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Jan 10th, 2022, 08:25 AM
#1
[RESOLVED] VB6 QUESTION: Has anyone written hardware drivers using VB6?
Possibly a silly question but one that popped into my head. Has anyone ever written hardware drivers using VB6?
Perhaps VB6 is not a language suited to writing drivers at all or perhaps the APIs require C? I really do not know, please enlighten me.
https://github.com/yereverluvinunclebert
Skillset: VMS,DOS,Windows Sysadmin from 1985, fault-tolerance, VaxCluster, Alpha,Sparc. DCL,QB,VBDOS- VB6,.NET, PHP,NODE.JS, Graphic Design, Project Manager, CMS, Quad Electronics. classic cars & m'bikes. Artist in water & oils. Historian.
By the power invested in me, all the threads I start are battle free zones - no arguing about the benefits of VB6 over .NET here please. Happiness must reign.
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Jan 10th, 2022, 03:14 PM
#2
Hyperactive Member
Re: VB6 QUESTION: Has anyone written hardware drivers using VB6?
The Trick, he already did it of course.
I hope it helps you.
https://www.vbforums.com/showthread....ver&highlight=
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Jan 10th, 2022, 06:47 PM
#3
Re: VB6 QUESTION: Has anyone written hardware drivers using VB6?
Originally Posted by yokesee
Based on this it seems it's entirely possible.
But to answer the question in the OP, I'd say do it for sport or do it for the challenge of doing it. I however, would not do it for serious production use. My reasoning is simply that it's counter productive. VB6 wasn't designed with authoring drivers in mind, which means you will have to spend some effort bending VB6 to the task, especially when bugs arise. It may be a whole lot painless when you use the tools that were designed to write drivers. Those tools/SDKs should have a more straightforward way of doing it. Not to mention any tutorials out there would be far easier to follow.
EDIT:
On a side note, this might be one of the very few things that VB6 can do that .Net can't so there's a feather in your cap
Last edited by Niya; Jan 10th, 2022 at 06:51 PM.
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Jan 11th, 2022, 09:25 AM
#4
Re: VB6 QUESTION: Has anyone written hardware drivers using VB6?
Originally Posted by Niya
this might be one of the very few things that VB6 can do that .Net can't
VB6 being closer to the metal...
https://github.com/yereverluvinunclebert
Skillset: VMS,DOS,Windows Sysadmin from 1985, fault-tolerance, VaxCluster, Alpha,Sparc. DCL,QB,VBDOS- VB6,.NET, PHP,NODE.JS, Graphic Design, Project Manager, CMS, Quad Electronics. classic cars & m'bikes. Artist in water & oils. Historian.
By the power invested in me, all the threads I start are battle free zones - no arguing about the benefits of VB6 over .NET here please. Happiness must reign.
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Jan 11th, 2022, 09:42 AM
#5
Re: VB6 QUESTION: Has anyone written hardware drivers using VB6?
Actually it's more about the compiler than anything else.
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Jan 11th, 2022, 12:16 PM
#6
Re: VB6 QUESTION: Has anyone written hardware drivers using VB6?
The compiler being closer to the metal. The VB6 compiler that is. So that the VB6 language that uses it, can get closer to the metal.
https://github.com/yereverluvinunclebert
Skillset: VMS,DOS,Windows Sysadmin from 1985, fault-tolerance, VaxCluster, Alpha,Sparc. DCL,QB,VBDOS- VB6,.NET, PHP,NODE.JS, Graphic Design, Project Manager, CMS, Quad Electronics. classic cars & m'bikes. Artist in water & oils. Historian.
By the power invested in me, all the threads I start are battle free zones - no arguing about the benefits of VB6 over .NET here please. Happiness must reign.
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Jan 11th, 2022, 04:06 PM
#7
Re: VB6 QUESTION: Has anyone written hardware drivers using VB6?
Originally Posted by yereverluvinuncleber
The compiler being closer to the metal. The VB6 compiler that is. So that the VB6 language that uses it, can get closer to the metal.
No. Drivers are nothing that special. They are just programs that makes API calls like any typical Windows application. .Net applications can make unmanaged API calls just fine so you can write driver code in .Net. The problem is that the compiler needs to produce a binary that is recognized by Windows as a driver. For example, one of the things the compiler needs to do is export the DriverEntry entry point for kernel mode drivers. As I understand it the binary format for drivers closely resembles the binary format for standard C DLLs which I believe VB6 can produce with some tricks and hacks. I've seen people do it in the past. None of this has anything to do with being "closer to the metal". This is purely a file format problem.
EDIT:
I decided to dig into this a little deeper. Drivers are a thing I was always fascinated by. I found a sample of an actual driver. Here is one of it's source files. It's just ordinary code, function calls, pushing pointers, structures around and bit fields around. Nothing magical. There is nothing there that cannot be done in VB6, C# or VB.Net. The main issue format of the binary produced by the compiler from the code.
Last edited by Niya; Jan 11th, 2022 at 06:34 PM.
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