The next release of Visual Basic, version 6.0, will add new features that make it easier for developers to create Web server applications and connect to databases through a new OLE-DB interface. Visual Basic 6.0, which is due September 2nd, was shown off this week at TechEd, Microsoft's yearly developer conference. While there are no major user interface enhancements (the product uses the same shell as 5.0), the enhancements to Visual Basic 6.0 are primarily found under the hood, so to speak. Visual Basic 6.0 now supports ActiveX Data Objects (ADO), an implementation of OLE-DB, as its primary data source provider, so that it can work more easily with a wide range of data sources, including databases, spreadsheets, email, Index Server, and others, while providing a fast and lightweight way to work over the Internet.
Program manager David Stutz says that Visual Basic 6.0 will be able to create server applications using the same familiar forms-based interface it uses to create regular apps. New debugging tools allow Transaction Server apps to be debugged right in the Visual Basic IDE