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VB6 Successor 1
- Thread starter Swi
- Start date
>VB.net but Microsoft is dumping that too.
Well, not according to Microsoft. But they are no longer 'evolving' the language, that is to say they are not adding new syntax to define types that use new .NET runtime features, but it will be able access .NET APIs and types built on those new .NET runtime features.
As for TwinBasic - well, I'm pretty much a hobbyist programmer these days, and as a result unwilling to pay the monthly fee that TwinBasic charges for the Pro edition. THat's not the same as saying it isn't worth the money - it just isn't worth the money TO ME
Mind you last time I looked at it was a year or perhaps eve 2 ago. So might have a poke at the current community edition it to see if it truly is, as claimed, compatible with VB including quirks ...
Well, not according to Microsoft. But they are no longer 'evolving' the language, that is to say they are not adding new syntax to define types that use new .NET runtime features, but it will be able access .NET APIs and types built on those new .NET runtime features.
As for TwinBasic - well, I'm pretty much a hobbyist programmer these days, and as a result unwilling to pay the monthly fee that TwinBasic charges for the Pro edition. THat's not the same as saying it isn't worth the money - it just isn't worth the money TO ME
Mind you last time I looked at it was a year or perhaps eve 2 ago. So might have a poke at the current community edition it to see if it truly is, as claimed, compatible with VB including quirks ...
- Thread starter
- #3
strongm,
Thanks I really appreciate the feedback and your insights. Yes, please poke around their community edition. Their IDE seems to be pretty good and I haven't ran into too many issues.
Also I agree with what you are saying about VB.net however many C# programmers are saying it is a dead language and avoiding it for any new development like the plague. Kind of just annoying how Microsoft has a habit of treating VB like a second class programming language.
Thanks I really appreciate the feedback and your insights. Yes, please poke around their community edition. Their IDE seems to be pretty good and I haven't ran into too many issues.
Also I agree with what you are saying about VB.net however many C# programmers are saying it is a dead language and avoiding it for any new development like the plague. Kind of just annoying how Microsoft has a habit of treating VB like a second class programming language.
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1
- #4
I moved to Xojo a couple of years ago. VB like with cross platform capabilities (Win/OSX/Linux/RPi/iOS/Android/Web). VERY good for web applications. I believe still free until you want to compile. If you are only interested in one IDE platform/target (Win/OSX) quite reasonable ($99 forever but no updates after first year).
I still have a couple of apps I support on VB6 but that has become more difficult now my laptop is a M4 processor and I have been unable to get VB6 running on W11 ARM 64.
I still have a couple of apps I support on VB6 but that has become more difficult now my laptop is a M4 processor and I have been unable to get VB6 running on W11 ARM 64.
BASIC - Wikipedia
also there used to be Real Basic, there is PureBasic, FreeBasic, and so much more as noted in the article above. I also believe IBM has their own version of a BASIC programming language... https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/iis/11.7.0?topic=jobs-basic-programming
OH YEAH! QBasic is also still around... Somewhere lol
QBasic? One of the first Basic's I used as a professional programmer many (many) moons ago Yep, still around - e.g. https://qbasic.net/en/qbasic-downloads/compiler/qbasic-compiler.htm
- Thread starter
- #8
I'm a huge fan of twinBASIC and volunteer mod over on their Discord server, just thought I'd share a couple things since someone mentioned this thread to me ![[upsidedown]](/data/assets/smilies/upsidedown.gif "[upsidedown] [upsidedown]")
- The free Community Edition isn't hobbled at all; the only limitations are that binaries compiled for x64 will have a splash screen, and there's a very minimal early implementation of LLVM-optimized compilation which is only for subscribers. That's it right now. The community is very open and helpful; you can get help, report bugs, join in discussions, without being a subscriber. So IMO it's great for hobbyists; that's me right now too, though I subscribed to support it after the first six months.
- If WebView2 works for ARM Windows then the tB IDE should. Compiled EXEs work fine. Native ARM binaries are likely to be a target for the planned cross-platform compilation.
- tB has a very promising future. It's in late beta now and very far along. All language syntax and standard library features are implemented. Tons of VB6 apps run as is with zero changes, even massive complex ones like PhotoDemon and commercial VB6 products like XYPlorer and iGrid. Then there's a huge list of new language features and modernizations a lot of us have been wishing for from VB6 for decades now... it's like if MS never abandoned the language and it received 20y of advancements. Even has some exotic, intriguing capabilities... I just used it to write the world's first BASIC kernel-mode minifilter driver. For a good view of what it can do right now, my GitHub repos are all tB; https://github.com/fafalone?tab=repositories
- A good place to start for tB is the FAQ, Issues repo, and Discord channel (quite active, closing in on 1000 members). Or dive right into the latest release.
- When they were both new twinBASIC and RadBasic were often mentioned together, but that was years ago. RadBasic has made almost no progress. Very little of the language is implemented, no new language features of note exist, and it's limited to extremely trivial sample apps barely above Hello World, and trying to modify them or make a new app quickly fails. The public info on this point is extremely misleading, making it seem much further along than this. Some of it is even outright false, like claiming every VB control has reimplementations that are "shipped" with a big green checkmark. Only a handful have any version at all. Everything, even blog updates, are locked behind a paywall. Their most recent release was delayed by a year and still delivered no substantial progress. (tB has releases multiple times per week). It's not a serious project and not worth mentioning in the same context as twinBASIC. It's disappointing because I think competition would have elevated both projects; but given the dishonesty of public info and locking even basic info behind a paywall, I describe RB as a borderline scam.
- Other BASIC dialects are just that... other dialects. There's a reason VB in particular was still widely used long after it was formally abandoned. The others are just not as balanced and useful as VB. And especially now, with VB dominating for so long, there's big advantages to being able to use the wealth of existing learning materials and massive world of available code samples.
So it's definitely worth checking out if you love VB6 and want to move into something more modern with new capabilities, while staying with the language you know and able to keep using all your existing code
- The free Community Edition isn't hobbled at all; the only limitations are that binaries compiled for x64 will have a splash screen, and there's a very minimal early implementation of LLVM-optimized compilation which is only for subscribers. That's it right now. The community is very open and helpful; you can get help, report bugs, join in discussions, without being a subscriber. So IMO it's great for hobbyists; that's me right now too, though I subscribed to support it after the first six months.
- If WebView2 works for ARM Windows then the tB IDE should. Compiled EXEs work fine. Native ARM binaries are likely to be a target for the planned cross-platform compilation.
- tB has a very promising future. It's in late beta now and very far along. All language syntax and standard library features are implemented. Tons of VB6 apps run as is with zero changes, even massive complex ones like PhotoDemon and commercial VB6 products like XYPlorer and iGrid. Then there's a huge list of new language features and modernizations a lot of us have been wishing for from VB6 for decades now... it's like if MS never abandoned the language and it received 20y of advancements. Even has some exotic, intriguing capabilities... I just used it to write the world's first BASIC kernel-mode minifilter driver. For a good view of what it can do right now, my GitHub repos are all tB; https://github.com/fafalone?tab=repositories
- A good place to start for tB is the FAQ, Issues repo, and Discord channel (quite active, closing in on 1000 members). Or dive right into the latest release.
- When they were both new twinBASIC and RadBasic were often mentioned together, but that was years ago. RadBasic has made almost no progress. Very little of the language is implemented, no new language features of note exist, and it's limited to extremely trivial sample apps barely above Hello World, and trying to modify them or make a new app quickly fails. The public info on this point is extremely misleading, making it seem much further along than this. Some of it is even outright false, like claiming every VB control has reimplementations that are "shipped" with a big green checkmark. Only a handful have any version at all. Everything, even blog updates, are locked behind a paywall. Their most recent release was delayed by a year and still delivered no substantial progress. (tB has releases multiple times per week). It's not a serious project and not worth mentioning in the same context as twinBASIC. It's disappointing because I think competition would have elevated both projects; but given the dishonesty of public info and locking even basic info behind a paywall, I describe RB as a borderline scam.
- Other BASIC dialects are just that... other dialects. There's a reason VB in particular was still widely used long after it was formally abandoned. The others are just not as balanced and useful as VB. And especially now, with VB dominating for so long, there's big advantages to being able to use the wealth of existing learning materials and massive world of available code samples.
So it's definitely worth checking out if you love VB6 and want to move into something more modern with new capabilities, while staying with the language you know and able to keep using all your existing code
Last edited:
VB6-Programming
Programmer
The big advantage of the twinBASIC programming language is that you can import existing VB6 source code and forms, and expect the app to run with little or (often) no change (at least in 32 bit). You can then update the code to 64 bit.
The community edition is free.
VB6-Programming
Programmer
The twinBASIC programming IDE installs and runs on Windows 11 easily. I understand that includes ARM 64 but I haven't tried that myself.
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