Is XYplorer really written in VB6? • Hacker News Board

Re: Is XYplorer really written in VB6?

#151

Post by gilbertbw » Sat, Jan 11, 2025, 1:28 PM UTC

forgotpwd16 wrote: post #48

gramie wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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).

They actually have a new year deal [0] on a perpetual licence to all v1 versions for £249, equal to 10 months of the subscription.

[0] https://twinbasic.com/NEWYEAR25

Re: Is XYplorer really written in VB6?

#152

Post by pcdoodle » Sat, Jan 11, 2025, 1:41 PM UTC

jimnotgym wrote: post #83

jamesfmilne wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.xojo.com/

Have you used it? Did you like it? How did it compare to vb6?

It's pretty good. Lots of walls to bump against but very active community. I do lots of HMI stuff / interact with MCUs over serial.

Re: Is XYplorer really written in VB6?

#153

Post by badlibrarian » Sat, Jan 11, 2025, 1:41 PM UTC

MrBuddyCasino wrote: post #136

dalemhurley wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every single language is a mess. Just look at time and floating point numbers in Java (not having a go at Java).

> Just look at time and floating point numbers in Java What do you mean? The time & date API in Java is excellent, and the float and double types follow the IEEE standard.

It took nearly 20 years to sort it out. Before Java 8, January was 0 and getYear() for today would return 125.

Re: Is XYplorer really written in VB6?

#154

Post by philistine » Sat, Jan 11, 2025, 2:02 PM UTC

AlienRobot wrote: post #131

IshKebab wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> PHP 8 is a top notch language Maybe the things they've added lately have been well designed, but did they ever actually fix the WTFs from PHP 4? JavaScript has the same problem. They added `let` and `const` but never removed `var` or `==`. If you take a look at ESLint rules there are dozens of footguns that could have been fixed in the language. Not as bad as PHP's footguns, but still...

It's not possible to remove anything without potentially breaking backwards compatibility. Removing ANYTHING in Javascript would be a tremendously bad idea. If webpages from 30 years ago stopped working because 2025 developers favor aesthetics and disrespect legacy, I'd be pretty angry.

What do you mean?

We could implement a version declaration system that removes and fixes elements of JavaScript when properly declared.

Re: Is XYplorer really written in VB6?

#155

Post by nycdotnet » Sat, Jan 11, 2025, 2:07 PM UTC

DanielHB wrote: post #116

dalemhurley wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every single language is a mess. Just look at time and floating point numbers in Java (not having a go at Java).

There are lasting languages and good languages, but there are no lasting good languages.

“There are only two kinds of languages: the ones people complain about and the ones nobody uses.”. Bjarne Stroustrup

Re: Is XYplorer really written in VB6?

#156

Post by moogly » Sat, Jan 11, 2025, 2:09 PM UTC

pimeys wrote: post #135

moogly wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you thought going from XYplorer to what's available on Linux was bad, now try going from Directory Opus to what's available on Linux :/

Dolphin on Linux is very nice. It even can connect with ssh and SFTP. Best file manager I've used.

I'd say Dolphin is OK, adequate. But Directory Opus is a masterpiece, a labor of love.

Re: Is XYplorer really written in VB6?

#157

Post by donatj » Sat, Jan 11, 2025, 2:26 PM UTC

IshKebab wrote: post #113

dalemhurley wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every single language is a mess. Just look at time and floating point numbers in Java (not having a go at Java).

Every single language has parts that are a mess, or at least not perfectly designed. But that doesn't mean that languages all have an equal amount of mess. Python clearly has less mess than Perl. Rust clearly has less mess than C++. Zig clearly has less mess than C. There should be a name for the "nothing is perfect so everything is equally bad" fallacy. It's surprisingly common.

In Python, default arguments are mutable. That's the ultimate WTF and footgun.

Re: Is XYplorer really written in VB6?

#158

Post by wiseowise » Sat, Jan 11, 2025, 2:29 PM UTC

skirge wrote: post #50

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.

Does he maintain a blog somewhere to read how he does it?

Re: Is XYplorer really written in VB6?

#159

Post by lordgroff » Sat, Jan 11, 2025, 2:30 PM UTC

IshKebab wrote: post #86

nolok wrote: post #74

For no specific reason other than life random offers I've gone through a few of those "dead and bad" reputational language in my career (VB6, Delphi, PHP), mostly as a case of "there is a lot of money being a decent programmer who can use these correctly". And there are three things I learned about it 1. There is a lot more money in it than you would think. The good part of "there is a lot of newbie using it" is that…

> PHP 8 is a top notch language Maybe the things they've added lately have been well designed, but did they ever actually fix the WTFs from PHP 4? JavaScript has the same problem. They added `let` and `const` but never removed `var` or `==`. If you take a look at ESLint rules there are dozens of footguns that could have been fixed in the language. Not as bad as PHP's footguns, but still...

PHP never did do a py2->3, but instead took the js route of adding things while being very cautious indeed if breaking compatibility.

I really have very little annoyance with PHP despite retaining some WTFs. In fact, with a modern language server and psalm I find it downright comfortable.

Re: Is XYplorer really written in VB6?

#160

Post by mvdwoord » Sat, Jan 11, 2025, 2:31 PM UTC

nolok wrote: post #74

For no specific reason other than life random offers I've gone through a few of those "dead and bad" reputational language in my career (VB6, Delphi, PHP), mostly as a case of "there is a lot of money being a decent programmer who can use these correctly". And there are three things I learned about it 1. There is a lot more money in it than you would think. The good part of "there is a lot of newbie using it" is that…

I have had plenty fun and made good money writing KiXtart, VBScript, a variety of outdated shells and niche product specific DSLs etc etc. Also had great fun reversing VB6, and remember there was a wonderful VB6 decompiler from Russia with which I spent more hours than I care to admit.

Beauty in languages or tool chains is one thing, but the satisfaction of solving an issue for someone within some weird constraints for whatever reasons is real.