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I'm surprised that nothing has filled the void that VB6 left behind in the rapid application development space. The language wasn't great, but VB6's strength wa

by scrlk 3y ago

I'm surprised that nothing has filled the void that VB6 left behind in the rapid application development space. The language wasn't great, but VB6's strength was the drag and drop GUI builder.

T-A 3y ago
https://www.lazarus-ide.org/ https://www.lazarus-ide.org/
speps 3y ago
Same paradigm with UI stored in manually editable files https://qb64.com/inform.html https://qb64.com/inform.html
physicsguy 3y ago
It’s easier to spin up something as a local web server these days for the majority
squarefoot 3y ago
As another user suggested, Lazarus is worth of consideration, although for a more VB-like experience, Gambas might be interesting too. https://www.lazarus-ide.org/ https://www.lazarus-ide.org/ https://gambas.sourceforge.net/en/main.html https://gambas.sourceforge.net/en/main.html
StevePerkins 3y ago
VB6's strength was that Windows was a virtual monopoly at the time. Today you have more fragmentation, where the user masses are still mostly on Windows but the developers are mostly on Macs or Linux. Developing a desktop GUI framework for a single platform is relatively easy. Developing a cross-platform GUI framework for three or more platforms is extremely hard. And a lot of people would STILL ignore it if it's not "mobile first", targeting iOS and Android too (meaning that it's probably dogshit for desktop apps).
- tredre3 3y ago
  > but the developers are mostly on Macs or Linux. Is that really true outside of web devs?
800xl 3y ago
Xojo is basically VB6's spiritual successor. https://xojo.com/ https://xojo.com/
nurettin 3y ago
I haven't felt any void. 20+ years of Qt, Delphi and then Lazarus was enough.
RockRobotRock 3y ago
wxformbuilder can get you 80% there
extraduder_ire 3y ago
Drag and drop UI design kept me using qtcreator for way longer than I would have otherwise. Usefully, you can just plonk the layout file next to your python script to use it with pyqt, since the IDE's python support isn't great. (may just be my borked install)

by scrlk 3y ago

I'm surprised that nothing has filled the void that VB6 left behind in the rapid application development space. The language wasn't great, but VB6's strength was the drag and drop GUI builder.

T-A 3y ago

https://www.lazarus-ide.org/ https://www.lazarus-ide.org/

speps 3y ago

Same paradigm with UI stored in manually editable files https://qb64.com/inform.html https://qb64.com/inform.html

physicsguy 3y ago

It’s easier to spin up something as a local web server these days for the majority

squarefoot 3y ago

As another user suggested, Lazarus is worth of consideration, although for a more VB-like experience, Gambas might be interesting too. https://www.lazarus-ide.org/ https://www.lazarus-ide.org/ https://gambas.sourceforge.net/en/main.html https://gambas.sourceforge.net/en/main.html

StevePerkins 3y ago

VB6's strength was that Windows was a virtual monopoly at the time. Today you have more fragmentation, where the user masses are still mostly on Windows but the developers are mostly on Macs or Linux. Developing a desktop GUI framework for a single platform is relatively easy. Developing a cross-platform GUI framework for three or more platforms is extremely hard. And a lot of people would STILL ignore it if it's not "mobile first", targeting iOS and Android too (meaning that it's probably dogshit for desktop apps).

tredre3 3y ago
> but the developers are mostly on Macs or Linux. Is that really true outside of web devs?

800xl 3y ago

Xojo is basically VB6's spiritual successor. https://xojo.com/ https://xojo.com/

nurettin 3y ago

I haven't felt any void. 20+ years of Qt, Delphi and then Lazarus was enough.

RockRobotRock 3y ago

wxformbuilder can get you 80% there

extraduder_ire 3y ago

Drag and drop UI design kept me using qtcreator for way longer than I would have otherwise. Usefully, you can just plonk the layout file next to your python script to use it with pyqt, since the IDE's python support isn't great. (may just be my borked install)