Clarity-Developed Interop Forms Toolkit Released By Microsoft
Chicago-based software development consulting firm Clarity Consulting, Inc. (www.claritycon.com) announced today that its Interop Forms Toolkit, version 1.0, was released by Microsoft Corp. The free Visual Studio Add-in is available for download on MSDN. Aimed at simplifying the process of displaying and interacting with .NET WinForms from a Visual Basic 6 application, the Toolkit, developed exclusively for Microsoft by Clarity Consulting, Inc., guides companies through a VB6-to-.NET migration path enabling them to add value to their existing line-of-business applications. The Toolkit allows developers to leverage the latest .NET WinForms technologies from within Visual Basic 6 applications without writing infrastructure and interop code. Instead of migrating a Visual Basic 6 application in its entirety over a long period of time, the result is a “phased” upgrade with multiple production releases containing both Visual Basic 6 and Visual Basic .NET forms running in the same Visual Basic 6 process. The Clarity development team, led by Bryan Dougherty and Jon Rauschenberger, worked closely with Microsoft’s Visual Studio team to create the add-in.
"It’s no secret that many businesses still rely heavily on Forms-based applications built in VB6 and have made significant investments in this technology," said Clarity's Bryan Dougherty, the Lead Developer on the project. "While developers are eager to take advantage of the benefits of .NET, like support for web services, a complete application conversion is often too risky and may cause unacceptable delays between releases. Until now, no tool specifically targeted the migration of a Forms-based VB6 application. The Interop Forms Toolkit addresses this need, helping organizations effectively focus on adding value to applications while leveraging their current investments and managing a phased transition to .NET."
Read more about the toolkit, http://www.eweek.com/article2/0%2c1895%2c2019386%2c00.asp
Download the toolkit here.