I come from a C# background but we have an app that is written a long time ago and is a vbp project file
What development enviroment will open that file - I know cls and frm files are class and form files but have never used vbp projects
This is a Visual Basic project file for vb6. Visual Studio should be able to open this file but you will need the VB6 IDE.
Update: As of Visual Studio 2010, VB6 projects are no longer supported. VB6 is still supported by Microsoft, but you will need the specific IDE for it to perform project updates. As of 9 February 2018, this can be found on the VB6 support site.
You need the original VB6 IDE.
Versions of Visual Studio from 2003 - 2010 will attempt to migrate the VB6 to VB.Net, but this usually introduces significant errors which are difficult to fix.
If you have an MSDN subscription, you can download Visual Basic 6 free.
Otherwise try somewhere like eBay, although VB6 is often surprisingly expensive.
Once you have obtained the VB6 IDE, look at the VB6 IDE tools-and-tricks question for some good tips and free add-ins for improving the development experience.
Visual Basic 6 creates projects which have the extension vbp. I think it stands for Visual Basic Project (obviously).
As Joel suggested in his answer, you can use the VB6 IDE to open the file.
Since you stated that you have a C# background, I take the liberty to assume that you're using Visual Studio. If that's the case, you can open the project with visual studio and it will be automatically upgraded for you.
You must note, however, that the project will be 'upgraded' to VB.NET.
If the project was large and fairly complicated, you'll have to be prepared for quite some time correcting errors. VB6 and VB.NET are quite different you know.
Plus, unless you fix all the errors in the upgraded project, you can't convert the code to C# or any other .NET language.
You need the VB 6 IDE Microsoft Visual studio
Related
I want to open a program (written in Visual basic 6) to be open in Visual Studio.net. Please guide, how could I do that?
While trying to open VB6 (.vbp file) program directly from the OPEN project option in visual studion.net, I was getting this error,
"Visual Basic 6 (.vbp) files cannot be opened in Visual Studio"
I am trying to open in VS 2010.
Visual Studio 2010 does not support VB6 projects. See the link here
From the msdn documentation:
Visual Studio 2010 does not provide tools for upgrading applications and projects from Visual Basic 6.0. If you want to upgrade your project from Visual Basic 6.0 to Visual Basic 2010, you can use the upgrade tools provided with earlier versions of Visual Studio and then upgrade the project again in Visual Studio 2010.
Visual Basic Tools for Visual Studio
There's a plugin called Visual Basic Tools for Visual Studio that provides the following features:
load classic VB workspace- and project-files and offers quick access to the extension´s options
integrates with the solution explorer and the code editor having support for syntax highlighting, basic outlining (allows to expand/collapse methods, properties and types) as well as navigation bar support.
Classes, Types, Modules, Forms and Controls can be inspected using the Object Browser and Class View.
From the reading, it's unclear if you can actually build the project, though it does say:
The import tool creates a new solution and MSBuild compatible projects.
Links to the plugin by VS Version
2012-2013
2015
2017
RAD Basic
There is also an independent IDE called RAD Basic that claims the following features:
New and modern IDE (Integrated Development Environment) with form designer supporting drag and drop, code completion, refactoring tools, etc.
RAD Basic Compiler: Compiler 100% compatible with your VB6 project (vbp, frm, bas and cls files). Generate native executables (exe and ocx) in both 32-bit and 64-bit.
RAD Basic Forms: Reimplementation of common VB6 controls and components supporting 32-bit and 64-bit.
etc.
Speaking from my experience, it's not easy to open a Visual Basic 6.0 project in any versions of Visual Studio above 2008.
Although 2008 and below versions do provide an automatic function to convert Vb6 code to the VB.net framework. But, the problem starts after the conversion - it can skip some code, add functions/variables on its own, or modify the functional behavior on its own, and with that the VB.proj will be created with errors and you will not be able to open it anywhere as a solution file. The same with any 3rd party tools.
If you want to open the VB6 code try Visual Basic 6.0 Portable edition.
But headache will still follow you there, please refer this link
Installation of VB6 on Windows 7 / 8 / 10
Make sure you are clicking on the project file itself... Right click on the file and select "Open With" and select your visual studio program. It may need to be converted and if so, it will prompt you to convert the project.
Thanks!
Download Visual Basic Tools for Visual Studio,allows to work with classic VB workspaces and projects
The reason I need this is I'm porting a VB6 app and I'm getting a very small difference in the arithmetic between VB6 and C#. I just need to test a couple calculations. The one I'm most interested in is how this comes out:
Round(2.24984, 1)
If that comes out to 2.3 in VB6 I'm done, it's figured out. But if not there are a couple steps leading up to that which could also be the problem.
An online VB6 fiddle would be ideal but I can install a virtual machine if I have to.
No, you cannot compile a VB6 project directly in Visual Studio 2017.
What you can do is open the project in Visual Studio 2008 and migrate it to VB.Net using the Visual Basic Update Wizard. (The migrated code will likely have errors you will have to fix yourself.) Once this is done, you can open the migrated project in Visual Studio 2017 (the current production release of Visual Studio).
I've been given the task of developing some extensions for Visual Studio for our internal use. These will have to support a couple of different versions of Visual Studio (VS2008, 2010 and 2012 - VS2005 would be a nice to have but not essential). I'd like to develop these in as consistent a way as possible, reusing as much of the code as possible, while fitting it into the existing project structure for these kinds of tools, which is a Visual Studio 2012 .sln.
What's the best / easiest way of developing this kind of extension? A VSPackage project? Can I make a 2008-compatible VSPackage which is developed in VS2012?
The features I will need for the extensions I'm writing at the moment are pretty basic - I need to create Tools menu commands, possibly a custom toolwindow. My requirements might change later on but I don't need editor adornments or anything like that at the moment.
I saw this question which might seem to be a duplicate, but the answer which was accepted doesn't answer the question, so...
It really depends on what is your extension going to do.
VS2008 does not support extensions (.vsix) and you will need to write VSPackage deployed as msi for it. You also won't have access to many new features introduced in VS2010 (easier editor integration and access to vs services via MEF), but basic stuff such as manipulating solution/project/files should be fine and work on all versions (e.g. using DTE should be ok).
As far as I remember for VS2008 you will also need to obtain a PLK, which is no longer required for 2010 and 2012.
I haven't tried developing 2008 package in VS2012, but you definitely can develop 2010 extension in 2012.
Also remember that VS2008 is .Net 3.5, so your code should use .net 3.5 and version of c# which it supports to be portable.
I have a VB6 project that I need to edit. I have downloaded the Visual Studio 2010, but I have read that I need VB6. I have googled but I can't find where I can download VB6.
It is possible to edit this VB6 project with Visual Studio 2010? If not, what can I do?
Best Regards,
You can't just download the older versions of Visual Studio that are used to edit VB6 projects, AFAIK there has never been an Express edition put out for the older version.
Your best bet may be to:
pick up a second hand copy from online, i.e. eBay
use VS2008 or VS2010 and upgrade the VB6 project to .Net
enrol in the BizSpark program if you are eligible
This is easily one of the most annoying "features" of Visual Studio in its history and I don't understand why it exists -- ever.
Why would a CodePlex project need to care what version of Visual Studio I am using?
Off the top of my head, the only thing I can think of is that some versions of Visual Studio might introspect assemblies searching for attributes to determine what to display in "Visual Designers" and "Property Editors". But why would that cause Visual Studio to not be able to open the project and allow me to browse its contents and compile?
It seems to me like Open Source in .NET is somewhat limited by the stupid dependency management exhibited by Visual Studio. In other words, if I am using Visual Studio 2008 and you are using Visual Studio 2010, then we have different solution files.
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/visualstudio/archive/2010/03/15/why-does-visual-studio-2010-convert-my-projects.aspx
Here's an example from the site as to why Visual Studio converts your projects to 2010 format.
For instance, Visual Studio runs
custom tools such as single file
generators for designers in order to
output code representing the changes
made to the designer. Many of these
custom tools are upgraded or
completely replaced in the newer IDE.
During conversion, the IDE knows which
custom tools to replace or upgrade. In
order to make round-tripping work, VS
would need old and new custom tools to
understand each other so as to ensure
that old and new designers can work
side by side. Other than designers,
the following files would also be
affected: resource editors, wizards,
code snippets, item and project
templates, diagramming and modeling
tools, and many more.tools, and many more.
Since 2010 knows about what tools 2008 has, it can convert forward to be compatible with the custom tools 2010 uses. 2008 has no idea about what 2010 is using, how could it? Therefore, it is impossible to convert backwards since it doesn't know what it needs to convert, nor how to.
I believe the purpose of this touches on what you stated in your comments. If you are using 2008 and I 2010 and I compile it, how could you possibly run it again? 2010 is backwards compatible but 2008 has no way to make itself forward compatible.
Thus, by recompiling the project in 2010 I ensure that no 2008 user may mistakenly think they can compile it.