opening existing VB6 projects in desktop version in Windows 11?

[madscijr]

I'm running Windows 11 Pro 24H2, OS build 26100.3476, with Visual Studio Community 2022 v17.13.4.

I'm looking to run the desktop version of AvaloniaVisualBasic6.

I followed the instructions to build, with the command

dotnet build AvaloniaVisualBasic.Desktop.csproj

which produced executable "AvaloniaVisualBasic.Desktop.exe".

(To see exact commands, see attached file "AvaloniaVisualBasic6-01-build-and-run.txt".)

I run the exe and it opens to the Open Project window.
I click the "Existing" tab which is blank.
I clicked File > Open project and navigated to my project's vbp file, and clicked Open.
Nothing happens.

Is it not possible to open projects?

Or do I need to configure it somehow or setup permissions somewhere?

Any help appreciated.

AvaloniaVisualBasic6-01-build-and-run.txt

[yereverluvinunclebert]

Your expectations may be set a little too high... give it time, perhaps, but not at this stage in development.

If you want a tool other than VB6 that will almost certainly open your VBP file and show the VB6 project, then run/compile it - try TwinBasic.

[madscijr]

Thanks for your reply. I'll give TwinBasic a look! Keep up the good work on your project, it looks good and I see not just Windows but android and IOS... If your tool could eventually compile a vb6 project to multiple platforms (such as Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS) that would help give new life to a lot of applications.
Thanks again and Good Luck

[yereverluvinunclebert]

TwinBasic WILL open your VBP project and run it...
XYplorer, mainstream file manager was written in VB6 and compiles now to 32bit binary. 64bit version coming.
PhotoDemon, 100,000 lines of VB6 code, compiles in 15 secs whereas in VB6 it used to take 2-3mins. Each of my projects are 12-15,000 LoC all compile with TwinBasic - with some minor changes as bug workarounds.

Soon we will have several potential options for VB6 compilation.

[yereverluvinunclebert]

My projects are here as an example: https://github.com/yereverluvinunclebert

[madscijr]

Thanks, that is encouraging. I will check out your projects!

[BAndysc]

Hey, I appreciate the question, and I'm glad yereverluvinunclebert provided you with a valid answer. This project was never meant to be a fully featured VB6 replacement. Well, it wasn't even meant to be a half-baked replacement. It was meant to be a toy, and there is no incentive to convert it into anything more than what it is now. The fact that there are still people coding in VB6 is amazing, but it's still a niche, so there's definitely no point in creating a TwinBasic competitor. :) Cheers!

[madscijr]

That makes sense. Just seeing it work in a web browser was amazing. If you guys could ever add the ability to just load and save projects, that would at least make it practically useful, but if you guys have moved onto other projects, I get it. I'll look into TwinBasic. Thanks for your reply!

[yereverluvinunclebert]

Yes, that's the problem I suppose. If it looks like a dog then people expect to to bark like a dog. If I had my way every editor would look and act like the VB6 IDE, I like it that much.

The TwinBasic IDE is NOT a clone of the VB6 IDE so it does not provide the full VB6 experience. It compiles VB6 code into 32bit and 64bit binaries. In that respect AvaloniaVB has a niche...

By the way, the VB6 niche you talk about, that niche is bigger than you think, 100,000s of apps previously coded in 32bit VB6, probably millions now have new life. Ditto the 100,000s of business apps written in VB6 still operating. All the 100,000s of VBA apps within the MS Office environment can take advantage as MS is slowly deprecating VBA, same for all VB script apps. On top of this all these apps now can be compiled into 64bit binaries giving them future proofing and potential massive improvements in speed.

BASIC in VB6 form, is still a very powerful language for both beginners and professionals and with TwinBasic language enhancements (some of which have already arrived) it could become a new force even for new programming, especially when multi-platform arrives.

Keep coding AvaloniaVB. This is NOT a dead end, even for a toy.