I've started taking a look at TwinBasic and seems quite promising.
Do you guys think it would it be worth a purchase as a VB replacement?
Would you purchase it ?
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for me its about timing, stability and performance.
when I can run my game and its stable, when I code in TB (not just use it as a compiler)
and when I have an income from my products I will share part of it with TB.
right now all the income is used for expenses to maintain the production. I can't take any of that. the income most grow first.
something I predict will happen in the future.
For me its about it having mission critical stability and a support program that is not just tied to one guy (I think it is at the moment but I am not sure).
VB6 might be old and out of support but MS still seem committed to making the run time work on new releases and I dont mind compiling on my old steam engine XP box. In fact slow hardware makes me write better code. But I digress.
Once its out and been through a few version releases and i can guarantee that I can use identical source code if I have to back out and go back to VB6 then yes probably given there is support.
I don't know, haven't really looked at it but also have not had much going on with VB6 or even VB.Net over the last few years pretty much everything I have did has been coded in either C#, JS or B4A. The only things I have did in VB6 is just a few little tools for my own personal use.
I would say that if you are going to continue with VB6, then you should definitely keep watching TB. If there is a future, that is the most likely, and most promising, one. Additionally, if you like it, then you should certainly support the effort by purchasing. However, I think that vbwins is quite correct in that I have some deep misgivings about a program that stands on such a narrow base.
Therefore, I would say that it comes down to your financial situation. For there to be a good successor capable of running VB6 code, it would need to have a user base willing to support it. Volunteers won't be enough for something like this. You need the language to persist for several years and that will take money. On the other hand, if you aren't in the position to support something that isn't a done deal, TB isn't there yet.
I make 100% of my living from vb6 written apps, and for me it is completely worth it. I have been a member of TB for a couple of years. The expense I have paid to them pales to what I have paid for failed migration attempts to another language, so for me it is 100% worth it. And I do believe it will succeed as it is getting closer than any other effort has to vb6 compatibility. I can currently load both my 100k LOC apps in the editor with extremely complicated user controls etc.. There is a way to go.. you know they say the last 10% takes the longest but I have high hopes it will.
The alternative is Lazarus or QT (as a rewrite would not be worth it without cross platform compatibility) which would be horrible as I am very comfortable and effecient with vb6 and the change would be slow and painful.
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.
Even as a hobby... I like all the new features, especially 64bit, defining interfaces/coclasses without a tlb, and more flexibility on Implements. But more importantly, I like that there's a future for the VB6 language now, even if it's not 100% perfect regarding my preferences for being FOSS and backed by a single developer. There's reasons I'm sure we're all familiar with regarding the scale and complexity of a fully compatible successor that nobody has done it up until now, and it's very unlikely anyone else ever will if tB were to fail. tB is well within the cost of a normal hobby (and on the low end, at that), so I'm happy to support it with a subscription even without any current plans to make money off it.
For me its about it having mission critical stability and a support program that is not just tied to one guy (I think it is at the moment but I am not sure).
VB6 might be old and out of support but MS still seem committed to making the run time work on new releases and I dont mind compiling on my old steam engine XP box. In fact slow hardware makes me write better code. But I digress.
Once its out and been through a few version releases and i can guarantee that I can use identical source code if I have to back out and go back to VB6 then yes probably given there is support.
One thing worth noting for those who are hesitant about a closed source product controlled by a single person (which includes me), Wayne plans to set up source escrow for tB once it hits 1.0, so it would be open sourced in the event some tragedy befell him or the project became abandoned. Obviously the details for such an arrangement are hugely important, but there's a lot of receptivity to working with us on things like this. Microsoft completely abandoning it except for making sure *most* existing programs continue to work, without too issues, *for now*, isn't exactly a rock solid future... MS wants it dead, and as soon as enough of it's corporate base is no longer demanding it, things could go down hill quick.
But yes obviously as pre-release beta software, mission critical stability isn't there yet. Future is looking bright though.
Not even one compiles? What kind of projects do you have lol
Is the issue bugs or missing features... if it's bugs something major enough to prevent compiling usually gets attention quickly, especially if it can be narrowed down to an exact line. Definitely the kind of issue Wayne would want to hear about.
If it's features.. pretty much the only major outstanding ones are MDI forms and the Printer object; and ActiveX exes. The first two should be very soon now but ActiveX exes won't be until after 1.0 I'm told (ActiveX DLLs and controls are already implemented). There no tB-native replacements for some of the common controls still; but that just impacts upgrading your app to x64, the original OCXs will still work in 32bit. And Krool's VBCCR and VBFlexGrid work and have 64bit versions for tB now; it's not very far out of the way if you're doing a major overhaul like x64 compatibility.
One consideration is that compatibility is on the language, not the internals, if you use assembly thunks based on VB6 internals, like many form/class self-subclassing methods, those don't work and never will. But the good news is tB has self-subclassing ability built in, so you can replace those large and complex things with just using AddressOf and simple subclassing methods like in bas modules.
If nothing here is the show stopper, or you haven't gave it a shot in a long time, try it. tB has been making constant progress for a long time now, and lots of complex VB6 apps run untouched. One nice moment was when basicNES, an Nintendo emulator in pure VB6, ran and played ROMs without a single change to the code.
I have regular projects. Even if he can at least load and display them correctly, we can already talk about something. Even without compilation. But it can't compile anything more complex than "Hello World". It is very sad.
The VBG multi-project format isn't supported yet; you'd need to load single .vbp files. It's not very typical to have *zero* projects which aren't multigroup. But you're right that's a pretty big oversight at this point, I can't imagine it not being done in the next few months before v1.0, probably at the same time external file support (using a twinproj like a vbp instead of sources being built in) is added, which is already scheduled for implementation prior to 1.0.
I have to seriously dispute the 'can't compile anything more complex than Hello World' comment though... that's describing radBASIC. twinBASIC, on the other hand, can compile my ETW Kernel logger file activity tracer, my kernel mode driver project, ucShellBrowse, cTaskDialog, Carles PV's Lemmings clone which I update to x64, the nice ribbon demos I made, a control hosting IExplorerBrowser, a couple DirectX things (color emojis with DirectWrite and DirectComposition effects), the NES emulator I mentioned, Krool's VBCCR/VBFlexGrid... I'm sorry VBG isn't supported and I know tB, as an in-development product at the beta stage, has some limitations, but it's quite hyperbolic to say it can't compile beyond 'Hello World'
All of the projects mentioned can be found on my GitHub, besides Krool's projects which can be added via the tB Package Server. Also there's a nice 7-zip COM library by Ben Clothier.
Have a little more faith, it won't be long before tB supports vbgs, mdi/printer, and squashes the bugs reported.
I have regular projects. Even if he can at least load and display them correctly, we can already talk about something. Even without compilation. But it can't compile anything more complex than "Hello World". It is very sad.
You sound like you have any choice at the moment. Which VB6 clone can compile anything more complex than "Hello World", besides TwinBasic?
I make 100% of my living from vb6 written apps, and for me it is completely worth it. I have been a member of TB for a couple of years. The expense I have paid to them pales to what I have paid for failed migration attempts to another language, so for me it is 100% worth it. And I do believe it will succeed as it is getting closer than any other effort has to vb6 compatibility. I can currently load both my 100k LOC apps in the editor with extremely complicated user controls etc.. There is a way to go.. you know they say the last 10% takes the longest but I have high hopes it will.
The alternative is Lazarus or QT (as a rewrite would not be worth it without cross platform compatibility) which would be horrible as I am very comfortable and effecient with vb6 and the change would be slow and painful.
Would you buy TwinBasic ?
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Originally Posted by some1uk03
