VB6 IDE Clone

[stuck-n-past]

Hello everyone, it’s been a while since I was last here, I’ve taken a headfirst plunge into Classic ASP, JavaScript, SQL and well HTML.

I’m still quite involved with VB6 just that with my focus now with Web development, some of the more in-depth and technical challenges that brought me here seeking help don’t come up as often as they once did. That won’t ever diminish my appreciation and gratitude for everyone here that provided invaluable help to me on so many occasions.

The interest in my IDE has continued as I get regular inquires about it status, availability both binaries and source code, unfortunately there are several issues preventing this from happening.

While my IDE can load, edit, save and run VB6 code, with fully supported debugging capabilities, break, edit, single-step, continue and run, its not a completely polished and finished program. I’d estimate it at being around 90% complete, but as many know with complex systems, the last 10% can take 90% of the time.

Believe me, I’ve thought about the possible windfall from releasing a new generation backward compatible VB6 IDE, and its beyond alluring but not without pitfalls. Don’t think for a moment that Microsoft wouldn’t unleash the full weight of their legal department against anybody threatening to compete with their new flagship VB.NET. And by doing so with one of their most beloved, popular and profitable products. This would only serve to fuel their desire to attack and destroy regardless of what there chances might be in winning such a case. They’d simply eradicate the threat through attrition.

The legal paperwork alone would bankrupt anyone making such an attempt, and again even with the prospect of courts ruling in your favor, you would never make it far enough to see any gains.

With the backlash Microsoft received over killing VB6 and the thousands, possibly millions of programmers eager to head back to their adored IDE, many just through spite, has the potential of creating a significant impact to VB.NET’s base. Not to mention future programmers who would most certainly fall in love with the new VB6 as we all did.

Personally the only way I see anything like this to succeed would be to release a new IDE in the public domain free of charge, removing Microsoft’s legal standing, closing the legal doors preventing them from taking any action.

I had toyed with the idea of putting together something of a tutorial type video of my IDE, but never got around to it. Now that I’m working with Classic ASP, I might go ahead and do it, including some of the issues I’ve covered here.

As for those asking about getting a copy of my IDE through signing there own NDA with me, I’m sorry but that can’t work. My existing confidentiality agreements are legally bound involving two parties, the Client and myself. It’s not possible regardless of wording or legal wrangling to retroactively introduce a third party into existing contracts. Signing a NDA with me does not release or nullify previous obligations.

My original interest in creating the IDE were purely selfish, with over a million lines of code devoted to VB6, counting not only code written by myself but also that of which I am now custodian of, created the desire to preserve a development environment to protect own personal investment.

I’d be lying if I stopped there because not only did I truly enjoy creating the IDE, but it was also incredibly satisfying conquering each and every milestone slowly heading towards a functional VB clone. Not to mention the chance to fix, add or enhance all of those nagging shortcomings, bugs and features that we all couldn’t understand why Microsoft hadn’t included or taken care of in the first place.

My personal thinking on the last statement is that VB.NET was most likely in Microsoft’s sights long before anybody ever knew, with it’s inception most likely floating around during the height of VB6’s popularity. And knowing what a cash cow they had in VB6, focusing efforts on NET made perfect sense, with the side effect of leaving its predecessor out in the cold.

As for what lies down the road, I have actually made some progress when time allows, in swapping out protected code from my IDE. I have also contacted many of my older inactive clients asking if they’d be willing to terminate our NDA’s, which can only happen upon dissolution of one or both of the entities, or through mutual consent. Surprisingly none have had an issue with terminating the agreements, but again these are clients that are no longer working with VB, there are many other that still do.

For anybody that interested, I will certainly let you know if and when video become available, just don’t expect anything fancy or professional looking. I gave up any hope of an artistic side back in kindergarten.

Hope everyone is well. Stuck

[baka]

well thats interesting and of course brings tons of questions. is this just a clone or more, what benefits against vb6, a clone means 100% compatibility or theres limitations. is there any previews, just like a screenshot or two to see how it looks. what about patreon, that should go around the problem of copyright and still give you support. the other ide projects, such as Olaf plans to make it platform independent, could or is this clone independent or not, or if it could be. as im working with games, and just recently started using the direct2d typelib, this clone can use it as well or any other typelib, apis, components and more? what about the compiler, is there any or you are using vb6 own?

[stuck-n-past]

Baka - yes there are many screen shots in previous posts here on this forum and yes there are enhancements above and beyond just the 'missing' features in the original IDE. There's more details provided in the older posts.

[Schmidt]

...what about the compiler, is there any or you are using vb6 own?

As far as I understood (from the ScreenShots and the descriptions):
- it does not contain an independent compiler (it interprets VB6-code, which is then "run" basically like "VBscript" in the IDE)
- it still depends on the VB6-runtime
- if there is a "compiling-stage" in the new IDE - it will shell the original VB6-compiler (producing the same things, as one could with the original VB6-IDE).

I hope I got the above right - if something in these assumptions is wrong, then please correct me.

Olaf

[axisdj]

Oh well... no response?