i have a vb 6 prroject itried to open it on vs 2013 by installing extension name as vb 6 for visual studio from console manager now i the error is that extension is not compatible so i google that its mean vb 6 project cannot be upgraded so instead of wasting time i am asking is there any tool to run vb 6 win form gui app so that i can open my source code , can you give me that downloading link of tool too
i have extension frm , with my forms in vb 6 so please
as vb 6 is not a part of .net technology so it will never run on visual studio
Simple answer: VB6 is long past end of life from Microsoft.
None of Microsoft's existing tools will even read VB6 sensibly. VB.net is NOT VB6 in any way or form.
If you want to develop/enhance/extend a VB6 program, you need a VB6 development environment. Some say this is available via MSDN. Otherwise it is pretty hard to find.
As a practical matter, if you want to move this VB6 program to a modern language, you'll need to find a migration tool/vendor/service that understands VB6 to do this for you, or do it yourself (which usually fails unless the project is really small). And yes, converting the forms is hard.
Even if you fork over the cash for an MSDN subscription to get access to the necessary tools it takes time to develop proficiency in a new language and those tools for using it. Many companies take the smarter path and hire a contractor with both the tools and the experience to handle maintenance of their legacy VB6 portfolio.
This saves the expense of porting such applications to another language and limits the risk of such a port having data-destroying flaws.
You could use VS2008, but you'll probably still have a lot of work to do.
Depending on what you need this VB6 code for, you might be able to copy it into the VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) section of a Microsoft Office document. As I understand it, VBA is nearly identical to VB6 from a programming-language and capability point of view.
Note that this would not allow you to compile code to a standalone EXE or DLL, but if you don't need to do that it might be an acceptable workaround for not having the VB6 development tools.
Here is a link to Microsoft's primer on VBA: MSDN VBA Primer.
Also, be aware that most VB6 source code files (excepting FRX files) are plain text so if you just need to read them, you can use any text editor.
Related
Trying to do this on Windows 10.
I have a VB6 folder and I'm trying to make a solution out of it.
Visual Studio succeeds in making a project, but when trying to compile it gives millions of errors (see image).
I've read conflicting info about VB6 support in Visual Studio.
On one hand it's written that Visual Basic is supported, but not VB6?
There also used to be a VB6 IDE, but I can not find a download for it.
Should I use Visual Studio 2008 or something?
What are my options?
Thank you.
When Microsoft today uses the abbreviation "VB", they usually mean "VB.NET", the successor of classic VB published by Microsoft in 2002. According to this source, the latest version of VB, called VB6, appeared in 1998, and 10 years later Microsoft dropped any support for VB6 and its IDE.
Unfortunately, VB.Net is not backwards compatible to VB6, it is a different programming language (though it has some properties which arguably make it easier to port VB6 to VB.Net than to other .Net languages like C#). You cannot compile VB6 programs directly with Visual Studio 2002 or later, you usually need the original VB6 IDE. That leaves you basically with two options:
Try to find a copy of the old VB6 IDE and compile the program with it (if you cannot get it from where you got the source code, according to the comments, you may have luck at Microsoft, when you have the right developer subscription level).
Port the VB6 application to VB.Net. For this, however, you should have some not-too-basic knowledge of both languages, know the differences and ideally have an environment where you can test the original application against the ported one. I did this by myself in the past for some applications, so I know it can be less effort than recreating an application completely from scratch. However, this depends a lot on the specific application, how large and complex it is, how large the UI parts are and which kind of 3rd party components were involved. To be honest, if the application is not trivial, you should have a VB6 IDE for this approach, too.
Note also when your old VB6 code uses 32-bit third party OCX/ActiveX components, for porting it to VB.Net I would recommend to use VS2019 or an earlier version, not VS2022. The current Winforms Designer of VS2022 is not compatible with 32 bit OCX components any more, and it is unclear if MS will ever publish a version which will be.
I come from a strong Java background and in recent years have been also developing in C#.
What I can never understand is how far behind (Personal Opinion) the Visual Studio IDE's are in compared with Intelli-J IDEA and Eclipse (Java).
There have been improvements by Microsoft from VS 2005 to VS 2008, but I feel they are not quite there in terms of taking the development experience to the next level.
What I want to know is, is VS 2010 any different?
Why is it that the tools and syntax editors are so much more "evolved" in the Java IDE's.
Just to name a few:
Code Completion (Much more advance in Java IDE's)
Ant Integration (Eclipse and IDEA) vs Visual Studio Build Events
Lack of Code Repository integration in VS (Subversion and CVS) out of the box.
Lack of Advance Re-factoring Tools in Visual Studio.
Thanks.
A few points…
People tend to like what they know.
It is quicker to get up-to-speed in C# as the IDE and most of the tools / docs come from a single source.
In the Java world you have a lot more chooses, this is great for expert that spend times learning about them all, but does also lead to its own problems.
Adding ReSharper or Refactor to Visual Studio may give you what you want.
The Visual Studio debugging is great.
Visual Studio tries to make life easy for you by trying to find missing dlls etc and then storing where they are in the registry. This may be great for a 1 man project, but can often lead to build problems across developer’s machines if you are not careful. In the Java world you have to edit more config file by hand, but at least you can put these files under source code control.
There is not a small command line tool that works well on a build server that will build all types of Visual Studio projects. However in day to day usage you don’t need to learn how to use command tools, as Visual Studio hides them form you.
I think these days most programmers
are just happier with the IDE they
know best.
Note I wrote this over 6 years ago, since then C#/.Net has got a lot more complex, with lots of open source projects. Microsoft has also open sourced a lot of the .net framework. For web and server side development I expect there is now little to choose between the Java world and the .Net world. For “smart clients” .net still have a lot to offer including the new support from cross device phone development.
For multi-threaded IO, I think c# is years ahead of Java, but that could change as C# and Java keeps learning from each other...
Visual Studio has definitely been coming on over the last few years - although many of the improvements have basically been things that Eclipse has had for ages (I haven't used IDEA myself).
You may well want to look at ReSharper, which brings more goodness to Visual Studio, along with the VS2010 Productivity PowerTools.
Also, have a look at Scott Guthrie's blog series about improvements in VS2010. Lots of goodies in there.
All tools have their strengths and weaknesses - these days I'm about as happy in Visual Studio as in Eclipse... although I'm much happier writing C# than Java :) One area where Visual Studio really shines is debugging though... I find things like the VS Watch window to be much better than Eclipse's equivalent.
Visual studio 2017 is still far far behind Intellij IDEA. I'm using both and i can say that even VS2017 with ReSharper is not comparable with IDEA.
Biggest problem for me is that VS still doesn't offer usable hot reload debugging experience. I'm crying every time i have to rebuild my .NET MVC project (it is +- fast, but IIS Express load time ~ 15s EVERY time you make even the smallest change in your code).
If you want to argue with "Edit and continue" so so hotreload function - it is absolutely useless, you can't do almost any change in code without rebuilding (and everytime you have to manually break code and close opened tab with useless information).
So i'm really looking forward for full version of IntelliJ Rider bringing all super user friendly possibilities of IntelliJ IDEA to the .NET world!
I don't agree with you. I think VS is much more easy to use.
For example, when i need to create a web application. I open VS and create a new project (Web Application). After the project created, i press f5 and tadda!...
But if want to create my web application with Java, i need to install a server or some frameworks. Still i don't know how can i create a web application?
Or, Windows Application.
At VS, you don't need do any thing to create a windows based application like web application. but if i want to create windows based application with Java, i had to do something.
I think VS IDE is more user friendly than Java IDE's.
I have never done any Windows coding and I would like to give it a try. To create a simple application e.g. a window that displays a plain "Hello World" message.
What IDE (open source?) would I need to start of with and what language is used for the native Windows applications?
This is not for professional use, just for an amateur.
I'd recommend going for Visual Studio Express, you can use c#, Visual Basic (VB.NET) or c++, it's free and easy. It also makes the step to the larger Visual Studio simple if you're ever going to do that.
check out Microsoft Visual Studio Express
edit: added VB.NET
Since i'm editing anyway, how about some additions; If you prefer opensource you could also look into SharpDevelop (c# and boo) and/or monodevelop (c#, but better for linux/multiplatform, not so great for just windows imho but yout mileage may vary)
edit: 6 years later.
Microsoft has, in the mean time, provided us with Visual Studio Community Edition, which is in essence a complete Visual Studio professional, but free (some restrictions do apply). I do believe this is now the absolute best way to develop most non commercial, and possibly some commercial, Windows oriented projects you can get.
notepad + .NET Framework + cmd
type:
using System.Windows.Forms;
public class HelloWorld
{
public static void Main()
{
MessageBox.Show("Hello, World!");
}
}
save as %WINDIR%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\vX.X.XXXXX\hello.cs
open command line
cd %WINDIR%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\vX.X.XXXXX
%homedrive%
compile:
csc /target:winexe hello.cs
run:
hello
If you're looking for open source IDE I recommend Eclipse with plugins or MonoDevelop (wikipedia).
There are a lot of IDEs out there, if you want to develop for windows I'd recommend .net and the free "express" series of Microsoft tools.
If you're new to gui programming, Shoes is a fun way to pick up some of the concepts as well as learn some ruby along the way. It's primarily a learning tool however, so you'll need to eventually pick up Visual Studio (or something similar) when you're ready to develop a functional windows app.
Edit: I see you've done some programming in linux from one of your comments, so this might be a bit too rudimentary for you. For anyone new to programming and wanting to try their hand at a windows program, Shoes is worth looking at. The free version of Visual Studio is definitely what you'll want to check out, or alternatively you could continue to work in Eclipse on windows, as you're already familiar with it.
Try either AutoIt or AutoHotkey. I personally recommend AutoHotkey.
For LOTS of sample (and useful!) scripts, visit this page: http://www.donationcoder.com/Software/Skrommel/
You could look into VBScript, using notepad to edit the code. It is quite simple to program with, and there are a lot of examples.
Hello World would be done by placing the following into a file called HelloWorld.vbs and double clicking it from an explorer window.
MsgBox("Hello World")
A message box with hello world will then display.
There is wxDev-Cpp IDE (google for it). It's great for small apps. It's based on wxWidgets, so you also get portability for free.
If you're looking for Open Source and cross platform compatibility I would look at Eclipse. However if you simply want "free" I would also look at IntelliJ IDE which is designed for JAVA development and is also cross platform but not Open Source. They offer some free licensed versions.
You don't have to use an IDE to create a Hello World gui application.
Libraries like Qt, wxWidgets, GTK+, etc, allow you to write such programs, and their tutorials usually have some sample "hello word" programs.
UPDATE
I believe most GUI libraries (try to) maintain platform native look and feel; or at least that's what the docs say.
A client wants me to do some maintenance work to a VB 6.0 application (migration to .NET is also in the pipeline), but he doesn't have the development tools because he received just the source code and running application from the original programmer, who is no longer available.
Microsoft doesn't sell Visual Studio 6.0, as far as I know. How can I modify and compile the source code for a VB6 application without VB6? or Where do I get Visual Studio 6.0 if Microsoft is not selling it?.
Even if I migrate everything to .NET without releasing a new VB6 version, I would like to be able to open the project and see it compile and run to better understand it.
I have VS 2005 and VB 2008. But I understand that if I try to open the project the code will be converted to VB.NET and that's not what I would want before getting to know the project better.
From what I recall the Visual Studio 6.0 is available for MSDN Subscribers.
Hunt Ebay or Craigslist. Or call your regular software vendor, I'm sure they can still get it for this sort of reason.
Visual Basic 5 Control Creation Edition might be suitable to tide you over until you can get hold of a full version of VB6. There are limitations and it is 5 not 6, but depending on the scope and complexity of the application it might work for you as an interim measure.
Many textbooks on Visual Basic 6 frequently included a fairly usable version if VB (I can't recall the exact name offhand, perhaps VB 6 student edition?) that allowed the compiling of .exe files. VB 5 textbooks usually bundled VB 5 CCE, VB 4 books bundled VB 4 WM, neither of these are suitable replacements for a production VB 6 app IMHO, especially their lack of ability to create .exe files.
I will say, Visual Studio 2005 (VB 8) converted VB 6 apps quite well if that's an acceptable interim solution (which it may not be given the requirement for the large .NET 2.0 runtimes).
To get a feel of the code, you could try to compile parts of the application in MS Office / VBA.
Of course, this will only offer limited functionality, but may suffice for some testing.
Both Amazon and eBay currently have copies for sale (although they seem a tad expensive but this would be a pass-through cost to your customer so it's up to them whether they pay this).
You may want to check out the licence for VB.net; it may allow you to run previous versions of the software, such as VB6 (though you'd still have to source the actual media to install it, of course).
The MSDN "Visual Studio 2008 Professional with MSDN Professional" has previous version of Visual Studio tools but it comes in at USD1200 so, if you just want VB6, eBay is the better option.
Keep in mind that MSDN pack has all the Visual Studio languages and VS6 through to VS2008 so it's probably got everything you need.
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Closed 10 years ago.
Can anyone recommend any good add-ons or plugins for Microsoft Visual Studio?
Freebies are preferred, but if it is worth the cost then that's fine.
SmartPaster - (FREE) Copy/Paste code generator for strings
AnkhSvn - (FREE) SVN Source Control Integration for VS.NET
VisualSVN Server - (FREE) Source Control
ReSharper - IDE enhancement that helps with refactoring and productivity
CodeRush - Code gen macros on steroids
Refactor - Code refactoring aid
CodeMaid (FREE) - Code cleanup, organization and complexity analysis
CodeSmith - Code Generator
GhostDoc - (FREE) Simple code commenting tool
DXCore (FREE) and its many awesome plugins: DxCore Community Plugins, CR_Documentor, CodeStyleEnforcer, RedGreen
TestDriven.Net - (FREE/PAY) Unit Testing Aid
Reflector - (PAY) Feature rich .Net Disassembler Reflector AddIn's
Web Deployment Projects - Provides additional functionality to build and deploy Web sites and Web applications (source).
StudioTools - (FREE) Navigation assistant, code metrics tool, incremental search, file explorer in visual studio and tear off editor windows. Moved from old site (archive.org) to new site and discontinued.
Not free, but ReSharper is definitely one recommendation.
Whole Tomato's Visual Assist X. I absolutely swear by it. I would like to see a better plug in for Lint than Visual Lint by Riverblade, but since that will eventually be moved onto the build server I don't mind running it every couple of days manually.
PowerCommands is a Microsoft-created plugin that offers a variety of new features that one would think probably should have been in Visual Studio in the first place.
These include
Copying/Pasting project references!
"Open Containing Folder" to jump straight to the hard-drive location of a file or project
Automatic reorganizig and sorting of using statements
"Open Command Prompt Here" to open a command prompt in any of your project folders.
Collapse Projects
RockScroll is awesome, and free.
Addendum
As #Andrei points out, MetalScroll is a better alternative. It's Open Source, and corrects some annoying things about RS.
I'm a big fan of CodeRush and Refactor! Pro by DevExpress. I've been using them for a number of years, and without a doubt it makes me a faster developer. Also, both are built on a free framework called DXCore that allows you to develop your own plug-ins for Visual Studio, and the sky is the limit there...
Resharper
Resharper MbUnit Test Runner Add-On
SQL Prompt for Database Projects (works inside your SQL Management Studio as well)
Ankh SVN 2.0+ for free SVN support (v1.x pales in comparison)
TeamCity plug-in to monitor your builds, personal builds, and bug tracking
I find Ghost Doc to be very useful.
GhostDoc is a free add-in for Visual Studio that automatically generates XML
documentation comments for C#. Either by using existing documentation inherited
from base classes or implemented interfaces, or by deducing comments from
name and type of e.g. methods, properties or parameters.
If you use SVN for source control, definitely get VisualSVN. It enables TortoiseSVN interactions from within the Visual Studio IDE.
I also echo the Resharper comment. Retail price is a little steep, but if you're a student or otherwise educationally affiliated, it's actually pretty cheap.
+1 Visual Assist.
It's unfortunate that you need a plugin to get really good intellisense but it's definitely worth paying for.
LinqPad is great for testing linq to objects/xml/sql. Free download.
What about IncrediBuild? This is a nice distributed build system with visual studio integration.
Clipboard Manager
Maintains your clipboard data through removal of lines, a few other nice items but that one alone makes me happy.
Regionerate
While some have problems with regions I think if you use them, this tool is for you. Automatically region'izes your code into appropriate region blocks. Fully configurable for custom items etc.
VSCommands 2010
from the website:
Latest version supports:
Manage Reference Paths
Prevent accidental Drag & Drop in Solution Explorer
Prevent accidental linked file delete
Apply Fix (automatically fix build errors/warnings)
Open PowerShell
Show Assembly Details
Create Code Contract
Cancel Build when first project fails
Debug Output - custom formatting
Build Output - custom formatting
Search Output - custom formatting
Configure WPF Rendering
Configure Fusion Logs
Configure IE for debugging
Locate Source File
Thumbnails in IDE Navigator
Extended support for xaml, aspx, css, js and html files
Disable Ctrl + Mouse Wheel Zoom
Zoom to Mouse Pointer
Configurability
Attach to local IIS
Copy Full Path
Build Startup Projects
Open Command Prompt
Search Online
Build Statistics
Group linked items
Copy/Paste Reference
Copy/Paste as Link
Collapse Solution
Group items directly from user interface (DependantUpon)
Open In Expression Blend
Locate in Solution
Edit Project File
Edit Solution File
Show All Files
and others, so try it now!
http://trolltech.com/products/qt/">Qt Cross-Platform Application Framework
Qt is a cross-platform application framework for desktop and embedded development. It includes an intuitive API and a rich C++ class library, integrated tools for GUI development and internationalization, and support for Java™ and C++ development
They have a plug-in for Visual Studio that costs a bit of money, but it is worth every penny.
I've been using Visual Assist X for nearly two years now, and I find it so useful I can honestly say that if my employer didn't provide it, I'd have to pay for it myself.
I also use Cool Commands and SlickEdit (the free version), whose File Explorer and Command Spy tools are quite useful.
+1 for Visual Assist
And I will add VLH (Visual Local History) which provides a kind of local source control system. Every time you save a file, the plugin add a copy in the local repository.
ViEmu
vi/vim support inside VS
I found this site called Visual Studio Gallery - it has a lot of visual studio add-ins. I'm browsing it right now and I recommend everyone to visit it.
Consolas font
Free font from MS designed for reading code.
Try MetalScroll!! It's better than Rockscroll
Sonic File Finder for when you have loads of files in your solutions and searching for them in the solution explorer becomes a pain in the wrist.
You might also find DPack interesting. Several tools and enhancements rolled into one neat package.
MZTools is great too.
+1 for CodeRush & Refactor Pro. I've been using CodeRush since its Delphi incarnations, and it's utterly wonderful. The mantra of "Code at the speed of thought" is very close to reality ;)
Microsoft StyleCop provides code style checking for C#, we use it all the time and love it (free)
Axialis IconWorkshop has a Visual Studio add-in which is now free for VS2008 users.
Resharper Yes another vote, because I can't upvote everyone who suggests it :)
Workspace Whiz for C++, I used to live by Workspace Whiz but haven't used it in VS2008 as I hadn't realised there was an update. Will have to give it a try again.
If you're doing C++ coding, hands down Visual Assist.
I love CopySourceAsToHTML as a cool little addin. It's great if you want to copy code blocks for blogging and the like while maintaining your syntax formatting.
I think this is still the url.. you have to do some manual work to set it up with 08.
http://www.jtleigh.com/people/colin/software/CopySourceAsHtml/
For the laptop bound or for those with vi/vim key bindings burned into the brain I would recommend ViEmu.
If you have not tried editing with vi key bindings here is why you may want to try "Why, oh WHY, do those #?#! nutheads use vi?"
AtomineerUtils Pro Documentation - automatic DocXml/Doxygen/JavaDoc/Qt doc-comment generation/updating (similar to GhostDoc, but more powerful & flexible, and supports C#, C++, C++/CLI, C, Java and Visual Basic code).
The style of the generated comments is very configurable, and automatic re-formatting (such as whitespace control and word wrapping) can be optionally applied to keep the comments as readable as possible. It also has many helpers to allow users to read and convert most legacy doc-comments into any of the above formats.
(I'm the author, but I believe the above is an accurate and objective description. This add-in was free when this answer was first added, but to cover the costs of hosting, supporting, and continuing to improve the addin in monthly releases, it is now $10 with a 30-day free trial)
I'm always amazed that more people don't know about/use NDepend - it shows all dependencies at every level of your code, and will even draw pretty box and arrow pictures showing how confused your architecture really is :) Together with TestDriven.Net, I can't imagine working without it any more. Free/cheap.