Robby,

Did we just talk over in the dotnet.general group about how all VB devs
should get the excellent VB Resource Kit
(http://msdn.microsoft.com/vbasic/vbrkit/default.aspx )?

Anyway...

It sounds like you're getting into things on the right foot. Belena's book
is one of the very best to have on your desk over the years (mine is all
worn out and filled with yellow sticky notes).

As you know, porting can be tougher than creating new, so get ready for that
and plan.

A great way to tackle substantial upgrades is a little at a time.  Taking on
an entire complex production system in one big chunk as a way of getting
familiar with .Net has a way to make people get very frustrated and from
what I've seen, makes many just give up.  After all, you're not only trying
to teach your fingers to naturally apply the techniques you've been reading
about but you're most likely going to be trying to figure out the details of
the original code at the same time.  It temds to be too many fronts to cover
for a single person's brain.

In my experience, an excellent way to get a job like this done, and it's a
common goal, is to take it one functionality piece at a time.  VB6 and VB7
(VB.Net) work very nicely together thanks to the technologiy called
"Interop".  With a good working knowledge of Interop you can slowly dissect
your existing applications and end up with a .Net result.

A good trick is to look for a feature in the app that looks like it could be
broken out into a VB6 ActiveX dll and start with that one, making it a VB7
dll with a "COM Callable Wrapper".  Pick an easy one first, and an easy one
second and once your brain has the general idea without having to search the
internet for every block of code :), you can start taking on the more
complex features.

This plan of attack helps out in a number of ways.  Of course, you end up
getting the app ported and of course you get the real experience, but also
it often helps the overall program needs because we often find that programs
that "work fine" have some cobwebs and hacks under the hood.  Plus, we find
that many legacy apps could have been easier to maintain (even without VB7)
if they had been broken into more components while the reality of
established apps is that they tend to become more "monolithic" than they
were at first release because of features being added with limited resources
and emergency fixes that needed to be implemented.

Having been down the road with this I would have to say that the very best
next step for you and your coworkers on the project is to go to your local
bookstore today and get Rockford Lhotka and Billy Hollis'  "Professional
Visual Basic Interoperability: COM and VB6 to .Net"

I think it only had a .Net1.0 version ... if it's at your store get it
anyway.  The main stuff you need is in it and the differences are nearly
negligible.  I'll bet you fifty cents that you will be smiling by the time
you hit the third chapter of this book.  You probably know Rockford Lhotka,
so you know that the writing is direct and to the point and aimed squarely
at the professional VB developer, it's not cutesy but it's not at all
boring.

If it's not at your store then rush it from amazon, they've got a deal on it
because of the death of WROX press.

There are other Interop books, some with more heft that will make you think
that your money will go farther on them ... I own most of them and this is
the one that I still turn to first and still get the most from even after a
number of Interop projects.  It's a crash course, a truly Solid foundation,
and it's in a syntax that will make it work for you.

You ask about a whole lot of other technologies ... but maybe it's best to
concentrate on checking off the first port, getting really good at just
becoming natural with the slightly different mindset of VB7.  Just get that
one book and keep it and your Balena on your desk.

If money is just burning a hole in your pocket and you absolutely hafve to
get more books :), then Remoting is probably the tech to read up on during
your breaks. Remoting has some substantial advantages over Web Services for
corporate Windows development.  The classic on the subject is Ingo Rammer's
"Advanced .Net Remoting with VB.Net" (there's a C# version too, they match
exactly page for page except for the code).  It starts out simple and I
think most everything you need to know is in the first half ... so don't let
the "Advanced" in the title fool you.

Good luck in your port!

Robert Smith
Kirkland, WA
www.smithvoice.com