Visual Basic - Re: Moving from VB3 to VB6...

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Re: Moving from VB3 to VB6...

tom colwill

2004-03-29, 3:31 pm

How can I get a copy of VB3 Pro? My disks have degraded!

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tom colwill

2004-03-29, 3:31 pm

Hi,

How can I get a copy of VB3 Pro? Microsoft does not seem to have it.

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Karl E. Peterson

2004-03-29, 5:30 pm

tom colwill <salesware@aol.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> How can I get a copy of VB3 Pro? Microsoft does not seem to have it.

If you can't find a sympathetic friend, the only way I know of is through MSDN
Subscriber Downloads.

But, if you can demonstrate to them that you are a legal owner, they may be willing
to send it to you for a shipping fee. I'd definitely ask.

Later... Karl
--
[Microsoft Basic: 1976-2001, RIP]

MikeD

2004-03-29, 6:34 pm

"tom colwill" <consys@op.net> wrote in message
news:u$PDRXcFEHA.1180@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...
>
>
> How can I get a copy of VB3 Pro? My disks have degraded!

I didn't know disks could degrade. They can be damaged, destroyed,
demagnetized...but, degrade? I suppose it's possible since they're magnetic
media. I've just never heard of it.

Anyway, getting a copy of VB3 is likely going to be difficult if you're
looking to buy it (see next paragraph for how you CAN get it from MS). You
might get lucky and find it on eBay. Of perhaps some online store that
specializes in older software might have it. I don't know of any, though.

Other than that, the only sure way I know of getting it would be to
subscribe to MSDN. VB3's available as a subscriber download (so is VB2 and
I think even VB-DOS). I'm not sure what membership level you'd need, but
probably at least Professional. If you happen to already be an MSDN
subscriber, you're all set. Just go here:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/subscriptions, and then click on "Subscriber
Downloads" along the left side of the page.

Do you just need binary .frm files converted to text? If so, and if you're
not talking about too many files, someone here will likely do it for you. I
suppose I could if you're not talking about dozens of projects/files. Post
your reply here and I'll get back with my email address (I'd prefer not to
include it in a post, as everytime I do junk mail goes up tremendously for a
while).

Mike

Jim Carlock

2004-03-29, 9:31 pm

Xref: kermit microsoft.public.vb.general.discussion:437989

"MikeD" theorized:
"tom colwill" wished:
=> How can I get a copy of VB3 Pro? My disks have degraded!
> I didn't know disks could degrade. They can be damaged,
> destroyed, demagnetized...but, degrade? I suppose it's
> possible since they're magnetic media. I've just never heard of it.

5-1/4" floppy disks could store 1.2MB of data. They were really
floppy at one time as well. I remember very distinctly that a few
lost their readability, at least in some drives. Sometimes sticking
them into another drive made them work and sometimes just
hitting the 'r' key when the Abory, retry, ignore, fail message
appeared would eventually read the sector that was giving
problems. I can remember a few times when installing DOS
4.01 the disks seemed to give a fit and huff and puff about
being read. Seemed that as time went by, the disks would
eventually become unreadable, but forcing the issue by hitting
'r' usually got around it.

It became alot less of a problem when 3.5" disks came out, but
at one time I clearly remember that some disks formatted with
someone elses 3.5" drive would be unreadable on all other
drives. I ran into this a couple times, and I've run into some
readability issues but they usually could be forced like in the
5.25" disk way, with the 'r' key. Problems with magnetic code
drift seemed to go away, but I know it exists, and it happens
on hard disk drives as well. Not the 3.5" hard disk drives that
all the older folk were talking about, because I used to service
computer systems for a lot of older folks that all called 3.5"
floppy disks, "hard disks" because they had both 5.25" and
3.5" drives and alot of them defaulted to calling the 3.5" drives
hard drives. But real hard disk drives have some drift too. It
does seem to be very rare these days. It used to be advised
that if you were going to reformat your hard disk drive, that
you should do a low-level format first. This was with RLL
and MFM drives in the late 1980s maybe early 1990s. I've
done a low-level format or two and the way they told you to
perform the low-level format was to go into DOS, and then
something along the lines of:

g=c800:4

It starts up a ROM procedure in the BIOS that only the BIOS knows
about and your hard disk drive would re-low-level-format, but not in
the sense that format.com formatted the drive.

You'd then have to repartition and reformat using fdisk and format.

I haven't done a low-level format since the early 1990s, and you're
not supposed to do them any longer with the IDE drives. It was
recommended for RLL and MFM drives though, and these all seem
to be paper-weights these days, or maybe you can see one in a
museum or computer store.

I was a Universal Member of Microsoft for one year, I don't
ever receiving VB 3 on any of the DVDs they sent. I don't remember
having access to it on their website? I could have missed it though.

--
Jim Carlock
http://www.microcosmotalk.com/
Post replies to the newsgroup.

Anyway, getting a copy of VB3 is likely going to be difficult if you're
looking to buy it (see next paragraph for how you CAN get it from MS). You
might get lucky and find it on eBay. Of perhaps some online store that
specializes in older software might have it. I don't know of any, though.

Other than that, the only sure way I know of getting it would be to
subscribe to MSDN. VB3's available as a subscriber download (so is VB2 and
I think even VB-DOS). I'm not sure what membership level you'd need, but
probably at least Professional. If you happen to already be an MSDN
subscriber, you're all set. Just go here:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/subscriptions, and then click on "Subscriber
Downloads" along the left side of the page.

Do you just need binary .frm files converted to text? If so, and if you're
not talking about too many files, someone here will likely do it for you. I
suppose I could if you're not talking about dozens of projects/files. Post
your reply here and I'll get back with my email address (I'd prefer not to
include it in a post, as everytime I do junk mail goes up tremendously for a
while).

Mike

J French

2004-03-30, 2:30 am

On Mon, 29 Mar 2004 11:41:22 -0800, tom colwill <salesware@aol.com>
wrote:

>
>Hi,
>
>How can I get a copy of VB3 Pro? Microsoft does not seem to have it.

At your own risk: http://qbfiles.8m.com/compilers.html

It is an 'old compiler' archive

Stefan Berglund

2004-03-30, 2:30 am

On Mon, 29 Mar 2004 17:22:22 -0500, "MikeD" <nobody@nowhere.edu>
wrote:
in <eDjlLwdFEHA.2768@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl>

>
>"tom colwill" <consys@op.net> wrote in message
>news:u$PDRXcFEHA.1180@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...
>
>I didn't know disks could degrade. They can be damaged, destroyed,
>demagnetized...but, degrade? I suppose it's possible since they're magnetic
>media. I've just never heard of it.

Even optical media can "degrade". While I have no figures on the
lifetime (or any other factors for that matter) it is possible
for CD/DVD media to oxidize (or whatever the process is) and to
eventually become unreadable. Take a look at some of your older
CDs that haven't been touched for some time and I'm sure you'll
find evidence of this. It looks very similar to oxidized
aluminum - tiny spots of whitish powdered (probably) plastic.

It could also very well be a microbe that digests plastic.
Google optical media degradation. Nothing is forever.

---
Stefan Berglund
first shift-minus last a t m s n d o t c o m

J French

2004-03-30, 3:30 am

On Mon, 29 Mar 2004 22:19:49 -0800, Stefan Berglund
<keepit@in.thegroups> wrote:

<snip>

>Even optical media can "degrade". While I have no figures on the
>lifetime (or any other factors for that matter) it is possible
>for CD/DVD media to oxidize (or whatever the process is) and to
>eventually become unreadable. Take a look at some of your older
>CDs that haven't been touched for some time and I'm sure you'll
>find evidence of this. It looks very similar to oxidized
>aluminum - tiny spots of whitish powdered (probably) plastic.
>
>It could also very well be a microbe that digests plastic.
>Google optical media degradation. Nothing is forever.

Some time ago, I remember reading that Audio CDs were degrading faster
than anticipated
- much to the manufacturers (publishers) delight

Paul Clement

2004-03-30, 1:30 pm

On Mon, 29 Mar 2004 11:41:21 -0800, tom colwill <consys@op.net> wrote:

¤
¤
¤ How can I get a copy of VB3 Pro? My disks have degraded!

You can give these folks a try:

http://www.emsps.com/oldtools/msvb.htm#vb3

Paul ~~~ pclement@ameritech.net
Microsoft MVP (Visual Basic)

Karl E. Peterson

2004-03-30, 2:30 pm

Hi Jim --

> I was a Universal Member of Microsoft for one year, I don't
> ever receiving VB 3 on any of the DVDs they sent. I don't remember
> having access to it on their website? I could have missed it though.

I've been on an active cru

Jim Carlock

2004-03-30, 2:30 pm

"Karl E. Peterson" conveyed:
<snip>
Hi Jim --
> I was a Universal Member of Microsoft for one year, I don't
> ever receiving VB 3 on any of the DVDs they sent. I don't remember
> having access to it on their website? I could have missed it though.

I've been on an active cru

e of "pestering" MSDN about getting past
versions of MSBasic out on MSDN, so that subscribers can properly
support their products as media "fades" with time. In the last couple
months, they've added:

QuickBasic 4.5
Visual Basic 2.0
Visual Basic 3.0
Visual Basic 4.0

As well as some historic versions of VC++. :-)

Later... Karl
</snip>

Would you know which level of Membership is required to gain access
to that stuff? I still have a copy of VB 3, VC 1.0 and MS Office 4 and
MASM 6.11 on 3.5" floppies. Office 4 came on like 26 floppy disks
when I originally bought it. CD-ROMs had just hit the market and MS
didn't have the production of CDs set up at the time. There were two
versions of VB 3 that I remember, DOS and Windows.

Thanks.
--
Jim Carlock
http://www.microcosmotalk.com/
Post replies to the newsgroup.

Karl E. Peterson

2004-03-30, 3:30 pm

Hi Jim --

> Would you know which level of Membership is required to gain access
> to that stuff?

No, sorry, I don't know. I have Universal.

> I still have a copy of VB 3, VC 1.0 and MS Office 4 and
> MASM 6.11 on 3.5" floppies. Office 4 came on like 26 floppy disks
> when I originally bought it. CD-ROMs had just hit the market and MS
> didn't have the production of CDs set up at the time.

MASM 6.11, VC++ 1.52, and VB3 are all on MSDN presently, but the oldest version of
Office I see there is (

ly) Office XP.

> There were two
> versions of VB 3 that I remember, DOS and Windows.

No, VB-DOS was a distinct product, and shipped in the VB1 timeframe (before VB2).

Later... Karl
--
[Microsoft Basic: 1976-2001, RIP]

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