I’ve been using Instant VB for a few months now to convert code snippets in my Silverlight 2 book from C# to VB. I tried a few free tools, but they just could not compare with the experience I had with Instant VB. For small snippets its nice. It converts them very quickly and accurately. But where the product really shines is in converting an entire solution full of several project and a ton of files. It converts large amounts of code very fast which is awesome for me … as I am using it to convert several C# solutions to VB for my book. As I go through each chapter I convert the entire project to VB and it just flies through the code. Here is a smaller solution that it converted in 4 seconds.
The best part of the software is the support. Every single problem I have had where a conversion did not do what I expected was fixed within a week. Seriously! I am writing the book with beta software and CTP versions of toolkits, so I expect some issues. As I have encountered them I have gotten emails back within a few days (and sometimes the same day) with a new version posted on the web site with a fix.
Disclaimer: I started out trying this software using the trial version. When I first started encountering problems due to the Silverlight 2 beta bits and converting it, Tangible offered me the software license for free since we were helping each other out. I was helping find issues with the conversions in the Silverlight 2 conversions which helps their product get better and obviously I benefit from using the software. So yes, I am getting something out of this software … but anyone who knows me knows that even when I get free software if I did not like it, I would NOT give it a good review. I have absolutely loved using this software as it has saved me hours of time.
