What Would You Change About VB6 if You Had The Chance? (For Novices and Experts)

[eyeRmonkey]

This question goes out to Visal Basic 6 novices and the experts.

If you could change something about Visual Basic 6 what would it be?

Novices - You know the things that annoy you right from the start that an expert might have gotten used to and forgotten.

Experts - You have detailed knowlege of the language and know what is lacking and what should be changed.

I am collecting this information to help in the development of LightFusion™. It is a programming lanuage being created by VBF's very own Jacob Roman, Penagate, chemicalNova and myself (eyeRmonkey). Any and all input you have will help us a lot.

[paralinx]

the mid function, sometimes it works for me then other times it doesnt!!

make up its mind...

[Joacim Andersson]

Structured error handling!!!

[paralinx]

yeah!! when you get an error, you should be able to click "fix" and the program will fix what you did wrong! (if it is not a mathematical error or something like that)

[chemicalNova]

Agreed. Try, Catch and Finally. Worth adding IMO.

chem

[Jacob Roman]

Slow functions such as DoEvents need a good kick in speed. It's a good thing we are gonna be using SIMD assembly!

[eyeRmonkey]

Structured error handling!!!

Could you give an example of some made-up VB6 code of how error handling should work in your mind?

[Joacim Andersson]

Try
    'Do something that might raise an error
Catch ' or Except
    'Whoops an error occured
End Try

[chemicalNova]

Try (0 / 0):
    MsgBox "Erm.."
Catch:
    MsgBox "Woot! Handled"
End Try

VB.NET has something like this I believe. Well, it does have try...catch..finally, but I'm not sure of the syntax.

chem

[eyeRmonkey]

I like that idea a lot. I don't know much about VB.NET so I didn't know about that.

Thanks for the input JA and Chem.

[eyeRmonkey]

yeah!! when you get an error, you should be able to click "fix" and the program will fix what you did wrong! (if it is not a mathematical error or something like that)

The compiler/IDE can't read your mind. Can you give an example of where it could "fix" it for you?

[Joacim Andersson]

"Click a fix button".... LOL! Why not add a voice interface where you simply need to say "Write program" and it does it for you.

[Jacob Roman]

Computers aren't psychic so I don't think that is such a good idea. As for VB6, it would have been nice if MS made it to where you can use inline assembly in VB, like you could with C++. But ThunderVB did it for us (found in PSC). So LightFusion is definitely gonna support assembly.

[chemicalNova]

"Click a fix button".... LOL! Why not add a voice interface where you simply need to say "Write program" and it does it for you.

Done. Pfft. You think I actually write my programs?

chem

[Mark Gambo]

the mid function, sometimes it works for me then other times it doesnt!!

make up its mind...

Can you post an example where the MID Function doesn't work?

[si_the_geek]

For the IDE.. MZTools would be built in as standard, as would automatic indenting of Loops etc.

I also like the idea of .Net where you can "hide" code blocks.

[eyeRmonkey]

For the IDE.. MZTools would be built in as standard, as would automatic indenting of Loops etc.

I also like the idea of .Net where you can "hide" code blocks.

Thanks for your suggestions!

Can you post a screen shot of how to hide code blocks in .NET? I don't have it and have never used it.

[si_the_geek]

I don't have it either

I think you need to put some sort of comment for the start/end of the block, then you get + or - signs next to them to expand/shrink it.

[Joacim Andersson]

It's called "code folding" and you can do it on any block of code like any Sub or Function for example. I currently doesn't have VS.Net installed on the computer I'm currently sitting behind but you can look at some of the screen shots for SharpDevelop here. See the little [-] sign where you can fold (or collapse) the code just like in a treeview.

[Jacob Roman]

I already had that idea for LightFusion for a couple days now. So consider it on my hit list.

[Jacob Roman]

Also, a ListView of possible functions to use will also be done with the assembly.

Here is what I mean:

[notquitehere188]

I want to be able to comment entire blocks of code
it is annoying putting the comment sign on every line of code that you dont want to run during a test, C++, and actionscript among most others allow you to use /* and */ to comment blocks

also better file manipulation without APIs
MakeSureDirectoryPathExists goes into %90 of the projects i make that do anything with files/folders
and copyfile basically freezes the computer if it is a large file

[Jacob Roman]

That's a feature in VB.NET but we are gonna use the C++ approach to block comments in using /* */ for now until we think otherwise.

[Joacim Andersson]

I want to be able to comment entire blocks of code
it is annoying putting the comment sign on every line of code that you dont want to run during a test

This can be done in VB6 as well. Just add the Edit toolbar to the VB IDE.

[paralinx]

Can you post an example where the MID Function doesn't work?

I gave up on it and used InStr...


thanks anyway tho

[DJHotIce]

I do agree. with the last post....

I'm actually quite fluent in the PHP comments.

// would do one line
/* whole stretch
of liney code */

that would be rad.

[eyeRmonkey]

PHP comments = C++ comments = JavaScript comments = LightFusion™ comments

[Jacob Roman]

Pascal uses (* *)

[eyeRmonkey]

Also, a ListView of possible functions to use will also be done with the assembly.

Here is what I mean:

What program is that?

[tr333]

For the IDE.. MZTools would be built in as standard, as would automatic indenting of Loops etc.

I also like the idea of .Net where you can "hide" code blocks.

i think you are referring to the #Region keyword used in .net
this will split the code into regions within the IDE allowing you to show/hide each region by clicking on the +/- box.

[tr333]

Try/Catch/Finally example:

Try
    'code that might generate an error
Catch ex As WebException 'catch errors from classes that give a WebException
    Messagebox.Show(ex.Message)
Catch ex As Exception
    Messagebox.Show(ex.Message)  'catch all other errors
Finally
    'code that will always be executed
End Try

[NoteMe]

I would have changed it to C syntax..


- ØØ -

[Dnereb]

-Bound Checkboxes and Radiobuttons
-A build in way to backpoint at a parent class without having to worry about circular references keeping an object alive forever.
-A better Isnumeric function
-Api complient variable set.
-Pointers
- Adding 1 to a var with ++ (Like C++ has)

Need I continue?

[Phill64]

if i could change anything in vb6 i would make it vb.net

[dee-u]

I want to be able to comment entire blocks of code
it is annoying putting the comment sign on every line of code that you dont want to run during a test, C++, and actionscript among most others allow you to use /* and */ to comment blocks

If you have enabled the Edit (Right click then select Edit) in your Toolbar of your IDE then you could instantly comment entire blocks of code.

Sorry Joacim, didn't read your post in #24...

[dee-u]

I am too lazy to read all post but I wish a better memory management...

[dee-u]

And how about a copy-paste installation of an EXE?

[Devion]

What would I change?

- Real stand-alone applications (no MSVBVM60.DLL)
- Memory handling by the coder not VB.
- Structured error handling (not Try/Catch :x)
- Option Explicit hard coded into the IDE
- Increased Stack space for recursive code
- Ability to dump the stack.
- Replace all the $ functions (Dir$, Mid$) to the normal ones and remove the variant return ones.
- Banish Variant.
- Support for Std C callback functions without the hassle
- LoadObject/CreateObject that actually allows enumeration of it's functions without the hassle
- CallByName that actually works decently without a variant array :X
- Array 2 Array copy actions and merge and such. In other words; Array functions.
- Safe Multithreading support with extension support for COM Objects.
- Memory Pool support within multithreads (if the multithreading is done outside own scope (COM))

That's about it I think.
VB.NET in a VB6 shell without all the DHTML crap would work (and the 26MB framework :x)

[Valleysboy1978]

Change the compliation process to be on the fly like many of the Java editors. Having to wait 10 - 15 minutes for a project to compile is extremely irritating

[Jacob Roman]

What program is that?

That's ThunderVB, which is an addin for VB6. You can get it at Planet Source Code.