Chaps,

What are your recommendations for the best alternative language to VB6 for teaching and training today?

I don't just mean the language, I mean a direct equivalent to VB6 and its environment (accessible language, integrated and competent IDE, drag and drop GUI usable for RAD design, debugger, interpreter, compiler, decent editor, intellisense &c).

VB6 is not perfection in any of these but the overall package is still hard to beat especially with BASIC at its core.

Can anyone recommend a language that has such a tightly integrated environment that does all the above in a single, easy to install and use package as VB6 (notwithstanding VB6s current installation and other incompatibility issues on Win7+)

What I am looking for is something that truly operates just as VB6 in its prime but is today's equivalent.

It needs to extend from 'basic' teaching to training at more advanced levels and be a truly portable language, in this sense I mean portable to any task not to any platform.

I may be missing the obvious so your recommendations are valuable if you have the experience.

Please only recommend whole dedicated packages that do the lot rather than suggesting javascript and python with a specific code editor and a browser to debug.

(Perhaps I could open another thread on how to cobble together an equivalent build environment from various tools - that might be an idea).

Background: my boy is learning to program and his skills need to be relevant today and I do not consider VB.NET a natural replacement to VB6 as it is not as accessible as BASIC was in 'our' day. It is not as suitable for both starters and mature programmers as is pitched at a different level entirely. Not looking to argue this point. Solely looking for potential alternatives available today.