Quote Originally Posted by yereverluvinuncleber View Post
Do you know, I think you may be wrong.

The complexity of the VB6 IDE and what it provides is one of the main stumbling blocks to creating a VB6 replacement. Do not underestimate what it would take to recreate the VB6 IDE. I am sure Olaf could tell you why this is so. It isn't just buttons in the right place with a theme.

If you have skills in code conversion and compilers then it would seem to be the easier route to attach a plugin to the existing IDE. Initially no new IDE needs to be built at all.
If starting from a blank slate, I'd agree with you. But there are a lot of open source components that cut out huge swathes of the problem. Before Eclipse Theia was considered, i was very much contemplating having a stab at making an IDE. Really the only thing that put me off was the forms designer.

Producing a backwards-compatible compiler and debugger on the other hand, that's way above my pay grade.