Compiling Windows Form app created in VS2017 using VBC.exe? - vb.net

Question

I need to be able to program from Visual Studio but also from a usb key on computers without admin access.
To reach this goal I have used the following tutorials
VB.Net Programming Using Notepad And Command Prompt (Part I)
Tutorial(VB.Net) Creating Windows Form App Using Notepad+CommandPrompt
Now this works great without only one issue, it is hard to edit with visual studio. Intellisense doesn't work too good due to lacking files such as App.config and whatever is in the "My Project" subfolder.
So I decided to instead try to start from a VS2017 project and compile that using only vbc.exe and resgen.exe
Here is my attempt so far.
First I created a new project.
I chose a Windows Form project although the application I want to make will probably start in a "Sub Main" and run an "ApplicationContext" class instead of a form. I tried Console Application, however I find the console window annoying. I can hide the console window easily but it still flashes on startup. WPF looks too new and hard to use for now. A Windows Service might requite admin privileges to run and I'm not sure what an empty project really is.
So I create a Windows Form project
Next up I made the first two changes
I disabled the application framework.
It does something about the My namespace. It makes manual compiling much harder for some reasons. Also I changed the target .net framework to version 4.
This version is because I mostly find version "v4.0.30319" of the .net framework is installed so later version might not work.
Now, I save all that and try to build. An empty form window appears, this works so far from within visual studio at least.
For compiling I have a rudimentary .bat script.
I copy the freely available resgen.exe file to the "My Project" folder.
The code from compile.bat
path=%path%;c:\windows\microsoft.net\framework\v4.0.30319
cd "My Project"
resgen /compile Resources.resx,..\bin\debug\Resources.resources
cd ..
VBC /OUT:bin\Debug\app.exe /resource:"bin\debug\*.resources" /imports:System.Data,System.Deployment,System.Drawing,System.Windows.Forms,System.Xml,System.Xml.Linq,System.Data.DataSetExtensions,System.Collections,System.Collections.Generic,System.Data,System.Drawing,System.Diagnostics,System.Windows.Forms,System.Linq,System.Xml.Linq,System.Threading.Tasks /T:exe *.vb "My Project\*.vb"
pause
Some explanations,
First running this script with recompile the resource file and then compile the executable.
It will include all of the *.vb files as well as the resource file.
The following files are ignored so far
App.config
WindowsApp2.vbproj
My Project\Application.myapp
My Project\Settings.settings
Now the long list of imports is from the vbproj file.
It does not currently updates itself when you add more references in visual studio. A future version of this bat file will be made using vbscript and should extract and auto-add the imports/reference but not there yet.
Now what happens when you run this ?
It does not work with 3 errors as follows :
First it does not respect the defined startup object
This object is defined in the .vbproj file as follows
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project ToolsVersion="15.0" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<PropertyGroup>
<StartupObject>WindowsApp2.Form1</StartupObject>
</PropertyGroup>
</Project>
This section is not taken into account by vbc.exe yet so it appears to default to using a Sub Main and gives this first error.
vbc : error BC30420: 'Sub Main' was not found in 'app'.
Second and third errors as follows
C:\defaultpath\Visual Studio 2017\Projects\WindowsApp2\WindowsApp2\My
Project\Settings.Designer.vb(67) : error BC30002: Type 'WindowsApp2.My.MySetting
s' is not defined.
Friend ReadOnly Property Settings() As Global.WindowsApp2.My.MySettings
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
C:\defaultpath\Visual Studio 2017\Projects\WindowsApp2\WindowsApp2\My
Project\Settings.Designer.vb(69) : error BC30456: 'WindowsApp2' is not a member
of '<Default>'.
Return Global.WindowsApp2.My.MySettings.Default
Both of these errors are related somehow to the Root Namespace configuration
This is declared in the .vbproj file but not currently taken into account by the compile.bat file
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project ToolsVersion="15.0" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<PropertyGroup>
<RootNamespace>WindowsApp2</RootNamespace>
</PropertyGroup>
</Project>
In the document Visual Basic Compiler Options Listed Alphabetically
The option /rootnamespace is defined to "Specifies a namespace for all type declarations."
So I add the /rootnamespace:WindowsApp2 to my compile.bat file and both previous issues listed above are solved.
Lastly, to fix the Sub Main issue and instead use "WindowsApp2.Form1" as defined in the .vbproj file
The /main command seems to fit the bill for this, so I add /main:WindowsApp2.Form1 to the command line.
Following some last minute changes to .resource file handling here is the latest compile.bat
path=%path%;c:\windows\microsoft.net\framework\v4.0.30319
cd "My Project"
resgen Resources.resx
cd ..
VBC /OUT:bin\Debug\app.exe /main:WindowsApp2.Form1 /rootnamespace:WindowsApp2 /resource:"My Project\*.resources" /imports:System.Data,System.Deployment,System.Drawing,System.Windows.Forms,System.Xml,System.Xml.Linq,System.Data.DataSetExtensions,System.Collections,System.Collections.Generic,System.Data,System.Drawing,System.Diagnostics,System.Windows.Forms,System.Linq,System.Xml.Linq,System.Threading.Tasks /T:exe *.vb "My Project\*.vb"
pause
This compiles an executable without errors.
I run it and Form1 appears, unfortunately the Console window also appears !
So it seems I still have a Console App and not a Windows Form App
This is resolved by modifying the /T parameter defined as /target from exe to winexe
Final compile.bat
path=%path%;c:\windows\microsoft.net\framework\v4.0.30319
cd "My Project"
resgen Resources.resx
cd ..
VBC /OUT:bin\Debug\app.exe /main:WindowsApp2.Form1 /rootnamespace:WindowsApp2 /resource:"My Project\Resources.resources" /imports:System.Data,System.Deployment,System.Drawing,System.Windows.Forms,System.Xml,System.Xml.Linq,System.Data.DataSetExtensions,System.Collections,System.Collections.Generic,System.Data,System.Drawing,System.Diagnostics,System.Windows.Forms,System.Linq,System.Xml.Linq,System.Threading.Tasks /T:winexe *.vb "My Project\*.vb"
pause
If anyone has any comments or suggestions I would gladly hear them.
I started writing this as a question but I resolved my issues in the course of writing this question.
If there is an easier way to do this please let me know.
In the mean time I hope this can be useful to someone else on the same path as I.
Bye !