VB6 development and AI

[Arnoutdv]

When using AI for development in VB6 what methods do you use?
We are only allowed to use CoPilot so I have to copy’n’paste code from / to CoPilot.
Do you use VS Code or some Add-In?

[Eduardo-]

If we must be limited to CoPilot, I have zero experience with CoPilot. But I can tell how I'm working right now with Claude. Maybe something similar is available in CoPilot.

I provide the full file that I'm working on, sometimes I need to upload several files (for example modules or classes) for the AI to see how that works as a whole, but most of the times with just one file is enough.
It uses tools. With those tools, it inserts the changes exactly in the original file, saves it, converts the file to use CR_LF and not just LF (as they work on Linux the default is LF) because the IDE won't load them well with just LFs.
So I need to close the project, replace the file(s), open the project again and test.
Most of the interactions ends with a cicle like this.

Now, for the first time I created a project. Where you can describe what you are doing so you don't need to explain everything for every new chat.
Anyway, Claude also has a "Memory" (it is optional) that shares information between chats of what you are doing, so the new chats have already some context without you explaining every time.
The "Projects" have also something like a private memory for that project, with some things that are already explained there for every new chat.
In that project you can upload files. I uploaded files that won't frequently change, but not the main one that I'm working on and changes all the time. I upload that one for every new chat, along with the explanation of the state of the things that one chat instance prepares automatically for the next one.
It alone realizes when the context is already too long and prepares the files for you to upload in the next chat. I'm using now Opus 5 in that way.
It works quite well. Worth every cent of the $20/month (but even the free version is very good). It is like you have three top levels VB6 programmers working for you. I say like "three" because it works much faster than a human. It can do a lot in a fraction of the time.
But... you still need to guide it in some things. Sometimes it is needed to be you who says what is good idea and what is not working fine. And sometimes propose a solution. Other times (and most of the times) it is the AI who proposes what do do to resolve something, and it is most of the times good. But it always lets you decide, it wont do things by itself. Maybe you don't wont to read all the explanations and justifications, but it explains and ask for approval before doing things.

Just sharing what I'm doing, if that helps in any way.
Maybe I'm doing too much promotion to Claude

[yokesee]

A little tip.
If you tell Claude to display the .cls, .bas, .ctl files as .cls.txt, .bas.txt, etc., it will show them in the preview and you can copy them.

[wqweto]

Do you use VS Code or some Add-In?

I'm personally using VS Code with Claude add-in. Just start VS Code in the folder of your project with something like "code ." in command prompt so you get per project context.

cheers,
</wqw>

[jdelano]

There is this VBA in VS code effort https://github.com/WilliamSmithEdward/xlide_vscode, which is quite extensive. I've not tested it yet. I just asked if a VB6 fork would be possible.

There is https://github.com/serkonda7/vscode-vba, Syntax highlighting for VBA, VB6

[SomeYguy]

I sometimes use Copilot and do same as you, copy & paste. The workflow has gotten pretty fast because I have two monitors here and the one on the right is dedicated to AI etc. when I'm working, and the one directly in front of me the IDE. Copilot has definitely gotten better at vb6 then when I first tried about a year ago.

[SomeYguy]

But... you still need to guide it in some things. Sometimes it is needed to be you who says what is good idea and what is not working fine. And sometimes propose a solution. Other times (and most of the times) it is the AI who proposes what do do to resolve something, and it is most of the times good.

And IMO that right there is the key to working well with most any of the major AIs on your projects. It becomes a collaboration rather than a fear of being replaced by AI because YOU always make the final go/no-go decision.

[Eduardo-]

And IMO that right there is the key to working well with most any of the major AIs on your projects. It becomes a collaboration rather than a fear of being replaced by AI because YOU always make the final go/no-go decision.

Yes, but also sometimes it is the opposite: the AI realizes about things that you didn't think about. So, sometimes it is wise to ask for its opinion. Because if you don't ask, it could say that something that you asked for is not a good idea, or not... just follow your orders.

I have a case minutes ago where I had asked to implement a new feature, it did. But after that, I thought that it was not necessary what I asked for and thought about reverting that. But before asking to revert the code and remove the feature, I asked for its opinion: it told me that the feature made sense and explained me why. And yes, there were cases in that it was needed. I hadn't thought about those cases.

Like you said: it is a collaboration work.
But we need to not forget that it is a machine. If it has do or undo a lot of code changes, it has no problem, it just follow your orders. So, it won't complain if you make wrong decisions and make it work in vain since it doesn't get tired, etc.