Basic Interpreter or Basic Compiler? What is VB.Net?

[paulwishard]

Hello All,

I want to write some simple basic programs on my Dell Axim X30. I am not well acquainted with developing applications on the pocket pc. What I was hoping to find is a simple Basic Interpreter (like GW-Basic) that would run on the pocket pc. I have also read about Visual Basic .Net . I do have experience writing programs in visual basic on a pc, so maybe this would be a more elegant solution. Trouble is, I have no idea how to get it to work on my Dell Axim. So here are my questions ... thanks in advance for your help.

1. What solution is better, interpreter or VB.Net ?
2. Where can I download VB.Net for free?
3. Do I develop the application on my pc, or on my pocket pc?

Please don't use too many acronyms in your reply ... cuz I don't know what they all mean. So, let's say I wanted to write a little Basic program like ...

10 CLS
20 PRINT "HELLO WORLD"

Is there an easy way to do this on the pocket pc?

Paul

[Peter Foot]

VB.NET code for the .NET Compact Framework is compiled down into intermediate language which is essentially a device independent "machine" code. This is then compiled at runtime by a just-in-time debugger. This is much better performing than interpreting vb at runtime.
In order to develop with VB.NET on devices you'll currently need VS2003 Professional. The runtime - the .NET Compact Framework is already in ROM on Pocket PC 2003 devices and above, for previous devices it's a ~1.5mb install.
With the next generation of tools things get a little better as .NET Compact Framework v2.0 will be fully supported in the .NET SDK so you can compile apps from the command line without any tools. And you'll get full device development capability in the standard edition of Visual Studio 2005, which is about 1/3 the cost of VS2003 Professional.
You may be interested in jumping in and testing the Beta - http://lab.msdn.microsoft.com/vs2005

Peter

[Robb Bates]

There is a development environment called Forward Pass (http://www.download.com/Forward-Pass/3000-2178_4-10226060.html). It's very much like Visual Basic. You can write code in either Jscript (built in) or VBscript (eVB run time needed).

It's abandonware. Totally unsupported but FREE. There is sufficient info on the net to be able to figure it all out.

You can also try the PocketDOS (http://www.pocketdos.com/) DOS emulator with DOS QuickBasic route.

Robb