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> I loved VB6. Of all the languages and IDE's I've ever used, I've never been more efficient in any other one. Other than the amount of work it would take, wha

> I loved VB6. Of all the languages and IDE's I've ever used, I've never been more efficient in any other one. Other than the amount of work it would take, what's to keep someone from taking all of the specs and docs, and implementing a language compatible with VB6 and VB.NET?

badsectoracula 7y ago
Nothing, it is just that nobody bothered. There have been a bunch of classic-VB-like languages (even IBM made one with their 'Visual Age for Basic' - though they really missed the mark on the IDE side, but the language and features were very VB6-like), but pretty much all of them either get abandoned or miss the entire point of classic VB by focusing on one thing (usually the language) while ignoring another (usually the IDE or sometimes the fact that classic VB is almost a 'live' system and instead they put a clear C-like separation between editing and compilation)... or miss completely by doing all these things wrong. Assuming they do not die off before managing to make anything usable, of course.
banana_giraffe 7y ago
VB6 and VB.NET are barely related. But, ignoring that, almost any app of any complexity in VB6 land will rely on bugs, quirks, and implementation details. (Also, I was never clear if the binary format for editing forms was actually documented somewhere). Someone could implement their own VB6 parser, but it seems like a ton of work for a vanishing market. All of that said, while typing this, a quick search revealed https://www.radbasic.dev/ https://www.radbasic.dev/ , so maybe someone's trying. Well, it's a Kickstarter, so maybe someone just has an idea. Dunno.
- bluedino 7y ago
  >> but it seems like a ton of work for a vanishing market. That market isn't going anywhere anytime soon, though. There are a lot of XP machines out there running critical VB code...
  - 2fast4you 7y ago
    You can run VB6 on Windows Server 2019. I should know, it’s in production right now
- dirtydroog 7y ago
  My final year project was a VB6 -> JVM compiler. I underestimated how big VB6 actually was and so only had time to implement a small fraction of the language. I did discover a bug in the IDE's code completion/formatter that would cause a compilation failure when the project was next loaded. That code is on a floppy somewhere
tonyedgecombe 7y ago
Xojo (formerly Real Basic) is an attempt at a cross platform version of VB. https://www.xojo.com/index_xojo.php https://www.xojo.com/index_xojo.php Not open source but it looks quite interesting.
int_19h 7y ago
For one thing, there was no VB6 language spec, and the docs were rather informal when it comes to syntax definition (which is very non-trivial - all the "special" functions etc).

badsectoracula 7y ago

Nothing, it is just that nobody bothered. There have been a bunch of classic-VB-like languages (even IBM made one with their 'Visual Age for Basic' - though they really missed the mark on the IDE side, but the language and features were very VB6-like), but pretty much all of them either get abandoned or miss the entire point of classic VB by focusing on one thing (usually the language) while ignoring another (usually the IDE or sometimes the fact that classic VB is almost a 'live' system and instead they put a clear C-like separation between editing and compilation)... or miss completely by doing all these things wrong. Assuming they do not die off before managing to make anything usable, of course.

banana_giraffe 7y ago

VB6 and VB.NET are barely related. But, ignoring that, almost any app of any complexity in VB6 land will rely on bugs, quirks, and implementation details. (Also, I was never clear if the binary format for editing forms was actually documented somewhere). Someone could implement their own VB6 parser, but it seems like a ton of work for a vanishing market. All of that said, while typing this, a quick search revealed https://www.radbasic.dev/ https://www.radbasic.dev/ , so maybe someone's trying. Well, it's a Kickstarter, so maybe someone just has an idea. Dunno.

bluedino 7y ago
>> but it seems like a ton of work for a vanishing market. That market isn't going anywhere anytime soon, though. There are a lot of XP machines out there running critical VB code...
- 2fast4you 7y ago
  You can run VB6 on Windows Server 2019. I should know, it’s in production right now
dirtydroog 7y ago
My final year project was a VB6 -> JVM compiler. I underestimated how big VB6 actually was and so only had time to implement a small fraction of the language. I did discover a bug in the IDE's code completion/formatter that would cause a compilation failure when the project was next loaded. That code is on a floppy somewhere

tonyedgecombe 7y ago

Xojo (formerly Real Basic) is an attempt at a cross platform version of VB. https://www.xojo.com/index_xojo.php https://www.xojo.com/index_xojo.php Not open source but it looks quite interesting.

int_19h 7y ago

For one thing, there was no VB6 language spec, and the docs were rather informal when it comes to syntax definition (which is very non-trivial - all the "special" functions etc).