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Visual Basic 6 IDE recreated in C#

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Re: Visual Basic 6 IDE recreated in C#

#161

Post by wvenable »

1oooqooq wrote: post #159
wvenable wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

VB6 is arguably the most popular and influential version of Basic it only makes sense to keep backwards compatibility with it. Why would anyone not want that from their Visual Basic clone?

because that's immensely backwards! what if vb3-6 had the same syntax as msbasic and same ascii text based UIs? it wouldn't have been as popular. these tools could be the modern vb6, having modern UX paradigms such as responsive design etc... yet it is just producing something one would use only for nostalgia or explicitly support for a niche market still needing actual vb6... which i didn't know existed till now.

There's nothing stopping anyone from building responsive UI components in this or even in Visual Basic itself. I thought were were talking about VB6, the programming language, not the UI toolkit. They are closely related but not necessarily the same thing.

Given that there are already other, more modern, languages and frameworks that do you want you describe I don't think there is a market for that kind of modern Basic. That's why nobody has done it.

Re: Visual Basic 6 IDE recreated in C#

#162

Post by makmanalp »

philiplu wrote: post #160
dr_kiszonka wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How did you get your child to start programming? I had some success with Scratch, but it is not something my 9 year old would do for fun. (He likes 3D printing, but it is mostly just dragging stuff around.)

I mostly stayed hands-off and let him explore where he would. He really only got into programming more seriously the past couple years, so age 13 on, after we got him a gaming PC. He was playing various Roblox games, and decided he could write his own, so that got him started. He has his phone on bus rides to/from school, so he decided to play around in Python to pass the time. He's currently playing Space Engineers…

> I mostly stayed hands-off and let him explore where he would.

I think this is the way.

Also quite similarly soon after VB, learned C# so I could make mods for RunUO, which was a reverse engineered server implementation for Ultima Online that people would run free game servers with. At that point I was pretty hooked, and tried making things like dragon eggs that would hatch over time and evolve and such. There's something about other people being able to experience your code in a virtual world and also the creative aspect that makes it somehow addicting.

Re: Visual Basic 6 IDE recreated in C#

#164

Post by 1oooqooq »

wvenable wrote: post #161
1oooqooq wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

because that's immensely backwards! what if vb3-6 had the same syntax as msbasic and same ascii text based UIs? it wouldn't have been as popular. these tools could be the modern vb6, having modern UX paradigms such as responsive design etc... yet it is just producing something one would use only for nostalgia or explicitly support for a niche market still needing actual vb6... which i didn't know existed till now.

There's nothing stopping anyone from building responsive UI components in this or even in Visual Basic itself. I thought were were talking about VB6, the programming language, not the UI toolkit. They are closely related but not necessarily the same thing. Given that there are already other, more modern, languages and frameworks that do you want you describe I don't think there is a market for that kind of modern Bas…

i don't think anything modern or not got even close to vb3-6 usability in creating practical UI programs.

Re: Visual Basic 6 IDE recreated in C#

#165

Post by larodi »

bandysc wrote: post #104
larodi wrote: post #11

Interestingly it also downloads Java for the antlr grammar support.

Antlr is build with Java so in order to build the grammar, it needs to either use system java or download one. I don't know any better alternative to Antlr. Of course I could manually generate .cs files and commit them to the repo, but Antlr4BuildTasks automates everything which is very convenient.

I onow antlr and the the fact it was started in the 90s and still going. Precious piece of software indeed. But to have a .net app download Java still seems subpar. I guess grammars can be approached by other way, like with Perl6 (Raku).

That’s all im saying, and with all due respect for the work done.

Re: Visual Basic 6 IDE recreated in C#

#166

Post by Stratoscope »

Dwedit wrote: post #90
Stratoscope wrote: post #70

So nice to see this! I was one of the original developers of the "visual" side of Visual Basic. It was called Ruby at the time (no relation to the programming language) and was going to be a customizable shell for Windows 3.0. The idea was that individual Windows users would create their own personal desktop using our visual editor and "gizmos" (later called by the much more boring name "controls") to make their own…

Any relation to the MS Dialog Editor?

No direct connection that I know of. I would guess that the Dialog Editor was brand new code. But maybe the VP editor served as some inspiration? I wouldn't know.

Re: Visual Basic 6 IDE recreated in C#

#167

Post by Stratoscope »

zubairq wrote: post #147
Stratoscope wrote: post #70

So nice to see this! I was one of the original developers of the "visual" side of Visual Basic. It was called Ruby at the time (no relation to the programming language) and was going to be a customizable shell for Windows 3.0. The idea was that individual Windows users would create their own personal desktop using our visual editor and "gizmos" (later called by the much more boring name "controls") to make their own…

Wow, I see you made SQLWindows too. I am in awe!

You have probably heard the saying "Never meet your heroes; you will be disappointed."

When I think about SQLWindows, I mostly think about what I got wrong.

Specifically, I had the mindset that "I don't know anything about databases, I'm just a Windows UI guy."

So I didn't put any effort into understanding SQL databases and maybe creating any kind of visual interface for the database.

Instead, I just worked on the Windows application side and dropped you into raw SQL for any database code.

You can also blame me for the outline code editor. All I can say is the classic excuse: "It seemed like a good idea at the time."

Re: Visual Basic 6 IDE recreated in C#

#168

Post by Stratoscope »

makmanalp wrote: post #144
Stratoscope wrote: post #70

So nice to see this! I was one of the original developers of the "visual" side of Visual Basic. It was called Ruby at the time (no relation to the programming language) and was going to be a customizable shell for Windows 3.0. The idea was that individual Windows users would create their own personal desktop using our visual editor and "gizmos" (later called by the much more boring name "controls") to make their own…

This kind of post is what brings me back to this website :-) I'm the guy with the enthusiastic thread earlier on in this post. I'd love to sit down and chat with you for an hour on zoom and hear all about those times, which we could then we could post the video on here - I think people would appreciate. I have absolutely zero experience in interviewing people, nor do I have a media channel of any kind, but I promise…

Thank you! That sounds like fun. I don't have much experience being interviewed, so that makes us even.

I will drop you a note by email and we can discuss. :-)

Re: Visual Basic 6 IDE recreated in C#

#170

Post by kristianp »

bandysc wrote: post #103
kristianp wrote: post #41

I appreciate the amount of work that might have gone into this, but a small annoyance: > Antlr4BuildTasks library couldn't automatically download Java. It would be nice if more effort was put into avoiding large dependencies, like a java runtime for a .net product. Edit: It's not just the size of the dependency, it's the complexity this adds to the deployment and development.

I don't know any better alternative than ANTLR for grammar generation, this is unfortunately written in Java, so there is not a good way to avoid it. I mean, I could manually generate .cs files and commit them to the repo. Antlr4BuildTasks at least automates this step (both downloading java and building antlr4). Long story short, I don't see a better alternative for grammar generation now.

Ok, I thought I'd raise the subjective "issue". There is a port of Antlr to .net, but I don't know whether it is well maintained or how compatible it is.
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