open it with compatibility mode, but 2010 can't. You have to recode everything.

Solution 2

As far as i know, they have discontinued the support of conversion to VS2010. The only last chance you have is to convert to project VS2008. I have had the same problem with a huge project. And I was not able to convert it completely.

Even if you are trying to convert the project with VS2008 and if you used 3rd party components in it, after the conversion the project will not be able to run after some tweaking.

If you have a small project with pure VB6 that does not involve 3rd party components, then you can give it a try. Chances are only 50/50 for you.

Conversion in VS2008 Simple answer : Don't waste your time for converting it and then fixing the problem in it, just re-write the whole thing in .NET which is very ideal

Comments

[Ira Baxter]

You don't have to recode everything. You can get conversion tools and services that can make it practical to move a big application. This isn't easy or cheap. But it is more practical than "recode a big application" which often fails. Agreed, VS2010 (and even VS2008) won't do the conversion well.

[Victor Zakharov]

@IraBaxter: Well, it turns out that if you rewrite the app, it will become more maintainable - 10 times less code, faster etc. Yes, it takes time, but it pays off in long term. An average VB6 application, as written somewhere in 2000 is very ugly by today's standards. No offence to anyone.

[Ira Baxter]

@Neolisk: you have specific experience doing this successfully with a large VB6 application?

[Victor Zakharov]

@IraBaxter: I have a close friend, who has done this successfully. The application is responsible for insurance documents processing (mails, forms etc.), in case you are wondering. Lots of old stuff was removed, the code became much cleaner, better error handling etc. Back in the old days it wasn't possible to implement like that.

[Ira Baxter]

@Neolisk: and the definition of "big" is...?

[Victor Zakharov]

@IraBaxter: Dozens of million dollars gross written premium per year? :) Regarding lines of code, I am not sure, I think VB6 portion was around 5K. So you could argue about it being "big" enough. My point is that "big" is often defined by the amount of responsibility, not lines of code.

[Ira Baxter]

@Neolisk: that isn't "big". At 50 lines of code per day, that could be redone in ~100 working days. Yes, you can recode it if the application is small and you have some idea what it does. My definition of large is 100K SLOC and upwards, and recoding isn't very practical due to effort and the inevitable scope creep.

[Victor Zakharov]

@IraBaxter: Hire 20 devs? They should finish 100K lines in the same 100 working days, by your metrics. If you have a project this big, you probably can afford it. :)

[Ira Baxter]

@Neolisk: Software projects don't scale that way. You try to hire a organize 20 developers for a 4 month project, and complete it. Good luck.

[Holistic Developer]

Not sure what you mean by "you have to recode everything." There is nothing inherent that would prevent a VB6 -> VS 2008 -> VS 2010 upgrade.

[Ira Baxter]

(Notes dryly): Manual conversion: useless for big projects.