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Is XYplorer really written in VB6?

xyplorer.com

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Re: Is XYplorer really written in VB6?

#41

Post by chii »

jeswin wrote: post #37
ryukoposting wrote: post #27

I think VB is totally fine. It's a pragmatic solution to a real problem, and the ugliest things about it today are all a product of hindsight. On the other hand, this rubs me the wrong way: > So, wouldn’t it be logical to conclude: If such an application can be written in VB6 then VB6 cannot be that bad after all? Yes, it absolutely could be bad. Our industry consists, in no small part, of turd polishing. Plenty of g…

> Plenty of good software is written in bad (or ill-fitted) languages, and vice versa. That's because you mention VB6 as a language. VB6 is not about the language, but about the platform and vertical integration; from the IDE to the app to the distribution. It was magical that dropping a telephony component into a form enabled the form to make phone calls. Or you could drag-drop a Web Browser component, and have a br…

> It was magical that dropping a telephony component into a form enabled the form to make phone calls

the magic of COM[0]!

But when it crashed it crashed hard. And the underlying programming model (beyond just using premade ones) are a bit hard to grok and fraught with footguns that shoot not only yourself, but the OS as well.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Component_Object_Model

Re: Is XYplorer really written in VB6?

#42

Post by [deleted] »

jlahijani wrote: post #28
KetoManx64 wrote: post #7

I used XYPlorer for about 5-6 years until I made the switch to using Linux on all my machines last year. The scripting, speed, dual panes, customization, portability between machines (i used Syncthing to sync my configs between 3 machines) on XyPlorer are phenomenal and I've sadly not been able to find a Linux native file manager that's at the same level. Dolphin comes close but even with qdbus commands it sadly not…

I've used XYplorer daily since 2008. It's a fantastic piece of software and updated all the time. Wish there were something comparable in Linux.

[deleted]

Re: Is XYplorer really written in VB6?

#43

Post by chii »

wiseowise wrote: post #38

I always love a story of impressive software written in “underdog” languages and not hype Go, Rust, Zig etc.

these rare stories are rare, because the creators of these software aren't bragging about which platform they're using, and merely focus on the software!

Re: Is XYplorer really written in VB6?

#44

Post by KindOne »

kgeist wrote: post #34

>Yep, it’s written in VB6. Who cares? I'd say security is a problem if one uses a 30 year old piece of software but apparently Microsoft still releases security updates: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=507... >A security issue has been identified that could compromise your Windows-based system running Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 Service Pack 6 >The Visual Basic 6.0 IDE is no longer supported a…

It was released back in 2016 (or possibly before that?) https://web.archive.org/web/20160430055347/https://www.micro...

The installer was originally digitally signed with a sha1 certificate. The sha1 certificate with replaced with sha256 on 3/23/2021.

Re: Is XYplorer really written in VB6?

#45

Post by yard2010 »

silisili wrote: post #13

VB3 was my first real intro to programming. Well, I started with C++ but abandoned it as an impatient child as describing a window in code wasn't fun. I wish we had a new drag and drop WYSIWYG to get people interested. Put Python or Go or even Basic behind it. QT maybe? Heck make it Electron. I'm not sure I would be where I am today without VB having existed, and it's a shame kids today don't have the same tools avai…

First language I've learned. I remember the visual window editor was something so special, I didn't have to code the windows which was good because English was basically Chinese to my eyes at that age.

Re: Is XYplorer really written in VB6?

#46

Post by unscaled »

chii wrote: post #41
jeswin wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Plenty of good software is written in bad (or ill-fitted) languages, and vice versa. That's because you mention VB6 as a language. VB6 is not about the language, but about the platform and vertical integration; from the IDE to the app to the distribution. It was magical that dropping a telephony component into a form enabled the form to make phone calls. Or you could drag-drop a Web Browser component, and have a br…

> It was magical that dropping a telephony component into a form enabled the form to make phone calls the magic of COM[0]! But when it crashed it crashed hard. And the underlying programming model (beyond just using premade ones) are a bit hard to grok and fraught with footguns that shoot not only yourself, but the OS as well. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Component_Object_Model

And COM/OLE/ActiveX components (whatever Microsoft fancied calling them that year) could have been used just as easily from Delphi.

And you don't even need COM. You could do the same things today with RAD components in, say, Java. But it's just no longer a fad. Programmers nowadays don't think that dragging a component that makes phone calls and linking it to a button.

Nowadays, they would just write "npm install telephony" and then add a couple of lines that they got from the README.md on GitHub (or from their AI assistant) to make a call:

  import { Dialer } from "telephony";
  const dialer = new Dialer();
  dialer.call("+1 800 1234 1234");

Re: Is XYplorer really written in VB6?

#47

Post by nasretdinov »

p0w3n3d wrote: post #33

Back in 1999 for me most important was to have a great gui design, and VB was cool for this. Then later I would focus on native binary, performance and size of the build hence I switched to Delphi and then to C++. But tbh nowadays I can see that this is this famous triangle: either good and fast but expensive, either fast and cheap but not good, or good and cheap but not fast. So instead of writing in C++ i coded in…

Please use float64 for your boat though

Re: Is XYplorer really written in VB6?

#48

Post by forgotpwd16 »

gramie wrote: post #22
neverartful wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the first I've heard of twinBASIC. I'm happy to see it on the dev tools scene.

A dev tool with a monthly subscription? That's enough to stop me right there. An alternative is B4J, a free (as in beer) BASIC that compiles to Java, so should run just about anywhere. It also has * B4A - a free version for Android * B4R - a free version for Arduino and ESP8266 * B4I - a paid version for iOS The main (sole?) developer is ridiculously responsive and helpful.

>A dev tool with a monthly subscription?

It seems that can buy a perpetual license for GBP £5000 / developer, which is equal to 16 years of monthly subscription (quite optimistic for a 3yo project).

Re: Is XYplorer really written in VB6?

#50

Post by skirge »

I know that one of the best bug bounty hunter scripted his work using VB (unlike rest of the world who uses Python/Golang or Rust), if it works and you know it why not? Actually looking for perfect tools is procrastination.
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