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

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Originally Posted by yereverluvinuncleber

The two chaps/teams on TB/RB are working using different approaches, one seems to be considerably more advanced than the other. At the moment, I have some fairly complex programs that work out-of-the-box with TwinBasic so I would strongly suggest you give it a try.

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What's RB doing? I only hear from TB. I recently saw a video on YouTube showing RB using MDIForms.

RADBasic? People are still pinning hopes on that fiction?

RB is never going to be useful. It's barely a step above Hello World apps. You still can't call APIs, use Variants, make UDTs beyond ones with simple integral types, set/modify binary properties like Picture in controls, or compile anything at all besides very minor changes to their included demos.

I consider it a scam as non-paywalled information is extremely misleading, going so far as outright false claims, as to it being still in the 'unfit for any purpose whatsoever' phase. You're required to subscribe to even see basic blog posts, subscribe at a higher level to get any access to development versions at all, and even higher than that to receive the 'privilege' of being able to report bugs.

If tB ceased development today, it would likely take a decade plus for RB to get to where tB was in early 2022, than another decade or two to approach tB's current state, assuming development progress at the same rate it has for the last 4y.

It's very disappointing because I think legitimate competition would have elevated both products.

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Originally Posted by fafalone

It's very disappointing because I think legitimate competition would have elevated both products.

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Getting older isn't all bad. Sure, you get aches and pains, but that buys you wisdom. As little as three years ago, I would have wholeheartedly agreed, but now I understand that this notion is nothing more than propaganda we've been fed all our lives so that we not only give the cutthroat, morally bankrupt, predatory practices of greedy capitalists a pass, but we worship them for it.

Anyways, I don't really want to get into all that. Point is, TwinBASIC has everything it needs to succeed: A very passionate userbase with people like yourself doing everything you can for it to succeed, and a beast of a developer who seems unstoppable in his determination to make a production ready VB6 replacement a reality. You guys have everything you need. A cooperative effort of passionate people ensures that any endeavour can succeed. tB doesn't need a competitor. It just needs the people behind it to keep believing in it, and as far as I can tell, it has that.

The only thing that is of concern is the potential for work on tB to be stalled on account of something happening to Wayne, like sickness or a family tragedy.

I didn't follow RADBasic anymore.

My only interest in RADBasic is that it is developed with .Net(C# or VB.Net). IMO, it is much easier to develop a VB6 alternative with .Net (C# or VB.Net) than with C++. It's just that for those who want VB6's successor to be cross-platform, .Net isn't what they want. Maybe Microsoft has made .Net some cross-platform features, but I don't seem to see anyone developing with .Net on MacOS.

You know to be honest, I've never really bought into the idea that VB6 could be truly cross-platform. I've heard both Olaf and Wayne claim that it is possible, and they are certainly quite talented enough to pull something like this off, but I still have this nagging feeling that when that time comes, it will be far more difficult than they expect.

.Net's approach to start from scratch I think, was the better path. But I could be wrong. I can't wait to see how Wayne will do it. That will be very eye-opening if he actually succeeds.

Not a better path for us, the VB6-ers with all that huge codebase and nowhere to go - but as YOU say, let's not dig into that here. Let's get the thread back on track for VB6 Projects that we are you working on.

So, Niya, when are we going to see one of your old VB6 projects converted to TB? Let's take this conversation over to the other thread as you make progress.

So, after my failure to import my old social media platform, Firecall (built just for the two of us, my mate and I, using different languages on different platforms), I decided to give the code a long-needed revamp.

https://www.vbforums.com/images/ieimages/2025/08/2.jpeg

I hacked this thing together using VB6 and Photoshop in less than a week and achieved rather a lot in a short time, it was a birthday present. It is however, quite complex code in parts and the problem is I hacked it with no concern for readability nor maintenance. Lots of code was duplicated and altogether it was a general braindump with ever-present bugs.

Failing to migrate it to TB made me look at the code and begin to tidy it with some solid bugs to address - Making progress on the former.

It uses Dropbox for the inter-user network and encryption, it writes utf-8 files for compatibility with Mac os/x and other Unix systems, it handles attachments and emojis, records and transmits voice messages and displays/transfers all types of images. Not meant for general use, it is for fun between two old bonkers chaps with time on our hands and the source code to do what we want.

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Originally Posted by CrazyDude

Hi all, been wanting to post in this thread for a while. This is a VB6 app project of mine. Useful for finding devices on your network and pulling info from them. Free for most home networks with up to 50 network devices.

The indicator grids at the top & main data listview is by 10Tec and the 3D Graph is from Codejock
https://www.vbforums.com/images/ieimages/2025/08/6.png
Full Image

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Are you using an old version of RichClient5? 3,764kb (0047) vs 3,908kb (0067)

I am just mucking around with a new but very simple one-image desktop widget. First one built using RC6 and my new standard codebase. It looks OK but it does not do much, just some eye-candy that can be assigned a function, like a big icon. All my older single-image widgets were built using RC5 and were basic in operation with old code. The good thing about the old RC5 widgets was that they all operated well on XP, supposedly! - I haven't tested this for a while so I am unsure of that last claim.

https://www.vbforums.com/images/ieimages/2025/08/8.png

With that in mind I have created RC5 and RC6 versions of the same simple one-image widget. This template will act as an upgrade path for the older RC5 widgets.

I'm just playing. The point is that I am just about to start doing some testing on ReactOS new version (32bit) and so I will need XP versions of my widgets. If I can upgrade them at the same time then that it is a benefit.

https://www.vbforums.com/images/ieimages/2025/08/9.png

I have converted them both to TwinBasic and they migrate without issue. I have some conditional compiler statements for working around known TwinBasic issues but they are trivial.

https://www.vbforums.com/images/ieimages/2025/08/4.jpeg

I have an XP machine dedicated for the purpose of testing, I'll test there first and then test on ReactOS in Virtualbox 5 later.

https://www.vbforums.com/images/ieimages/2025/08/5.jpeg

A desktop crop

Now that Olaf is alive (again) I may have found my Mojo to create more programs and to delve into RC some more.

Err....It's nice to know that he is ok but based on what he said, it seems that he is completely burned out, something that is very surprising. I never thought he of all people could burn out. The guy is a beast. Nonetheless, I know what that is like and sometimes, you never really get back around to your unfinished work. You keep saying you'll do it tomorrow and before long it's been 15 years since you last touched your code.

Point is, I'm not sure this is good news of RichClient.

Hmmmm, interesting. He is alive and he is here. He will recover from the burn out. I suggest small amounts of alcohol and fun.

Your thoughts are appreciated though and I should say that the offer of assistance to Olaf still stands. I that I think we have a quorum for a team that has the will and the capability to take that task on, the upgrade to 64bit, I mean.

If he is burnt out out as much as you suggest then a perfect way to get help is to take it.

Olaf, if you are reading this, we could offer to start work on the upgrade of your code to 64bit operation, if you'll let us have that code! We could start with the RC5 source if you were happy to release that alone and we could promise to limit exposure of your code to a select few. NDAs could be signed &c. It all depends upon how much you are prepared to release.

You know the people here that are technically capable of the task (not necessarily me) but there others that would most likely be willing to dive in, me included - and others better than me, of course.

We seriously do not want RichClient to wither on the vine due to lack of attention.

Working on my single image RC5 and RC6 widgets. Making them rotate as required so the desktop trinket goes where you want at any size and rotation.

https://www.vbforums.com/images/ieimages/2025/09/1.gif

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Originally Posted by CrazyDude

Hi all, been wanting to post in this thread for a while. This is a VB6 app project of mine. Useful for finding devices on your network and pulling info from them. Free for most home networks with up to 50 network devices.

The indicator grids at the top & main data listview is by 10Tec and the 3D Graph is from Codejock
https://www.vbforums.com/images/ieimages/2025/08/6.png
Full Image

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Originally Posted by yereverluvinuncleber

Are you using an old version of RichClient5? 3,764kb (0047) vs 3,908kb (0067)

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I've been pretty sick, so couldn't reply. :/

About RichClient5.. It's kind of a long story. Started using RichClient for the SQLite capabilities. It was left in to try out the direct 2D hardware motion features, which look awesome. Would definitely like to use it some how. Schmidt is an amazing coder.

We all stand on the shoulders of giants...

Tell me about it. Without iGrid, the software I work on would've never been possible.. not to mention VB6, best language ever. And without RichClient, yours wouldn't be possible. Giants indeed..

I've built all my designs previously using other languages, all of which were built by better men than me.

o Konfabulator by Arlo Rose and Ricky Romero built a runtime environment using javascript that was the perfect one for such desktop trinkets. It died.
o A Chinese chap by the name of Tony built Xwidgets development and runtime environment using Jscript which looked good for a while. It died.
o I'm now building using VB6 and RichClient, VB6 built by some clever chaps that knew what they were doing. However, VB6 has already been killed and is probably on the last gasps of life support.
o TwinBasic, by God it is nice to be working with something that is new - whilst I remain clinging to the hope that RichClient is about to have some new life injected into it yet.

Just because it is built by giants doesn't mean it can't fail.

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Originally Posted by yereverluvinuncleber

It died....It died....It died.

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That's always the risk when we invest in niche technologies.

I've always wished I had taken a different path and gone heavily into C and C++ instead of sticking so devoutly to Microsoft and Visual Basic. I must have been out of my mind. Too late now, I don't have the gusto or the time to completely switch tracks at this stage in my life. I could dabble here and there, but I cannot truly change now. Had I done that, I wouldn't have to worry about whether or not MS will kill whatever technology I fell in love with and they killed a lot of good technologies before they had time to truly mature. Silverlight, WPF are two examples of good MS tech that died before their time. Meanwhile, you have C/C++ stacks pushing decades of longevity out here. I must have been crazy indeed.

VB6 can live forever through the pervasive COM technology. Even now it's gotten new life through WinRT which is also COM based.

So can all the other tech stacks that "died". The problem isn't really that these old technologies no longer work; it is that they're stagnant. VB6, WPF, VB.Net will all work for years to come but they are all stagnant now. They will never evolve beyond what they are right now.

Maybe they don't need to, they're perfect as they are. It's not like C evolved much in the past 50 years or so. C++ did pick up a few new tricks along the way though.

Well C++ is a superset of C and as you say, C++ is continuously evolving.

I'd argue that stagnation is a very bad thing. One of my biggest irks with the stagnation of VB.Net is that it would never be able to take full advantage ref structs, ref locals and Spans. VB.Net will forever be locked out from making full use of the powerful performance enhancements that can be purchased with these new types. Now, of course, you can write your performance-critical code in C# if you wanted to take advantage of them, but why then even bother with VB.Net. It's better to commit fully to C# and save yourself the trouble of mixing languages.

The stagnation of VB6 is also what makes TwinBASIC such an attractive prospect. Once it fully matures, there really won't be any good reason to keep using VB6.

Yea, we only tolerate stagnation when we feel as if we have no choice, but none of us really like it. Something can only ever be perfect for it's time but needs change. New things come along and many times, we want these new things. Many times, we need them.

Sad to say, and a personal detriment to my character but there is some satisfaction to be derived from the placing of VB.NET onto the same list of deprecated languages where VB6 has sat for 20 years.

You know what I mean, clever people saying you should move onto here, to this newer, better technology, you are behind the times... Then they end up sitting on the same neglected bench as you.

About your own personal choice Niya - It was clear that MS was telling you and all of us to move on and the message was that VB.NET was the future. However, for many of us, we saw the real truth behind the hint. With VB.NET, MS were only protecting their investment and giving a partial upgrade path to a portion of those coding in VB6, possibly only the professional VB6ers. The remainder simply weren't wanted. They weren't catered for.

The C-C# family was such a significant change that it really wasn't a path for most of us. I reckon that you would have been able to make that change with ease and you could have been a giant there. You say you can't make that change now but you can. It is never fun being late to the party.

I do prefer older, stable technology, it is part of my make-up. I prefer to incrementally pile new knowledge on top of old, even if it means I am slowly becoming expert in something obsolete.

Occasionally, though it is good to dip into new concepts and a new environment. TwinBasic is ringing my bells as it fulfils the whole brief. You need to find the same for yourself.

Perhaps you should become part of the team that is implementing the newer C# technology into VB.NET by keeping the language alive...

https://www.remobjects.com/elements/mercury/

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Originally Posted by yereverluvinuncleber

The C-C# family was such a significant change that it really wasn't a path for most of us. I reckon that you would have been able to make that change with ease and you could have been a giant there. You say you can't make that change now but you can. It is never fun being late to the party.

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A switch to C# would be relatively painless after all, it uses the same .Net platform. It would only be a matter of training muscle memory for the language syntax. A move to C/C++ however would be quite painful. I've been into Microsoft and versions of BASIC since I was a child. That is a hefty investment into learning their ecosystem and their way of doing things. C/C++ has a vast ecosystem and a completely different way of approaching things, and I don't have another lifetime to learn that to the level where I'd be as comfortable with it as I am with Microsoft's ecosystem.

It's also possible that I could be wrong, and it would be easier than I imagine, but I just don't have the zest to find out. .Net isn't going anywhere anytime soon and it can meet most needs. It's fast, it's multi-platform and it has a vast ecosystem. It makes more sense for me to stick with it, but it's a risk. MS could kill .Net tomorrow but C/C++ will never die.

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Originally Posted by yereverluvinuncleber

Perhaps you should become part of the team that is implementing the newer C# technology into VB.NET by keeping the language alive...

https://www.remobjects.com/elements/mercury/

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While that would be interesting to participate in, it would be far more pragmatic for me to just move to C#. It would take about 6 months of consistent usage for me to get as comfortable with the syntax as I am with VB.Net's syntax. I won't have to relearn anything else because C# uses everything VB.Net uses to get things done. Also, in my opinion, C# is a better-designed language than VB.Net. I like VB.Net because I'm comfortable with the syntax. As I said, I've been writing BASIC code since I was a child so I have a high level of comfort there but there is no reason I can't get as comfortable with C#, and I have every intention of making that leap. In fact, I already have one C# project under my belt. I just need to do more projects like that.

All in all, I'm making a huge bet that in spite of Microsoft's glee to kill off promising tech, they won't kill .Net because of its enormous popularity. I'm hoping that .Net is in the "too big to fail" category. VB6, VB.Net, WPF, Silverlight etc weren't too big to fail. Despite their popularity, these were still niche technologies at the end of the day. There wasn't enough of a majority to save them from Microsoft's axe.

What are you chaps working on that would peak our interest? I'm doing lots but most of it is just fettling, improving and learning, nothing new visually to show.

I have been using imgur to upload images to this thread as the native image hosting on the forum is rather broken.
Unfortunately imgur is no longer allowing access to UK users and the threat is that it might soon be not displaying content to UK users and I believe the EU as well.

This will kill this thread where imgur has been used to provide the imagery.

Please don't use IMGUR. I will not be using it from now on. Apologies for the faulty recommendation.

https://www.vbforums.com/images/ieimages/2025/10/1.jpeg

Hmmm....seems to work fine. I'd still strongly recommend it.

In any case, what would you recommend in place of imgur for UK users?

I don't have any problems uploading images from Advanced. Strange you can't.

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Originally Posted by wes4dbt

I don't have any problems uploading images from Advanced. Strange you can't.

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Occasionally it loses images some short time after submitting them so I don't trust it any more.

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Originally Posted by Niya

Hmmm....seems to work fine. I'd still strongly recommend it.

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Apologies, I wasn't clear, it affects UK and possibly EU users.

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Originally Posted by Niya

In any case, what would you recommend in place of imgur for UK users?

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That was MY question.

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Originally Posted by yereverluvinuncleber

Occsionally it loses images some short time after submmitting them so I don't trust it any more.

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Now that you mentioned it, I can't seem to find my older images listed anymore. I only see the more recently uploaded images. I hope that is just a bug in their interface. I have a lot of images linked from here.

Inspired by jpbro's image cropping tool, I thought I would take a crack and making one in VBA using GDI/GDI+ (I use 64bit, so am not able to use RC6). It is still early days, but it has been pretty straightforward so far.

Attachment 195433

Attachment 195434

Turns out it is a pretty useful tool for all things image related - I've been looking to combine it with my vbaImageSearch routine for work tasks..

Looks good! Let us know when it becomes usable and we'll give it a go!