Script BASIC COM

[JRS]

Thank You Mike !!!

I feel a lot better about investing my time in this direction.

I've read a thousand VB6 user messages that the only chance for other BASICs to cause people to leave VB6 behind would be a compatible IDE of at least equal functionality.

I'm looking at a VB6 (GUI layout) to SB(or anyone else)/IUP  translator for a cross platform use.

[Mike Lobanovsky]

I'm looking at a VB6 (GUI layout) to SB(or anyone else)/IUP  translator for a cross platform use.

I can only wink-wink in Kuron's direction then. Perhaps it's him that could help you out with that judging by his last message.

My own efforts in that domain ended back in 2006 when a bunch of half-illiterate ex-BCX drama queens accused closed-source FBSL of being an illegal clone of BCX. Of course it wasn't and simply couldn't be one because FBSL is a bytecode interpreter, i.e. an entirely different type of application, rather than a mere piece of translator bloatware. I was working on FBSL's own IDE that was supposed to re-implement VB6 IDE's functionality for FBSL as closely as possible. It was coded in OOP-ed FBSL BASIC and DynAsm and was already combining all the might of Eclecta (FBSL's official editor) and a simple form designer. Its codename was FSF that stood for Freestyle Script Factory.

The accusations were so unexpected and so utterly profane that I was baffled and outright appalled to the extent of being unable to do any work, to say nothing of completing so ambitious and complicated a project as that. Some of the hounds are here no more, some others have been unfortunate to sort of recover from physical illnesses to the state of near insanity, yet some others are still here doing well. I'm not angry any more because time does heal our wounds. But the project was abandoned in an indeterminate state because I seem to have lost any interest in this kind of activity, restricting myself to occasional fixes to Eclecta to keep it minimally up to date with current builds of FBSL proper.

That's how I lost my faith in humanity.

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[JRS]

That's how I lost my faith in humanity.

That's gorgeous! You shouldn't give up that dream.

[Mike Lobanovsky]

It was dream coming true.

FBSL of today is incongruously mightier than it used to be in 2006, and reviving this project would mean re-writing it completely from scratch. I am not sure if it would be reasonable, John. I'm not coquetting or something. There are simply so many interesting things around these days that if one gets involved in a project like this, one risks not having enough time left to feel the taste of them all.

[Kuron]

when a bunch of half-illiterate ex-BCX drama queens accused closed-source FBSL of being an illegal clone of BCX

If it is any condolence, there have been many of us who have had run-ins with these idiots over similar issues.

[JRS]

I didn't realize that the BCX project was still alive. I thought James Fuller's BC9 was the last version of it. I haven't heard from AIR (Armando) in ages.

[Mike Lobanovsky]

@Kuron:

Condolences are accepted with gratitude and a fair amount of them returned to my brother in arms.


@John:

No John,

Those people who have forked their own implementations off the BCX main trunk are the brave souls that only deserve respect for their perseverance in turning that bloatware into their own respective usable products the way they saw them.

I remember my elder son (arilou_camper was his nick) to have downloaded their last build somewhere around 2009 or something and offer me to have a look at what came out of it in the end. I said no and never touched the zip. But I must confess it is still hanging somewhere on my XP desktop amongst some other 350 to 400 downloads accumulated there over the years -- untouched.

Not interested.

(And yes, my XP has never slipped me since the year 2008 and I've had no need to reinstall it for all that time, and it's still alive and kicking and sending you greets. Can any of you Linuxoids boast the same? )

[JRS]

It was interesting to see VB5CCE run under Wine.

I tried to install the SB IDE/Debugger under Wine but it failed to register two of the required OCX controls. 

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[JRS]

I just created (VB6 compiled) the Manifest Creator program and it was XP themed. At least I know it works.



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[JRS]

I added the Luna XP theme to Wine from my XP VirtualBox. This allowed my XP manifest to work with VB5CCE under Wine.



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[JRS]

Calling properties and methods of OLE (= ActiveX) objects (= VB and C# controls) from an inproc (= DLL) server is exactly what "OLE automation interface" stands for.

The following was found in my Wine VB5CCE .vbp project file.

Code: [Select]

Reference=*\G{00020430-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}#2.0#0#..\..\..\..\windows\syswow64\stdole2.tlb#OLE Automation


[Mike Lobanovsky]

1. Exactly which controls failed to install under Wine?

2. Of course it may happen that there would be no such a path under Wine as shown in your last message. I'm currently under XP and not very eager to reboot for investigation. Have a look into your Wine's \system32 folder to see if there's an equivalent to stdole2.tlb there (that's an OLE types library). If not then try to copy one from your XP installation. Then start your VB5CC, open some new (template) project, goto Project->References, click the Browse button, navigate to your Wine's \system32, and select the stdole2.tlb that you copied there.

You can try to do the exact same thing with the two controls that failed to register, but going along the Project->Components route this time.

The main idea is that when you add a reference to a TLB or OCX to a VB project in this manner, the respective module gets registered in your system automatically if it wasn't registered before. I think Wine should be able to mimic this behavior otherwise it won't be able to run applications of the MS Office family, which it is.

[JRS]

I don't have much interest in getting COM working on Wine. I tried it out of curiosity and to see how far Wine has come along. I'm working on building a library of VB6 to IUP control conversion routines that could be used by any language in essence.

[Mike Lobanovsky]

Understood. But just in case...

[JRS]

Several weeks ago I exported the type libraries from several of VB6's runtimes and I didn't find anything in them that seemed to be remotely usable or useful. What I was hoping to find but didn't was some programatic access to a way of instantiating such things as VB Forms and its standard controls like text boxes, labels, buttons, etc. What I found instead were various equates and conversion routines. Like I said, nothing immediately useful - at least to me. But perhaps I missed something. If I did, I'd appreciate knowing about it too, as it would provide a whole new approach to converting VB6 code. In other words, what I'm saying, is that instead of using DDT Create Dialog ... or SDK CreateWindow() to create UI elements, just use VB's exported COM interfaces to do this. It would be elegant if it were possible to do that. But like I said, I have not as yet found a way. So assumming its not possible, all that leaves one is doing what you are doing now Stan - or like I did several years back.

Maybe someone should let Fred know about the Script BASIC COM interface and use that as a model.