4 ms·
You used to be able to just create a Native GUI App in 10 seconds
- ktpsns 10mo agoI remember that not having the right VB DLL was a frequent issue when trying to run EXE files produced by people with visual basic. For me, this Windows "nocode" environment was a big gatekeeper which hindered me in learning programming. It may sound a bit sentimental, but I learned C with Linux, because docs where readily available and open. I literally read man pages. Today the tooling is just better. Just think, for instance, of the go and rust tool chains which easily produce ready to ship EXE files. Classical toolkits such as Qt still are around.
- kwanbix 10mo agoIf you did it in Delphi it will work no matter what.
- gaigalas 10mo ago"no matter what" is pushing it. It was very common for Delphi programs to use stuff that required external DLLs.
- kwanbix 10mo agoOnly if you wanted to include database options.
- gaigalas 10mo agoConnectivity to databases was one of Delphi's main selling points. I think one dude spread the myth of no DLLs in the Twitter thread, lots of people repeated it, and since Delphi 6/7 is not around anymore and it's hard to check, they got away with a slight historical innacuracy.
- hippo22 10mo agoI remember not being able to get my C++ compiler to work on Windows and I remember struggling to get basic Linux functionality working. Software was hard back then.
- nwhnwh 10mo agotwitter.com? Is that from OP or HN?
- kop316 10mo agoI mean...at least for GTK on Linux, you still can? It won't be 10 seconds (probably closer to 30-40 seconds) since you have to go through a couple of prompts to name it, decide a license, etc., but with: https://apps.gnome.org/Builder/ https://apps.gnome.org/Builder/ You can do the same thing. In fact, this was the exact method I used to make a few GTK apps.
- morshu9001 10mo agobut then GTK has issues with some DEs supposedly
- kop316 10mo agoI saw this comment a while ago, and even now, I have no idea what point you are trying to make.
- morshu9001 10mo agoIf you want to make a native GUI app work across desktop Linux users, it's not this simple
- kop316 10mo agook...and? The post was about making a native GUI app, which GNOME builder is clearly able to do. By your logic, the app in the video won't work across OSes. My point is this is still clearly possible for native GUI apps.
- amatecha 10mo agoCan view without subjecting yourself to "X": https://xcancel.com/tsoding/status/1998403967718400376 https://xcancel.com/tsoding/status/1998403967718400376
- coldtea 10mo ago[flagged]
- amatecha 10mo agoWas there an actual point or are you just being contrarian for the sake of it?
- coldtea 10mo ago[flagged]
- morshu9001 10mo agoI have no issue with Twitter's values or ownership. The website is just annoying and laggy, so I appreciate a readonly mirror.
- danielbln 10mo agoYou cannot read the full thread unless you have an account and are logged in. That's reason enough to appreciate a mirror link like that.
- amatecha 10mo agoDid I say anything about morals or compromise or anything? Now you're just ranting to the void about a straw man, not furthering conversation in any way. I think you're the only one who needs to get over something here: the fact that people might not want to visit a certain website. The shock and horror! Take your negativity elsewhere.
- 10mo ago
- JaggerJo 10mo agoYou can still do this! The only difference is that a lot of apps prioritize cross platform UIs over good, fast native UIs. WinForms and WPF are still well supported.
- morshu9001 10mo agoWould've thought the explosion of web apps would kick MS and Apple in the pants, but here we are. Native dev is still annoying and is arguably getting harder. There's no reason making an app work for just one specific platform should have more friction than doing it for all of them.
- joeld42 10mo agoTake a look at Slint or Avalonia if you miss this experience. And I'll take needing an internet connection over having to install Visual Basic from a stack of CDs.
- gabrielsroka 10mo agoIn HTML <button onclick="alert('Hello')">Command1</button>
- jaredcwhite 10mo agoSure, but that's not a native GUI app.
- gaigalas 10mo agoSave that as `app.hta` on Windows (from XP up to this day!), then double click it. Not native GUI, but as fast and useful as one. It's more limited nowadays, but you can still do a lot.
- SilentM68 10mo agoThere was a time when there were some VB clone languages including Envelop Basic: https://members.tripod.com/joe__shmoe/indext.htm https://members.tripod.com/joe__shmoe/indext.htm These tools did a pretty good job of creating forms and software. Rebol was another language that was sleek at making UI Form: https://www.rebol.com/index-lang.html https://www.rebol.com/index-lang.html Now a days, you need to master many technologies to create one UI component. Too much bloat.
- dham 10mo agoI used PureBasic back in like 2003 or 2004. It was super simple. Looks like it's still around and the site looks unchanged since then. Probably crazy fast on modern hardware
- satiric 10mo agoSomeone replied to that post "notice how fast everything is to launch", but did Visual Basic really start up that fast back in the day? I'm old enough to have used XP as a kid, and I remember the languorous boot times, but I never programmed on it. My guess is that XP is running in a VM on modern hardware in this GIF.
- treesknees 10mo agoThere is a modern compiler/ide that’s improving (but also preserving compatibility with) VB6 https://twinbasic.com/ https://twinbasic.com/ I was able to load up a VB6 project I worked on in high school and it compiled and ran with no changes. Pretty neat.
- istillcantcode 10mo agoI tried this using RosettaCode examples awhile ago and its still possible in quite a few languages. I was trying to find examples where you could just copy the code in, click run, and get a GUI.