Microsoft thumbed their nose at the petition to support VB6. What now?
I know this thread has probably been done before, but not in real seriousness ... I searched

I really like VB6 but sometimes it is a little awkward to do things that are (seemingly) easy in other languages, it is inherently slow unless you carefully think through your code to make it as fast as possible, and it requires a runtime DLL (doesn't everything these days...)

Here's what I'm thinking:
  • Keep using VB6 - it's efficient to develop in and its code can be optimized to reach relatively high speeds
  • Go to VB.NET - but it's object oriented, I hate objects, also I hate to have to distribute the .NET framework
  • Go to C++ - don't like the forced complexity of the language, also the lack of strict typing (I think thats what it is)
  • Go to ASM... (only kidding )
  • Find another (BASIC or alternative language) compiler


I downloaded the free REALBasic 5.5 or whatever that they are offering to VB programmers, but it doesn't look like it has anything like the power of VB6. Its only real plus seems to be cross-platform compatibility.

Also I came across PowerBASIC... it seems very much like Visual Basic but with more low-level functionality, which can only be a good thing.

I have no reason to move from VB6 at the moment but I would like to find a language that has the VB style of RAD, but a lot of low-level stuff also that can make the compiled applications faster, without requiring the complexity of C or C++. Also no dependency on COM, ActiveX etc.

Don't get me wrong, I know VB6 isn't going to die suddenly just because MS isn't supporting it anymore, but there are other similiar languages out there that I don't know about (hopefully) and would like to try.

PowerBASIC sounds most interesting for me at the moment, does anyone have any knowledge of what it is like compared to VB? And does anyone know of any other languages like that (not necessarily BASIC)?

Of course I'm happy to continue coding in VB6 but something tells me that it isn't the best way to get the most out of the computer.

Maybe I should have posted in this in General Developer or some other forum, but the only language I'm any good at is Classic VB and I'd like to compare other languages with it.

If you're down here, either you skipped or thanks for reading my longish post