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Thread: VB6-alike IDE - Has anyone ever created any IDE similar?

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    VB6-alike IDE - Has anyone ever created any IDE similar?

    I know that in the past several people have attempted a VB6 replacement without really understanding the magnitude of the task. I appreciate all that. Some of those projects may have matured into something... without ever becoming fully usable and that code may still exist somewhere.

    I am merely asking about the possibility of something akin to the IDE. Not the ability to do everything that the VB6 IDE does, not expandability through customised controls &c &c, nor the interpreted, debugger, compiler, not all that. In this case I am just asking has anyone ever built or come across something that equates to a basic code development environment (using something like Scintilla as the editor) with the look and feel of something similar to that of the whole VB6 IDE.

    I am also quite aware that there are plenty of code editors around but visual drag/drop designers aren't two a penny and in any case I'm thinking about something that can be built using VB6.

    I remember someone here came up with a preliminary VB6-lookalike-IDE some time ago but was shot down in flames when he announced it. This place can be cruel.

    The second part of the puzzle is of course a drag and drop designer. Has anyone come across anything like that that could be incorporated into a VB6 project?

    Let me just tell you - that this is NOT for building a VB6 replacement.

    I have a possible project that would benefit from something like this so I am just putting out some feelers to see what exists, if anything.

    Please put your kind heads on and offer your suggestions.
    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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    Re: VB6-alike IDE - Has anyone ever created any IDE similar?

    The closest I came is working on a scintinilla wrapper with the syntax highlighting, intellisense, code tool tips, and support for breakpoints and debugger line highlighting and advanced find/highlight capabilities

    https://youtu.be/nSr1-OugQ1M
    https://github.com/dzzie/scivb2

    For the drag and drop form editor I would poke through the Lazarus source. I did see it once in a project on psc but could never find it again when I wanted it.

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    Re: VB6-alike IDE - Has anyone ever created any IDE similar?

    I like that dz32, will download and try.
    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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    Re: VB6-alike IDE - Has anyone ever created any IDE similar?

    Dz32, that control embeds the Scintilla editor very well and I can see myself building my own IDE right away. I need to control myself and reign myself in! I can easily become carried away.

    Your recommendation hit the nail right on the head with Scintilla configured for javascript. My ideas was merely a thought but concerned my old Yahoo widgets, all written in javascript for the YWE engine.

    They always lacked a dynamic development environment similar to VB6. Instead, they were designed initially in Photoshop and then exported to a XML description and in the process the graphics were sliced from layers into objects, for the old YWE engine to pick up and display. Any logic was added later using any editor you cared to use.

    A disconnected one-way process that you could not easily return to later on in the development process. I really missed the old VB6 "double click on any control to open the dblCick event" having the GUI designer so well integrated into the code editor. There was no to-and-fro between the editor and the GUI designer.

    My thought was to cobble together someone else's drag and drop designer together with Scintilla editor and see if I could bodge a subset of the VB6 IDE but solely for jscript/YWE using YWE's own debugger.

    So, we have two thirds of the tool but missing the drag and drop designer. I appreciate that VB6 is probably the wrong tool to handle PNGs within a drag and drop GUI designer not being able to easily handle transparencies - but it could possibly be made to do it with some effort.

    I've done some searching but no hint of an open source GUI designer in VB6, I'm barking up the wrong tree I suppose. Why would I even expect such a thing to exist? There was no need for one I suppose as there was a perfectly good one in VB6 already.

    I will keep my eyes open for someone's abandoned project trying to replace VB6.

    Thanks again dz32.
    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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    Re: VB6-alike IDE - Has anyone ever created any IDE similar?

    to keep the links together, the integrated javascript engine, IDE and debugger that use the scintinilla wrapper are here : https://github.com/dzzie/duk4vb

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    Re: VB6-alike IDE - Has anyone ever created any IDE similar?

    Crikey, just found this: https://www.codeproject.com/Articles.../Form-Designer on CodeProject. There is a VB6 example too.
    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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    Hyperactive Member gaouser's Avatar
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    Re: VB6-alike IDE - Has anyone ever created any IDE similar?

    bruh im making vb7 but its in work theres no alpha i started because another projects almost done <= <= <=
    but theres a problem how the build works

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    Hyperactive Member gaouser's Avatar
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    Re: VB6-alike IDE - Has anyone ever created any IDE similar?

    Quote Originally Posted by yereverluvinuncleber View Post
    Dz32, that control embeds the Scintilla editor very well and I can see myself building my own IDE right away. I need to control myself and reign myself in! I can easily become carried away.

    Your recommendation hit the nail right on the head with Scintilla configured for javascript. My ideas was merely a thought but concerned my old Yahoo widgets, all written in javascript for the YWE engine.

    They always lacked a dynamic development environment similar to VB6. Instead, they were designed initially in Photoshop and then exported to a XML description and in the process the graphics were sliced from layers into objects, for the old YWE engine to pick up and display. Any logic was added later using any editor you cared to use.

    A disconnected one-way process that you could not easily return to later on in the development process. I really missed the old VB6 "double click on any control to open the dblCick event" having the GUI designer so well integrated into the code editor. There was no to-and-fro between the editor and the GUI designer.

    My thought was to cobble together someone else's drag and drop designer together with Scintilla editor and see if I could bodge a subset of the VB6 IDE but solely for jscript/YWE using YWE's own debugger.

    So, we have two thirds of the tool but missing the drag and drop designer. I appreciate that VB6 is probably the wrong tool to handle PNGs within a drag and drop GUI designer not being able to easily handle transparencies - but it could possibly be made to do it with some effort.

    I've done some searching but no hint of an open source GUI designer in VB6, I'm barking up the wrong tree I suppose. Why would I even expect such a thing to exist? There was no need for one I suppose as there was a perfectly good one in VB6 already.

    I will keep my eyes open for someone's abandoned project trying to replace VB6.

    Thanks again dz32.
    do you mean dblclick to a control and vb6 create a click private sub for control

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    Re: VB6-alike IDE - Has anyone ever created any IDE similar?

    Quote Originally Posted by gaouser View Post
    bruh im making vb7 but its in work theres no alpha i started because another projects almost done
    I somehow don't believe this. The proof is in the pudding.
    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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    Re: VB6-alike IDE - Has anyone ever created any IDE similar?

    Quote Originally Posted by yereverluvinuncleber View Post
    It is an activeX control designer so not completely suited to my needs but it is a fully featured product that could really be used to build a VB6-alike IDE using VB6. Really most impressive.

    Last edited by yereverluvinuncleber; Jun 24th, 2022 at 02:16 PM.
    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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    Re: VB6-alike IDE - Has anyone ever created any IDE similar?

    http://www.downza.cn/soft/269901.html
    VisualFreeBasic USE scintinilla.DLL

    http://www.yfvb.com/soft-48.htm
    Name:  1524237771323249.jpg
Views: 414
Size:  29.3 KB

    Main features of visualfreebasic:
    1. Green and pure, decompressed and ready to use, completely free, without any restrictions.
    2. Similar to the development environment of VisualBasic6, the development window is simple and efficient.
    3. The same syntax as VisualBasic6 has the gene of C language,
    High code execution efficiency, support abbreviations, etc., which is C of B syntax.
    4. Support Chinese function name and Chinese variable name.
    5. The code is automatically prompted and completed, prompting the database to modify freely.
    6. Code editor, one click color change, individual color is up to you. You can also create your own colors, and each color can be modified
    7. Integrated function library (like code snippets and code managers, it is more convenient to integrate in IDE)
    8. Support WIN2000 to win10 operating systems, and the written software supports PE system (as long as there is no API not supported by PE in the code)
    9. All necessary files have been highly integrated, so you don't have to look for them
    Last edited by xiaoyao; Jun 25th, 2022 at 03:09 AM.

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    Re: VB6-alike IDE - Has anyone ever created any IDE similar?

    Last edited by xiaoyao; Jun 25th, 2022 at 03:23 AM.

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    Re: VB6-alike IDE - Has anyone ever created any IDE similar?

    xiaoyiao, thanks for reminding me about VFB. What language is the drag and drop UI designer written in?
    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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    Re: VB6-alike IDE - Has anyone ever created any IDE similar?

    Quote Originally Posted by yereverluvinuncleber View Post
    xiaoyiao, thanks for reminding me about VFB. What language is the drag and drop UI designer written in?
    it's design by vfb,ha ha

    Origin of visualfreebasic
    Since the birth of freebasic more than ten years ago, its ide has been in the state of code editor, and there is no automatic processing. Except that senior programmers can use it, novices have no way to start, and they simply can't know where to start. Until the firefly software developed by Paul squires (Nationality: Canada) appeared in 2015, which greatly simplified FB programming and enabled novices to write software with FB.
    Although firefly has brought great progress to FB's IDE, many are not satisfactory. Therefore, at the end of 2016, Yongfang began to patch firefly for more than two years. Because there is no source code, it can only be repaired by DLL combined with plug-in technology. A lot of experience in IDE has been accumulated in Firefly research.
    From firefly 3 The X patch, which has been modified for more than 2 years, is very mature and is named visualfreebasic 4 10. However, due to the lack of IDE source code, it is impossible to continue to improve and add better functions. Therefore, starting from zero in june2019, vfb5 was written in vfb4. After five months (with experience and imitation, and using a large number of previous code written for firefly, it was written in a short time. If there was nothing, it was written by Yong Fang, and it is expected to last at least one year), a stable beta version was produced, So visualfreebasic5 was born. Programming is endless, life is endless, and improvement is endless. Visualfreebasic will get better and better and go to a higher level.
    Many people wonder? FireFly 3. X hasn't been updated for so many years? Yes, it hasn't been updated, because firefly was developed with PowerBASIC instead of freebasic, so the original works wanted to use freebasic for development. Since 2017, the software named winfbe has been developed and is open source, but the development efficiency is too low. After three years, the software seems to be semi-finished and only suitable for experts to play. Novices can't play it at all, and it seriously deviates from the original firefly method.
    Last edited by xiaoyao; Jun 25th, 2022 at 11:29 PM.

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    Re: VB6-alike IDE - Has anyone ever created any IDE similar?

    VFB is completely developed by the author alone. Of course, it also draws on many powerful VB6. Freebasic is quite the experience of IDE designers.
    Now he has the complete source code of IDE, but maybe one day he will lose the permanent source code like VB6. Because he did not open source, nor did he find a powerful company to carry out large-scale sustainable development.
    Anyway, at present, it is the most advanced and fully functional programming ide similar to VB6, and the compiler and debugger have source code.

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    Re: VB6-alike IDE - Has anyone ever created any IDE similar?

    If your answer could be more concise please. Something like this for example:

    "The VFB IDE was written in COBOL"

    All the other words tend to confuse. Please try again.

    The other stuff we aren't really interested in at this point.
    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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    Re: VB6-alike IDE - Has anyone ever created any IDE similar?

    The VFB IDE was written in vfb

    it's from freebasic,it's by freebasic

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    Re: VB6-alike IDE - Has anyone ever created any IDE similar?

    If you are not interested in many things, sometimes many problems become redundant, right?
    In fact, we need to know who can do this, what software can do these functions, and whether there will be more powerful software in the future.
    When will there really be a software like VB6?
    In fact, the most suitable method is to write a mini ide as convenient as VB6, which can be used to develop vb Net code, although Microsoft also stopped vb Net, but at least Net class library can be used for another 30 years

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    Re: VB6-alike IDE - Has anyone ever created any IDE similar?

    You can use vb Net to develop a drag and drop form with many controls. You can also use web page htm+js to develop an online version of the IDE. You can also use HTML5 to synthesize tab controls and table controls. In fact, vscode has a web page version.
    Maybe one day, you can use html5+js+svg to complete a visual interface developer for VB6.
    The online version of Photoshop is based on this principle


    Maybe your question is wrong in itself.
    Maybe all you need is a "visual interface development tool" that you just want to use to drag and drop controls.
    You don't want to ask how to build an IDE like VB6 (IDE contains too many functions, such as compilation, parsing and running, syntax checking, etc.)
    Last edited by xiaoyao; Jun 25th, 2022 at 11:36 PM.

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    Re: VB6-alike IDE - Has anyone ever created any IDE similar?

    "I appreciate that VB6 is probably the wrong tool to handle PNGs within a drag and drop GUI designer not being able to easily handle transparencies - but it could possibly be made to do it with some effort."

    C#/VB.NET SUPPORT PNG,HTML5+SVG All can do it

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    Re: VB6-alike IDE - Has anyone ever created any IDE similar?

    winfbedit also can design by it self

    but vb6 can't make by it selft,maybe vb6.exe it's vc++ project

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    Re: VB6-alike IDE - Has anyone ever created any IDE similar?

    VB6-alike IDE - Has anyone ever created any IDE similar?

    The most likely VB6 IDE is VFB.
    Of course, there is office VBA, which can also design forms.
    In fact, you can use the Development Kit SDK of VBA to build a mini ide similar to the VB6 interface. The overall size may occupy 10-20m hard disk, but does it need to be licensed by Microsoft?
    In this way, you have a form designer that is almost the same as VB6. It supports many built-in controls and OCX controls, such as vsflexgrid ocx。
    After the form is displayed, the corresponding code of each button can be written in js/vb Net or vba/ VBS, Python

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    Re: VB6-alike IDE - Has anyone ever created any IDE similar?

    Quote Originally Posted by yereverluvinuncleber View Post
    If your answer could be more concise please. Something like this for example:

    "The VFB IDE was written in COBOL"

    All the other words tend to confuse. Please try again.

    The other stuff we aren't really interested in at this point.
    You got him triggered now and how dare you not be interested in VFB -- the best chinese copycat of VB6 ever -- so the cannonade of illegible posts is going to thunder here a couple of days at least :-))

    cheers,
    </wqw>

  24. #24

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    Re: VB6-alike IDE - Has anyone ever created any IDE similar?

    I really wish I had not engaged with him. I tried but I realise now it was a mistake.

    I think it was more of a fusillade rather than an cannonade, a fusillade of damp squibs that missed their mark.
    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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