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SimpleIDE

github.com

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Re: SimpleIDE

#41

Post by impendingchange »

benchly wrote: post #33
bflesch wrote: post #30

Sorry for the stupid question, but would this IDE be a good place to create VB.net GUI apps for Windows 11? I've been looking into "best" ways of creating Windows GUI apps from Linux and apart from C/Cpp with native Windows APIs most options seem to focus on React Native and web technologies. Is SimpleIDE a valid option for this? Does it spit out an .exe file that I can run on a vanilla Windows 11 installation?

I will be trying this later this week and can report back, if you like. That this popped up on HN is fortunate, and oddly specific to my needs. I'm in a position where I have to support some legacy .NET software for the manufacturers we service and prefer working in Linux when and if possible, so this IDE seems targeted to me. Looking forward to giving it a shot and seeing if it replaces VSCodium in my routine.

Its still quite rough around the edges. I would not recommend it for production at this time.

Re: SimpleIDE

#42

Post by whizzter »

bflesch wrote: post #30

Sorry for the stupid question, but would this IDE be a good place to create VB.net GUI apps for Windows 11? I've been looking into "best" ways of creating Windows GUI apps from Linux and apart from C/Cpp with native Windows APIs most options seem to focus on React Native and web technologies. Is SimpleIDE a valid option for this? Does it spit out an .exe file that I can run on a vanilla Windows 11 installation?

Personally I love the web-tooling, they've abused the dynamicism of JS/TS for the benfit of developer experience to the point where others tools often feels cramping when wanting to do something really quickly.

And webviews are simple to start within some host language, I have my own mini-webview-host written in .NET that provides functions for file IO, file-selection dialogs,etc.

Outside of that, more serious seemingly still viable non-lowlevel (QT/GTK) non-web cross-platform options:

- Dart/flutter seems very popular, it's a new language to learn for most but seems to have been given the chance to mature and seems to be gaining.

- in the .NET world Avalonia (desktop focused, inheris a lot from WPF architecturally and has a paid crossplatform WPF shim)

- Also .NET, MAUI (better for more "mobile" like/focused designs).

- If you're doing games and are already rendering polygons, IMGui seems to be the go-to option.

- Lazarus (Pascal) seems to still carry the old VB/Delphi torch.

That said, what I'd love to see pesonally is for library developers to start looking at sane/fast ways to develop UI applications with modern language features to have non-insane state management. Either as thin shims over the existing lowlevel libraries or as first-class support.

C++ and Java has evolved a lot just in the past 10 years, as have some other languages.

But the web-focus seems to have left desktop UI development in a rut outside of new players for new languages.

Re: SimpleIDE

#43

Post by impendingchange »

dadoum wrote: post #21
impendingchange wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And what makes this project significant is there's a lack of VB.NET tools on Linux. It has been challenging trying to get Gtk 3 widgets to play nice. Finally just rolled my own custom-drawn editor, treeview, and listbox. Going to release them later in a library.

Wait, you're not using GtkSourceView? Cool You could also have used Mono.TextEditor btw. I personally find it better than GtkSourceView, and for having ported it to GTK# 3 myself, it was rather straightforward to port.

I actually had Claude do a lot of research into libraries. We tried a LOT of them before finding Gtk# 3 stable enough on the version used. What also was a factor was finding a version of dotnet on Linux that was stable for this combination. And it wasn't so much what would compile together, it was more what packages were available for MX Linux (my preferred flavor).

Gtk 3 has a weird way of doing scrolled controls that I couldn't accept because the nesting caused all kinds if issues. Also, the Gtk text control is incredibly slow when the file in it grows past 600 lines.

I wrote the editor control with an architectural design I created originally back in 2004, and subsequently lost. Much, much faster implementation. Took about 3 weeks with Claude.

Also wrote a treeview, listbox, colorpicker. Those took a day or two each with Claude. I will be releasing those controls in a dotnet library when I am finished with SimpleIDE.

Re: SimpleIDE

#44

Post by orphea »

bflesch wrote: post #30

Sorry for the stupid question, but would this IDE be a good place to create VB.net GUI apps for Windows 11? I've been looking into "best" ways of creating Windows GUI apps from Linux and apart from C/Cpp with native Windows APIs most options seem to focus on React Native and web technologies. Is SimpleIDE a valid option for this? Does it spit out an .exe file that I can run on a vanilla Windows 11 installation?

If it doesn't have to be VB.NET, then JetBrains Rider (free for non-commercial development) + C# + Avalonia as the GUI framework will bring you the closest to your "best" way.

If it does, this SimpleIDE might be an option but also it might be so that the only good option would be Visual Studio... which requires Windows. But switching to it will give you two more options - WinForms and WPF - both are old but tested GUI frameworks.

Re: SimpleIDE

#45

Post by pjmlp »

WillAdams wrote: post #39
pjmlp wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can have it on VB.NET with Forms, though.

If you're running Windows? I'd love to see a cross-platform GUI toolkit w/ drag-drop and nice code integration --- currently considering Lazarus/ObjectPascal....

Yes, VB 6 is also Windows only.

Outside Windows, the best alternative was REALbasic, nowadays known as Xojo (https://www.xojo.com).

If you're talking about Pascal dialects, that might be the option. Delphi can cross-compile, but the editor itself is Windows only.

Althought there is RemObjects as well, they used to be responsible for Delphi for .NET, and the product eventually became Hydra, after they ended their relationship with Embarcadero/Codegear.

Re: SimpleIDE

#46

Post by dgfitz »

bflesch wrote: post #36
lelanthran wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I've been looking into "best" ways of creating Windows GUI apps from Linux and apart from C/Cpp with native Windows APIs most options seem to focus on React Native and web technologies. Have you considered Lazarus? I use it with plain C for the logic (not C++).

Oh, thanks for the pointer. I've seen it before but never used it. Can it compile a Windows exe file on my Linux system? Edit: I can't seem to find a clear mention of cross-compilation on the lazarus website, and a web search points me to several free pascal wikis. On the Lazarus IDE website it mostly mentions that Lazarus IDE itself can run on both Windows and Linux. Ideally I'd do everything on Linux and ship an ex…

First search result: https://wiki.freepascal.org/Cross_compiling_for_Windows_unde...

Re: SimpleIDE

#48

Post by orphea »

mrcsharp wrote: post #18

Absolutely love this! I learned programming with VB.NET and it still holds a special place in my heart.

Yep. BASIC, then VB 6, then VB.NET because I randomly found a cool looking app that turned out to be written for .NET Framework 1.1.

Wait, who is cutting onions?

Re: SimpleIDE

#49

Post by WillAdams »

pjmlp wrote: post #45
WillAdams wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're running Windows? I'd love to see a cross-platform GUI toolkit w/ drag-drop and nice code integration --- currently considering Lazarus/ObjectPascal....

Yes, VB 6 is also Windows only. Outside Windows, the best alternative was REALbasic, nowadays known as Xojo ( https://www.xojo.com ). If you're talking about Pascal dialects, that might be the option. Delphi can cross-compile, but the editor itself is Windows only. Althought there is RemObjects as well, they used to be responsible for Delphi for .NET, and the product eventually became Hydra, after they ended their re…

Lazarus w/ ObjectPascal is the front-runner (actually bought a book on it) --- RemObjects Hydra w/ the Elements compiler looks interesting, but is a bit out of my price range.

Re: SimpleIDE

#50

Post by Timwi »

orphea wrote: post #48
mrcsharp wrote: post #18

Absolutely love this! I learned programming with VB.NET and it still holds a special place in my heart.

Yep. BASIC, then VB 6, then VB.NET because I randomly found a cool looking app that turned out to be written for .NET Framework 1.1. Wait, who is cutting onions?

For me it was VB 6, then Borland Delphi, then C#. I also found a cool app that was written for .NET Framework before I started with C#: the Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator. To this day I'm using my own custom-defined keyboard layout and I couldn't live without it.
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