PRB: "Ambiguous name detected" Compile-Time Error in VB 4.0

• Standard, Professional and Enterprise Editions of Microsoft Visual Basic, 16-bit and 32-bit, for Windows, version 4.0

SYMPTOMS

Better type checking in Microsoft Visual Basic version 4.0 causes it to return a compile-time error message when you declare two functions (or subroutines) with the same name in the same module or form. This is a change in behavior from Microsoft Visual Basic version 3.0.

The error message returned is:

   Ambiguous name detected: <function or sub name>

STATUS

This behavior is by design.

MORE INFORMATION

Steps to Reproduce Behavior

1. Start a new project in Visual Basic. Form1 is created by default.

2. Add the following code to the general declarations section of Form1:

      Private Declare Function GetSystemDirectory Lib "Kernel" _
         (ByVal strBuffer As String, ByVal intSize As Integer) As Integer
      Private Declare Function GetSystemDirectory% Lib "Kernel" _
         (ByVal lpBuffer$, ByVal nSize%)
   
   

3. Attempt to run the application by pressing the F5 key. Visual Basic will not run the application. Instead you will get this error message:

   Ambiguous name detected: GetSystemDirectory