Re: If you can't write Text2.Text = Text1.Text, then VB clone is no good
- From: abulsari.no@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: 4 Jul 2009 15:53:30 +0300
I have found a good solution: Jabaco. It is not perfect, and it is not
meant for the nerd programmer types, but for us engineers, it is
perhaps the best option, and in some ways better than VB6. I have also
checked FreeBasic, K Basic, but Jabaco seems to be the best
alternative. This also means I can continue to use VB6 and Jabaco in
parallel as long as I wish.
Ralph <nt_consulting64@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
<abulsari.no@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:4a49c2bd@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Ralph <nt_consulting64@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:<snipped>
I guess I'm also saying - BASIC is dead. You will need to pick another
language.
Yeah, that comment was a little 'raw'. Purely a personal opinion.
[What follows can be safely ignored ...]
I guess to me "BASIC" was Microsoft Visual Basic. I was originally a UNIX
Systems programmer (C/C++), an early advocate and fanatically committed to
OO. I migrated to Windows when by an odd series of events I became a beta
tester for OS/2 (which became a lead-in to beta Windows) and I was hooked.
I harbored all the traditional C biases against any form of BASIC. Of course
also distaining FORTRAN (a useful niche language for mathemetical
non-programmers) and PASCAL (a useful teaching tool for first-time
programmers).
Why the disdain for Fortran? Why should a computer language have object
orientation?
[I should quickly interject that I've grown-up a tad since then. lol]
Then while at a MS Conference in Seattle (I was on the AFX beta team) they
gave me a free copy of a pre-release VB 1.0. I thought it was pretty cute. I
liked the IDE, we in VC++ were still stubbling along with the Programmer's
Workbench.
Actually VB1 and VB2 were just fine for much of the work that people
(engineers) like me do. Your perspective might be different.
I think people either forget or never knew what a zoo Windows programming
was back then. I was using a collage of DesqView, micro-emacs, Brief,
ProtoView, PWB, CodeView, about a dozen other different designers, and stuff
I've long forgot to produce a single Application. "Hello World" took 32
lines of code. lol
Suddenly there was this little tool - that did it all in ONE little package.
And what it didn't do - you could add with VBXs and DLLs. And it was
incredibly OO. I always had a good chuckle at those who degraded VB for
being a non-OOPL. It definitely colored my view of how a Windows class
framework should work. (minor note: MS abandoned AFX and went with MFC. sad
but that's how it is.)
[Also worthy of note: VBers adopt quicker to dotNet than traditional
C-geeks - Why because of the VB-ness of the .Net Framework and IDE. Most VBe
rs are not even aware of just how much OO and OOPL habits they have picked
up. lol]
What is it in the .Net framework that so many people are speaking in favour of?
I don't see any big problem with learning another language or another way of
thinking, but it costs time, and we have very limited amounts of it. Jabaco gives
me that extra time and security, so that I don't *have* to learn C++ or Java or
VB.net quickly, but I slowly decide and learn it over a longer period of time.
From that time on VB became the second tool of choice. I usually used both
at the same time. VB makes a perfect testing client for controls, ActiveX,
proof of concept, etc. Through I had to wrap my VB books with brown paper in
case any of my friends might come around. lol
No other BASIC development platform has come close to the ease and
convenience and I will add the pure plain simple FUN of programming with VB.
I really got into the "improvements" and features that were going to be with
VB. I was shocked (and even a bit angry) when the realization finally set in
that MS had capriciously abandon it. What a wasted opportunity.
So that is my boring story and why I personally feel BASIC is dead.
You are frustrated like I am about MS dropping VB, but I don't see
that Basic or Fortran will disappear simply because MS abandons them.
I have difficulties believing that. Computer programming people mightridicule
Fortran, but it is far from dead, and new standards and compilers continueto
appear. I think the same will happen with Basic, with or without MS.
Any comments on Jabaco? K Basic? FreeBasic?
Yeah, but those languages never had or don't have a "VBIDE". The bar has
been set too high for any other tool's abilities to meet your expectations.
(Or at least mine.)
Jabaco's IDE is similar to VB6's.
I don't want to fly under false colors so I want make it very clear that I
am and have been a contractor/consultant. I never had, nor have, an
extensive investment in source code. But I've had the opportunity to see
many many clients face the same situation you are in. My advice is based
solely on those observations.
If you plan to stay with MS and Windows then bite the bullet and go dotNet.
I too will have to use MS and Windows because people I work with will
not drop Windows any time soon. I have no problem learning .Net, but I
can't afford to spend hundreds of hours on (1) learning it and (2)
building up all the calculation infrastructure we have in VB.net. I
have checked that VB Express is a temporary possibility, but it means
I will have to learn hundreds of things before I understand what VB
Express has done to my VB6 code. And before that I can't build on
that converted code.
Don't let your anger get in the way of what is essentially "not personal -
just business".
Whatever the 'next' great thing is, (F#?) it will be .Net Framework based.
It is what I call a "Fram Oil Filter" question - "Learn it now, or learn it
later"? lol
With Delphi there is the advantage that they offer ".Net extensions", ie you
can ease yourself into the Framework. With the other tools - there are
promises and suggestions - but you'll still be as isolated from the
Framework as if you had stayed with VB. (Those others that do provide some
form of interopt are IMHO rather kludgy.)
As for physical code conversion. It will go remarkablely faster than you
think. It is miserable at first (after all you are learning new things - a
new language, a new platform, and how one translates to the other.) It is
tough for the first few months (whether full-time or part-time), but you'll
find you will get very very good at it. It becomes mostly a matter of all
that d*mn typing. (Hint: get yourself a good multi-buffer code editor.
Search 'n Replace, grep tools, and keystroke macros are your friends.)
Unfortunately, you'll also find that you will need to make two passes. The
first one - provides comparable or equivalent code, ie, it will work, but
not optimal. So later you'll make a second pass over stuff you've done.
(Subsquent conversions will go faster because you'll be aware of these
additional needed changes.)
I can now convert two or three Forms from VB to VB.Net faster than it took
me to write this babble. lol
Wishing you Good Luck and Success on your new adventure. And it will be an
adventure no matter what tool you go with. Leaving VB is tough.
-ralph
Thanks for your comments.
With kind regards,
A. Bulsari
.
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