Hell no! :)

I've actually got nothing against the problems they're talking about, and I guess maybe a solution needs to be found.

I refuse to sign it myself for two main reasons:
1) I don't feel that the end of mainstream support is a problem for anyone still living in VB6 land.
B) The demans they are making - that is, the specific things they they think should be done to keep them happy are unrealistic and not very worthwhile.

Perhaps if all the petition said was 'We want mainstream support to be extended another few years' then I'd think seriously about it. But i'm not putting my name to _those_ demands.

:)

I think having a VB6 project as a potential part of the project system is interesting because you could add references to VB6 projects (from say a C# project) and that would imply that a RCW is created behind the scenes when the project is built. Likewise for references flowing the other direction.

Hey Mitch,

yep I think you are right on track with all you have said. I would add to that a couple of points.
(1) timeframe. converting a VB6 app to Winforms right now is not really a good move, unless you really really need to. Most folk would be better off getting ready for Avalon, and convert in about 2 years from now. One conversion instead of two. And that's roughly how long it would take to bring about a VB6 inside .NET to make that process easier.
(2) COM itself is not dying, in fact last night on the Eric Rudder chat the C++ team talked about COM and native support for VC++ continuing into the distant future. Yet for VB they are pulling that same support rather than enhancing it. Technically there is no reason to drop support for COM based VB, it really is because VB has been locked in to Microsoft products, Microsoft can more readily attempt to force those people to undergo expensive sets of changes.. Yet ironically MS wouldn't even dream of doing the same for their own code base, such as make VS.NET completely managed code, Office completely managed code, IE , etc, etc. So it really is a case of one set of standards for the developers inside MS, and another for those who trusted them with VB.

This is all sad, and really neeeds Microsoft to stop and listen (not just throw out rhetoric abotu support phone calls as if anyone ever useed them anyway <g>)

So why should you sign ? Well apart from standing up for the right thign, the fair thing, that Aussie "fair go" thing, and apart from standing up for your customers, well becuase you are a nice guy Mitch, and a sensible one too :) This does go beyond just VB6 in tech circles, it goes to the core of whether locking in to any MS products will just be lockign you into huge and expensive changes as MS sees fit. You have to remmber here that MS decided to pull the plug on VB part way through what peoeple thought was a logn term commitment. They weren't given 5 or 6 years notice, no more like 3 at best. You know how long it takes peoeple to train up personelle, get skills and libraries in place etc. Then to have it un-necessarily pulled really is bad. It's bad for all of us working with Microsoft products. It's bad for the develpment community as a whole.

Sure there are some jerks out there who don't use VB, who are trying to tear this petition down, but I don't think you'd ever be one of them :) It's standing up for friends, for mates, standing up for what is right. Go on sign :)

http://classicvb.org/petition