Getting the ball rolling. Which VB6 projects are you working on?

There is a person who is developing a VC + + similar to rc6.dll, which implements the built-in functions of VB6 and supports the 64-bit version.

Supports Get and Post access on operating systems that do not support higher versions of SSL and TLS
https://profile.zjurl.cn/rogue/ugc/p...quest_source=1

If you fancy providing a translation then it might be useful and interesting. However, it is not for THIS thread.

This is about the VB6 projects that we ourselves are working on. Please post that sort of news elsewhere.

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Originally Posted by -Corso->

Oh, I don't know, you can probably fiddle Cairo enough to make a fun little something. You just need to hunt down what brain things make tiny tank games fun and cool to play.

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It is actually quite a good idea. I'll think on that.

More Ribbon :wave:

https://www.vbforums.com/images/ieimages/2023/08/3.gif

The Ribbon is now officially VB6 related as I've brought the basic proof-of-concept demo to VB6.

Will require an update to oleexp.tlb, v6.4 or higher, released earlier today.

Very good indeed. (even if I secretly hate it)

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Originally Posted by Shaggy Hiker

This thread has started getting derailed. I suppose it was a bit of a fishing expedition to begin with, so I'm not sure that it is wrong, but it is turning into a discussion of TB from VB6.

It should not be taken further off into the weeds. Let's not bring in Powerbasic, RADBasic, or B4Anything. This is about VB6 and what you can do there. If TB can compile VB6 code, then it may well be a worthwhile successor, and therefore is a reasonable discussion in this thread. The others can't compile VB6 code, and therefore don't belong in this thread.

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RAD Basic is 100% compatible with VB6 projects and can compile VB6 code to 64-bit, which is more than can be said of TwinBasic...and a hell of a lot cheaper! :-)

RealBasic (one you didn't mention) was supposedly a worthy successor to VB6, but I don't think it was compatible directly with VB6...it's now known as Xojo and it's getting more and more distant from what it used to be.

BTW, nice to see you're still around :-)

Edit: RAD Basic is also paywalled so you can't even get the free version for free, so perhaps let's just forget that one exists :-P

And it's *supposedly* 100% compatible according to the site's claims...if you can't download, you can't confirm their claims!

That's an outright lie. Radbasic, like tB, has 100% compatibility as a goal, but currently it is maybe 1% of the way there. It chokes on anything but the most primitive... There's no compound And/Or, no APIs, no UDTs, no classes, no UCs, CreateObject is rigged to only support the single object from the chatgpt thing, no arrays, virtually nothing. This after 3 years of work. Meanwhile tB is is 100% in terms of basic syntax and 90% in terms of features. It runs large, complex apps UCs without change (my ucShellBrowse and Krools VBCCR and VBFlexGrid have 64bit tB releases now, the original 32bit ones work without change). All basic controls and many mscomctl controls are done... RBs site lies about this and only has minimal support for a third of the basic controls. It's part of a pattern of misleading marketing Carles is engaged in while he keeps even the basic status updates that hint at this behind a paywall. It's cheaper but its, imo, bordering on vaporware at best and a scam at worst. There is no free version.

"More than can be said of twin basic"? Is that your original thought or who said that? It's a joke. The "incompatibility" is forwards, tB adds dozens of new language features. But it runs existing code without change if you don't want to use them. And compiles to 64bit using VBA7 syntax (LongPtr).







The others you mentioned don't belong in the conversation as they're not even attempting compatibility.

That's why I said let's forget that one exists...they've paywalled even the free option so no-one can actually test.

*IF* the claim for 100% compatibility were true, RadBasic would be one up on TwinBasic because of the direct 64-bit compilation option. TwinBasic still lists it as a work in progress, and is also HIDEOUSLY expensive in comparison to anything else, including the original VB6. They're offering a monthly subscription service with no option for a lifetime licence, with a price that MATCHES the lifetime licences for many other services :-)

Well, let that argument rage elsewhere please.

https://www.vbforums.com/images/ieimages/2023/08/9.png

Newest Yahoo widget conversion to VB6/RC6. Just needs the CHM help written and compiled, 93% finished I'd say. Tweaks here and there, gauge opacity, the timezone settings and daylight saving rules implemented.

Sitting next to the VB6 stopwatch. VB6 earth and process killer, top right. VB6 dock below.

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Originally Posted by SmUX2k

That's why I said let's forget that one exists...they've paywalled even the free option so no-one can actually test.

*IF* the claim for 100% compatibility were true, RadBasic would be one up on TwinBasic because of the direct 64-bit compilation option. TwinBasic still lists it as a work in progress, and is also HIDEOUSLY expensive in comparison to anything else, including the original VB6. They're offering a monthly subscription service with no option for a lifetime licence, with a price that MATCHES the lifetime licences for many other services :-)

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tB offers 64bit native compilation. And has for 2 years now. No clue where you got the idea it doesn't. Have you even checked it out? Take a look at the link in my signature for some of the big VB6 projects I've made 64bit versions of in tB. It was 32bit only for a very short time; maybe a month or two after the first preview in 2021? The free edition puts a 5-second splash screen on 64bit exes. That and optimized compilation/assembly view are the only current features restricted to the paid version; in the future cross-platform compilation will be ultimate subscription only. The free version includes all the new language features and a license allowing royalty free commercial use.

I agree it's a bit expensive for paid licenses, but there's a reason nobody has ever made something like this before. No companies have stepped up, nor large group of capable individuals willing to work together, and as an individual you can't really have a full time job and enough free time to create something like this in a reasonable time frame, so you need regular income from it. I think the light restrictions on the free edition is pretty generous considering this.Most comparable is probably Delphi; tB is considerably cheaper... they have "perpetual" licenses that don't include updates, and update subscriptions start at nearly twice the price per month in addition to the $2000-4500 initial fee, but also have a powerful free version, with no technical restrictions but very limited commercial use ($5k revenue/year limit).

Also, the claim is absolutely not true; I have a copy, the description of it's status is first hand. The latest alpha adds :gasp: enums! And they're *almost* able to handle everything in the frx format to import from VB! 🤣

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Originally Posted by fafalone

tB offers 64bit native compilation. And has for 2 years now. No clue where you got the idea it doesn't.

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Attachment 188490

If they can't be bothered to update their website, not my fault...it's been like that for a while now :-P

I'm not against TwinBasic, I'm just against the pricing model they choose to offer with no perpetual licence (you mention they have them, but I'm going based on their website which probably sorely needs an update). And if they're expecting people to pay $2000-$4500 for a perpetual licence, they seriously are out of touch with reality. There needs to be a non-commercial community pro edition (as executable optimisation would definitely be important) for tinkerers who code for themselves

Well, let that argument rage elsewhere please.

Invalid attachment... but since you referenced the website

Front page, twinbasic.com:

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Compiles to Win32 and Win64 architectures. Mac, Linux and Android compilation planned.

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twinbasic.com, 'Download' header link:

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This is a commercial project, though the 32-bit Windows version of the project will be available completely free of charge. Developers that need to build 64-bit binaries will either need to purchase a licence or endure a 5-second twinBASIC splash screen when their applications start.

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twinbasic.com, 'Preorder' page:

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twinBASIC Professional Edition includes all features from the Community Edition, plus:

64-bit Windows EXE and DLL compilation support

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So this one is inaccurate only in not mentioning it's available in free edition with a splash screen, but indicates professional/ultimate compile it.

The website does desperately need an update, but still I'm not sure what's conveying the impression there's no 64bit support.

With how fast modern computers are I'm not sure assembly-level optimization is something 99% of tinkerers would actually notice or significantly benefit from. I'd love it if tB was FOSS too, and have voiced disagreements about what is in what tier, but with nobody stepping up, I can't fault the one person who is for needing to make money from something taking up so much time. The 2-4.5k number was a comparison I came up with myself for Delphi-- that is the amount they charge for a perpetual license *with no updates*. It was meant to emphasize there are equally or more expensive comparable products, not as a something being considered by Wayne for tB.

let that argument rage elsewhere please.

Yes I saw the first post.

I'd be happy with more ribbon...

Probably be a week or two... haven't really started yet. Spent a couple hours today studying how pinning is working in C++ ribbon apps but not mine to no avail. A few other advanced controls and features to work out how implement, then I want to wrap as much as possible up in a helper package to abstract away all the gritty details of variant hacking and implementing interfaces.

So, question for you, how many projects do you keep "on the boil" as it were, ie. how many do you keep under development at any one time?

Tons. I've been pretty well distracted by the ribbon lately, but I've also worked on expanding API coverage in tbShellLib. Then I've got other in the works projects at various stages of development:

Nearly complete:

-ucDirectWrite - A Direct2D/DirectWrite based edit control that supports color emojis, to make my color emoji demo useful. Maybe 10% of the way done; it's a big one.

-dx8vb64 - Project to compile a 64bit dx8vb.dll... was working heavy on this before the ribbon, taking a break as it's been hugely frustrating trying to get VC++6 to cooperate; and it's *hugely* sensitive to SDK header versions; close isn't cutting it.

-DirectComposition demo... stuck at 99% because I suck at graphics work and can't figure out what it's drawing like this instead of like the C++ demo I'm copying:

https://www.vbforums.com/images/ieimages/2023/05/7.jpg

-PropSearch - Advanced find-file-by-property. 90% complete, stalled a bit til I feel like fighting more with a poorly documented BLOB format to display images in property columns, important due to intersection with ucShellBrowse, and increasingly common use of cloud storage explorer extensions using them. Also some energy sucking debugging to figure out why some searches are blowing up in my face; but the method works in other programs I've written so not a unclimbable wall.
https://www.vbforums.com/images/ieimages/2023/08/7.jpg

-tbDevMan - Device Manager view with enable/disable/disconnect... 80%... really need to finish this one. I started a break when I got annoyed with this:
https://www.vbforums.com/images/ieimages/2023/07/11.jpg
I can't figure out how to add the circled stuff to my list.

Preliminary stages: Things that aren't very far along.
-Control panel applet - Want to make one of these in tb/vb, looks very do-able in tB; a little harder in VB (has be be a stddll). I've built the property pages into a resource file, but haven't started principal coding yet. Just started this week.

-tbMinifilter - Implement a minifilter kernel mode driver; proof of concept implementing NullFilter complete ready to test, but stalled due to twinBASIC bug not yet fixed.

-Multiresolution Lemmings - I want to make my Lemmings x64 port be able to switch sizes, instead of providing 2 exes with small and large fixed sizes. I've set up the switching menu... just gotta write the actual code, will get to it eventually lol

-ucWebView2 - Make an open source WebView2 wrapper. Proof of concept is done; successfully built the tB Monaco demo and loaded it into VB6.

Regular maintainance - There's a number of projects that I continually update: oleexp/tbShellLib, ucShellBrowse, cTaskDialog64 (actively working on implementing purported solutions to VBA crashing). Then I'll randomly get in the mood to add a new feature to an old project, or get a bug report and do a fix.

In addition, I've got a number of personal utilities that are also packed full of random things I try. I'm always adding new test features and playing with these. Then there's the c/c++ projects I'm doing to learn those languages better.

WOW, and do you eat and sleep at times as well?! :eek: :bigyello:

I recognized the challenge of wrapping things up. That last 10% is always the hardest, partly because a lot (most?) of the fun is in the initial stages to figure things out, and less in dotting the i's and crossing the t's. (At least it's for me.)

Much of the stuff you guys are working on are way above my head, but I like to follow the thread; hopefully I do learn something at times. Can't wait to try out TwinBasic, but first I have a business to run, where the "technical stuff" is not my primary task.

The graphics in the DirectComposition project bring back memories of when I started the work on my floorplanning application. The calculations of angles and lengths, using sinus, cosinus, etc. were grueling...

No VB6 projects any more.

I do still support users of a couple of applications I wrote in VB6 many (too many) years ago and they still appear to work but they're basically end of life so no coding.

But my development work was dragged, kicking and screaming, over to .Net in 2011

For too many years I resisted the change from VB6 to .Net I really wish I'd switched earlier.

wow Fafalone you are magnific

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Originally Posted by Erwin69

WOW, and do you eat and sleep at times as well?! :eek: :bigyello:

I recognized the challenge of wrapping things up. That last 10% is always the hardest, partly because a lot (most?) of the fun is in the initial stages to figure things out, and less in dotting the i's and crossing the t's. (At least it's for me.)

Much of the stuff you guys are working on are way above my head, but I like to follow the thread; hopefully I do learn something at times. Can't wait to try out TwinBasic, but first I have a business to run, where the "technical stuff" is not my primary task.

The graphics in the DirectComposition project bring back memories of when I started the work on my floorplanning application. The calculations of angles and lengths, using sinus, cosinus, etc. were grueling...

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Definitely the hardest. I have ADHD too so particularly hard. And it takes a lot of the fun out of it. I've done paid work before where I have to force myself to do all the boring parts, but I want to enjoy my hobby projects, so try to minimize that. Some of these projects are started going on 6-8 months ago now, so not like it's all day every day... I program maybe 4-5 hours a day tops.

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Originally Posted by yokesee

wow Fafalone you are magnific

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Thanks for the kind words :)

Those are interesting and I can see some use for several of those, the cpanel applet especially for a potential VB6 control panel replacement! - and the device manager as a useful tool.

"energy sucking debugging" - I understand that entirely. I work on several projects so this doesn't occur. It is the only way I make continual progress, the alternative is banging my head against the screen getting nowhere. I switch from javascript to VB6 and then back again cutting across to graphic design using photoshop from time to time.

Progress is continuous but spread across several projects so individually it feels slow.

SteamyDock 90% complete
Enhanced icon utility for SteamyDock 98%
Dock Settings utility for SteamyDock 98%
Fire call messenger 85%
Panzer Stopwatch 85%
Panzer JustClock 90%

Yahoo widgets - just finishing them off
Xwidget - burying the things, hate them

Then I have another 75-80 'widgets' to convert at my leisure.

Same question for any others reading this, how many projects do you keep "on the boil" as it were, ie. how many do you keep under development at any one time?

Development is a "side job" for me. My primary focus is on managing a small software business with partners and clients in 25+ countries. The three software products we market need regular updates, and I partly outsource that, partly do the development myself as I like to mix up my tasks/activities.

So my approach to s/w development in many ways has to be focused on delivering within specs within deadlines. The good news is that as the owner, I pretty much control the specs and deadlines... :bigyello:

With the three apps increasingly being used in combination with each other, updating one now often means updating one or both of the others. Therefore you could say that most of the time I have 3 projects "on the boil", applying bug fixes or synchronizing features, that then at some point in time are consolidated into a client release. The majority of clients are not "feature hungry" at all, so one update every 12-18 months usually is more than enough for them. On occasions a Service Pack in between if something nasty slipped through quality control.

In Q4 I plan to set aside time for some research on twinBASIC. As two of the tree apps are graphics and calculation intense, I'm curious to see if there are easy performance gains to be made by e.g. using a GPU if it's available on the PC the software is run on, or even multi-threading. (Not much more than concepts for me at this point... But I can see the potential benefits based on these concepts.)

tB has put up substantially better numbers than vb6 for optimized code in initial tests... Right now optimization is for 32bit only, and only procedures in modules that don't use interfaces, classes, variants, or strings. The rest of the types, UDTs, and arrays are ok.

Something you might be interested it: it provides granular control over optimization instructions, so for instance you can make a build enabling avx2 for computers that support it.

Multithreading is working now but will be api only until the first quarter of next year according to the current roadmap.

But for gpu you'd need to do the same as other languages.. use directx, opengl, opencl, etc. Haven't heard of any plans to use those directly.

If the graphics are using intrinsic VB6 commands which could be handed over to Direct2D or similar then they might benefit from GPU optimisation but I am not aware there is anything specific to TwinBasic that will bring the benefit of shifting from CPU to GPU, Faf. might have better understanding.

That might be something you can address now with VB6, that may carry over well to TB.

Multi-threading is not something anyone with VB6 experience will have much knowledge of. TheTrick and a few select others might be spawning off processes to carry out distinct tasks but multi-threading is a lot more than that. We'll have to see how TB handles it all and then see some examples from the clever chaps here on this forum.

Just moved house Part I, so not much progress from me.

https://www.vbforums.com/images/ieimages/2023/09/4.png

This is the old Pz Just Clock (Yahoo Widget) alongside the newer VB6/RC6 version (right). The newer version can make use of High DPI 4K screens and display itself with a clarity the old YWE version just could not. You can see the improvement in sharpness.

I've been coercing VB6 and RC6 to do what I expect of it. There is a lack (a deep hole) in my knowledge and of course it is difficult to pick up information from t'net on everything I want it to do as Olaf's RichClient is not as well-plumbed by the rest of the world as much as VB6 has been.

I have managed to coerce it to do what I need but it requires some lateral thinking (and I am probably still doing it wrong). Regardless, I have the graphical controls roughly operating as I wish them to do, menus &c all working. Next task is implementing the Daylight Savings code as per the original Yahoo widget.

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Originally Posted by fafalone

-PropSearch - Advanced find-file-by-property. 90% complete, stalled a bit til I feel like fighting more with a poorly documented BLOB format to display images in property columns, important due to intersection with ucShellBrowse, and increasingly common use of cloud storage explorer extensions using them. Also some energy sucking debugging to figure out why some searches are blowing up in my face; but the method works in other programs I've written so not a unclimbable wall.
https://www.vbforums.com/images/ieimages/2023/08/7.jpg
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windows Explorer, often searching for capitalization errors, can't find data. I don't know if you've run into something similar, EVERYTHING.EXE, which is almost 100% error-free. So windows search I hardly use it anymore. everything takes up a little more memory and is almost invincible in terms of search speed. Searching the contents of files is also convenient. For example, a file that matches the contents of two strings.

Windows has a few different search methods and yes some are unreliable... by default in Explorer some versions I think only look at indexed search, which can be stale or disabled.

I have a different search program I made I use for most searches that manually walks the disk, though fixing it's find text within file has been on my to-do list forever. It seems lots of programs have problems with that though. AstroGrep works better than my program so I use that for most full text searches now, but still it fails to find text I know to be somewhere even when I know it's just plain ANSI.

https://www.vbforums.com/images/ieimages/2023/09/5.jpg

The reason for all the random controls is over the years it's become a scratch program where I test all sorts of random semi- or un-related things that benefit from all the declares and helper functions/classes/modules it has without spending 10x as long setting up a new project with everything. I meant to release it at one point but I don't see ever getting around to a massive cleanup.

I'd like to have tried that tool. I am also using the Everything utility and with Windows Indexing switched off to avoid disc/SSD trawling and inaccurate search results. I never use MS own search utilities, instead using Everything above and also Effective File Search and File Search Classic.

I also use Cubic Explorer, Q-Dir and XN-View, trying to avoid MS' own file Explorer whenever possible. I prefer a common interface that operates on various flavours of Windows.

On my PZ Just Clock I have just added a RC transparent licence form that roughly approximates to that found in my old Yahoo widgets. I am using RC6's own control widgets for the textbox and buttons, each analogues of those found in VB6.

https://www.vbforums.com/images/ieimages/2023/09/5.png

I see what is going on daily here vb6-wise by reviewing the vbforum posts that interest me, focussing on watching any progress from TwinBasic, RADBasic, RC6 posts from Olaf, webbiz and others, general VB6 comments from Faf, Krool, Shaggy, Dil, theTrick, vangogh, si, jbpro and searchingdata, to name but a few - it keeps me updated. Nice to see projects progressing so please post an image or two here if you can.

I'm in that final phase where implementing just the final few improvements, bug fixes seems to take an interminably long time - that phase. No visual updates from me, just trying to complete the final 6-7% of one project, that includes my own code review of my own code.

P.S I have incorporated Shagratt's IDE add-ins to my development environment, the code folding and document map together do bring some very useful updates to the old VB6 IDE making it feel quite 'modern' to my admittedly rather limited knowledge of such things. It is nice to improve an old friend.

https://www.vbforums.com/images/ieimages/2023/10/1.jpg

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Originally Posted by yereverluvinuncleber

that includes my own code review of my own code.

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sometimes it's painful, but I also like it, especially I opened my wordprocessor again (2013) to refactor the code, what a surprise (2023) how my code evolved..... and the way of thinking too.

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Originally Posted by yereverluvinuncleber

It is nice to improve an old friend.

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Yes, I haven't even implemented LinkFX ModernVB yet.

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Originally Posted by yereverluvinuncleber

I see what is going on daily here vb6-wise by reviewing the vbforum posts that interest me, focussing on watching any progress from TwinBasic, RADBasic, RC6 posts from Olaf, webbiz and others, general VB6 comments from Faf, Krool, Shaggy, Dil, theTrick, vangogh, si, jbpro and searchingdata, to name but a few - it keeps me updated. Nice to see projects progressing so please post an image or two here if you can.

I'm in that final phase where implementing just the final few improvements, bug fixes seems to take an interminably long time - that phase. No visual updates from me, just trying to complete the final 6-7% of one project, that includes my own code review of my own code.

P.S I have incorporated Shagratt's IDE add-ins to my development environment, the code folding and document map together do bring some very useful updates to the old VB6 IDE making it feel quite 'modern' to my admittedly rather limited knowledge of such things. It is nice to improve an old friend.

https://www.vbforums.com/images/ieimages/2023/10/1.jpg

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yereverluvinuncleber, what add-in are you using for the tabbed interface with all open windows / modules?

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Originally Posted by Erwin69

yereverluvinuncleber, what add-in are you using for the tabbed interface with all open windows / modules?

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Erwin, that is the CodeHelp Core IDE Extender Framework, really essential for me. I cannot remember the link but if you need a copy, just PM me.

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Originally Posted by Episcopal

sometimes it's painful, but I also like it, especially I opened my wordprocessor again (2013) to refactor the code, what a surprise (2023) how my code evolved..... and the way of thinking too.

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Oh yes, with my recent foray into RC I created two early programs but now, with what I have learnt in just a few weeks, I need to refactor both.

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Originally Posted by Episcopal

Yes, I haven't even implemented LinkFX ModernVB yet.

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I did install ModernVB and then when I upgraded my machine h/w I had to reinstall VB6 from scratch. Then, after I had added a few of my useful, standard addins, I realised I didn't really need ModernVB. I'm not saying it isn't good, I just use what I really need.

Some of Shagratt's addins are interesting but I just use his code folder and the code map.

Currently working on the Monstergirl and NPC chat dynamics. This is the thing so far....

With much thanks to the SQL experts in here. I've managed to make a basic word-sniffer-database. (And those are randomly generated faces too.)

https://www.vbforums.com/images/ieimages/2023/10/8.jpg

Above, the NPC will randomly choose a greeting, but reactive text will change what she says to you. This can be anything, like a healer may talk about your arm's HP, or the town where you currently are, or something you are wearing for example.
The pink block is the trigger word for the next SQL conversation.

I'm yet to implement the click buttons for this, as it's widgetting and Olaf's example is way over my head (For clickable coloured text). Anyway, buttons below the NPC will appear (soon) for the same thing, allowing backtracking through dialogue.

Plus, to keep the database lean and easy to read, I've used referential terms too. So, the NPC 'talking' will reference 'her town', for example, if you ask about the local blacksmith.

Anywoots, just making it a less boring and a little more cute when talking with random NPC's than your usual script-only-text, Traditional Roguelike.

As always, fascinating to see a VB6 program looking very unlike a VB6 program.

I am getting very close to finishing my VB6/RC6 Panzer clock. Been working on converting the .js code I used in the Yahoo version of the program that handles Daylight Savings Time and timezone bias. I am sure I could implement the code using just APIs from the o/s but I was interested in the conversion process and it gave me some re-familiarisation with .js. I needed a refesher.

Still not spending as much time on coding as I'd like so progress is sedate. Regardless, the Pz Just Clock is working. I am going to muck about a bit with subclassing to see if I can get Elroy's tooltips to work on comboboxes.

Next task after that will be testing/bugfixing with multiple monitors (where is that VGA cable?)

Then I have some issues I need to resolve with Olaf regarding some RC6 technical challenges I found hard to overcome. I won't post those until I have sample code to demonstrate the problems I am facing.

When all resolved I will work on my next gauge, the stop watch gauge.

https://www.vbforums.com/images/ieimages/2023/10/20.jpg

After that the plan is to work on a dieselpunk volume control, as my only working volume control is a jScript Xwidget - I am worried that particular engine is going to have problems when some of the MS-supplied components it uses stop working...