In a very large project, how to deal with thousands of interface classes?

[SearchingDataOnly]

I'm doing some extreme tests on the VB6 project. In the test, a VBP project contains thousands of classes and thousands of Interface (classes). In the process of loading VBP, the prompt "Out of memory" appears. So I decide to split this VBP project.

One of the solutions is to put all the interface files (interface classes) into a separate VBP project, and compile this project into an Active-DLL for the main VBP project to call. I'd like to know whether this solution is feasible, and is there a better solution?

Another solution is to put these thousands of interface files (interface classes) in a TLB. I have never created a TLB myself, and I don't know anything about TLB. I don't know if this solution is better.

Any suggestions and hints would be greatly appreciated.

[Arnoutdv]

Thousands of classes and interfaces?
What kind of project is this?

I would normally put classes which are related in a single DLL and in the main project only reference what’s needed.
Why do you want everything in a single project?

[techgnome]

Yeah, I'd break things up based on functionality or domain (business) ... Let's say you have a program that represents a car. Rather than have it all crammed into one app, break it up... Electronics.DLL, Fuel.DLL, Exhaust.DLL, etc... The Engine.dll would use the other DLLs as needed as well as providing it's own interface and functionality and so on.
Just be wary of circular references.


-tg

[SearchingDataOnly]

Thousands of classes and interfaces?
What kind of project is this?

I would normally put classes which are related in a single DLL and in the main project only reference what’s needed.
Why do you want everything in a single project?

The above project with thousands of classes is one of dozens of DLLs in a huge project. If each VB6-DLL-project can only contain a few hundred class files, then the entire huge project will need(produce) hundreds of DLL files.

[SearchingDataOnly]

Yeah, I'd break things up based on functionality or domain (business) ... Let's say you have a program that represents a car. Rather than have it all crammed into one app, break it up... Electronics.DLL, Fuel.DLL, Exhaust.DLL, etc... The Engine.dll would use the other DLLs as needed as well as providing it's own interface and functionality and so on.
Just be wary of circular references.


-tg

Yes, we can take this approach for cars. But if it's a 10,000-ton-class or 30,000-ton-class ship, maybe we need to think about other better ways, such as building a giant ship in sections (each section is huge).

[SearchingDataOnly]

After testing, I found that the total number of module files and class files that each single VB6 project can hold is less than 1050 (approximate number), otherwise VB6-IDE will prompt "Out of memory" and stop loading the remaining files.

This limitation has caused me a big trouble. I need a single VB6 project to hold at least 3000 class files and module files.

[techgnome]

Waht kind of project is this for? I can't even imagine needing more than a few dozen classes, let alone a 1000, and there shouldn't even be a need for 3000 classes in anything... Wot in the heck are you building?

-tg

[baka]

yeah, why do you need all those 3000 classes in the same time (real-time)?
better split them in sections.
if you really need 3000 classes operating at the same time, I wonder if you are not doing something wrongly. nothing need that much, well, maybe an AI?
if each class stores data, and you want it to be active, maybe you need to re-think how to store data in another way, this so you don't need the class alive.
if its information or data calling or operation calling, all that can be changed into database and DLL.

another method is to create multiple exe's and you have some kind of communication between them.

[xiaoyao]

you can make 10 or 100 dll,and load them

[SearchingDataOnly]

Waht kind of project is this for? I can't even imagine needing more than a few dozen classes, let alone a 1000, and there shouldn't even be a need for 3000 classes in anything... Wot in the heck are you building?

-tg

yeah, why do you need all those 3000 classes in the same time (real-time)?
better split them in sections.
if you really need 3000 classes operating at the same time, I wonder if you are not doing something wrongly. nothing need that much, well, maybe an AI?
if each class stores data, and you want it to be active, maybe you need to re-think how to store data in another way, this so you don't need the class alive.
if its information or data calling or operation calling, all that can be changed into database and DLL.

another method is to create multiple exe's and you have some kind of communication between them.

I'm doing some extreme tests (stress tests) to explore new possibilities for VB6.

No one seems to have a good solution, maybe we should focus the discussion on TLB.

[Arnoutdv]

But in real life you would only include the libraries you need.
Not one big huge library which contains all you will ever need, at least what you can think of right now.

You would have a math library, a graphics library, a font library etc etc.
Not everything in a single library.

[PlausiblyDamp]

I'm doing some extreme tests (stress tests) to explore new possibilities for VB6.

No one seems to have a good solution, maybe we should focus the discussion on TLB.

According to http://codebetter.com/patricksmacchi...net-framework/ it looks like the entire .Net 3.5 framework only had about 1,700 public interfaces - I suspect needing anything like that amount in an application is highly unlikely.

[Krool]

What about "lightweight COM" classes via bas module?

[dilettante]

.Net has the advantage of overloaded methods. So an interface might have "one method" that is really 8 or 9. Not sure whether that figures into the issue for VB6.

[xiaoyao]

If you need to develop an operating system, sorry, please do not use VB 6.
vb.net It suits you.or vc++

[SearchingDataOnly]

@Arnoutdv, @PlausiblyDamp, @Krool, @dilettante, @xiaoyao:

I'm trying to convert some TypeScript interfaces into VB6 code, there are thousands of such interfaces.

https://www.vbforums.com/showthread....=1#post5396553

/*---------------------------------------------------------
 * Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
 *--------------------------------------------------------*/
'use strict';

// -- raw grammar typings

export interface ILocation {
	readonly filename: string;
	readonly line: number;
	readonly char: number;
}

export interface ILocatable {
	readonly $vscodeTextmateLocation?: ILocation;
}

export interface IRawGrammar extends ILocatable {
	repository: IRawRepository;
	readonly scopeName: string;
	readonly patterns: IRawRule[];
	readonly injections?: { [expression: string]: IRawRule };
	readonly injectionSelector?: string;

	readonly fileTypes?: string[];
	readonly name?: string;
	readonly firstLineMatch?: string;
}

export interface IRawRepositoryMap {
	[name: string]: IRawRule;
	$self: IRawRule;
	$base: IRawRule;
}

export type IRawRepository = IRawRepositoryMap & ILocatable;

export interface IRawRule extends ILocatable {
	id?: number;

	readonly include?: string;

	readonly name?: string;
	readonly contentName?: string;

	readonly match?: string;
	readonly captures?: IRawCaptures;
	readonly begin?: string;
	readonly beginCaptures?: IRawCaptures;
	readonly end?: string;
	readonly endCaptures?: IRawCaptures;
	readonly while?: string;
	readonly whileCaptures?: IRawCaptures;
	readonly patterns?: IRawRule[];

	readonly repository?: IRawRepository;

	readonly applyEndPatternLast?: boolean;
}

export interface IRawCapturesMap {
	[captureId: string]: IRawRule;
}

export type IRawCaptures = IRawCapturesMap & ILocatable;


export interface IOnigLib {
	createOnigScanner(sources: string[]): OnigScanner;
	createOnigString(sources: string): OnigString;
}

export interface IOnigCaptureIndex {
	start: number;
	end: number;
	length: number;
}

export interface IOnigMatch {
    index: number;
    captureIndices: IOnigCaptureIndex[];
    scanner: OnigScanner;
}

export interface OnigScanner {
	findNextMatchSync(string: string | OnigString, startPosition: number): IOnigMatch;
}

export interface OnigString {
	readonly content: string;
	readonly dispose?: () => void;
}

[SearchingDataOnly]

What about "lightweight COM" classes via bas module?

Hi Krool, thanks for your suggestion.

I re-studied Olaf's tutorial "VB6 LightWeight COM and vbFriendly-BaseInterfaces". IMO, LightWeight COM seems to only play a role in reducing the memory occupied by the created objects and speeding up the release of the objects(class instances). But it does not help VB6-IDE to load thousands of class files.

However, Olaf mentioned the concept of "class factory" in the example that seems to help me solve some problems. For example, I can merge many classes into the "class factory", but this doesn't seem to work for interface classes. Maybe we should still consider how to use TLB to define a large number of interfaces and classes.

[SearchingDataOnly]

Below is the code to generate a huge project (in a module file):

Public Sub CreateHugeProject()
    Dim i As Long:
    Dim sPath  As String
    Dim sClassName As String
    Dim sFileName As String
    
    sPath = "C:\MyHugeProject\"
    New_c.FSO.EnsurePath sPath
    
    With New_c.StringBuilder
        .AppendNL "Type=Exe"
        .AppendNL "Reference=*\G{00020430-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}#2.0#0#C:\Windows\System32\stdole2.tlb#OLE Automation"
                
        For i = 1 To 3000
            sClassName = "Class" & i
            sFileName = sPath & sClassName & ".cls"
            CreateHugeProject_Class sClassName, sFileName
            .AppendNL "Class=" & sClassName & "; " & sClassName & ".cls"
        Next i
        
        .AppendNL "Startup=""Sub Main"""
        .AppendNL "HelpFile="""""
        .AppendNL "Command32="""""
        .AppendNL "Name=""MyHugeProject"""
        .AppendNL "HelpContextID=""0"""
        .AppendNL "CompatibleMode=""0"""
        .AppendNL "MajorVer=1"
        .AppendNL "MinorVer=0"
        .AppendNL "RevisionVer=0"
        .AppendNL "AutoIncrementVer=0"
        .AppendNL "ServerSupportFiles=0"
        .AppendNL "VersionCompanyName=""TEST"""
        .AppendNL "CompilationType=0"
        .AppendNL "OptimizationType=0"
        .AppendNL "FavorPentiumPro(tm)=0"
        .AppendNL "CodeViewDebugInfo=0"
        .AppendNL "NoAliasing=0"
        .AppendNL "BoundsCheck=0"
        .AppendNL "OverflowCheck=0"
        .AppendNL "FlPointCheck=0"
        .AppendNL "FDIVCheck=0"
        .AppendNL "UnroundedFP=0"
        .AppendNL "StartMode=0"
        .AppendNL "Unattended=0"
        .AppendNL "Retained=0"
        .AppendNL "ThreadPerObject=0"
        .AppendNL "MaxNumberOfThreads=1"
        
        sFileName = sPath & "MyHugeProject.vbp"
        New_c.FSO.WriteTextContent sFileName, .ToString()
    End With
    
End Sub

Private Sub CreateHugeProject_Class(ByVal sClassName, ByVal sFileName As String)

    With New_c.StringBuilder
        .AppendNL "VERSION 1.0 CLASS"
        .AppendNL "BEGIN"
        .AppendNL "  MultiUse = -1  'True"
        .AppendNL "  Persistable = 0  'NotPersistable"
        .AppendNL "  DataBindingBehavior = 0  'vbNone"
        .AppendNL "  DataSourceBehavior  = 0  'vbNone"
        .AppendNL "  MTSTransactionMode  = 0  'NotAnMTSObject"
        .AppendNL "END"
        .AppendNL "Attribute VB_Name = """ & sClassName & """"
        .AppendNL "Attribute VB_GlobalNameSpace = False"
        .AppendNL "Attribute VB_Creatable = True"
        .AppendNL "Attribute VB_PredeclaredId = False"
        .AppendNL "Attribute VB_Exposed = False"
        .AppendNL "Option Explicit"
        '.AppendNL STR_NULL
            
        New_c.FSO.WriteTextContent sFileName, .ToString(), True
        
    End With
    
End Sub

[wqweto]

For example, I can merge many classes into the "class factory"

Merge several coclasses implementation into a single .bas module, not a class factory.

. . . but this doesn't seem to work for interface classes. Maybe we should still consider how to use TLB to define a large number of interfaces and classes.

A typelib shoud be ok declaring thousands of interfaces that could be implemented in some hundreds of .bas modules only.

cheers,
</wqw>

[SearchingDataOnly]

Merge several coclasses implementation into a single .bas module, not a class factory.

Thank you for your correction, wqweto.

A typelib shoud be ok declaring thousands of interfaces that could be implemented in some hundreds of .bas modules only.

It's a good idea. It seems that I have to learn how to use VTable and how to create TLBs (I've been avoiding these Windows proprietary technologies). This can solve the problem of thousands of interface classes. For ordinary vb-classes, besides merging them into bas modules, is there any other better way? Thanks