The Rise and Fall of Visual Basic

agraham

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Interesting read...
Very! That exactly mirrors my experience in coding over the last 50 years. Although starting out with machine code (even symbolic assemblers didn't exist back then) and later using various assembly languages, Forth, C, C# Java, Python etc. I have always had a soft spot for the BASIC language syntax. Although I did switch from VB to C# for .NET use as VB got over-verbose and I don't like typing a lot so C# is much terser and easier for me to both enter and read.

And of course the flame lives on today in all B4X versions and I still maintain my own version of Basic4ppc for desktop use and have my own Basic interpreter that has traveled with me from Pocket PC to Windows Mobile and now Android and B4J.
 
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Mashiane

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Wait what? Does this still apply in the latest versions? I havent used C# but do understand that the same person who create Turbo Pascal or something created it, so it makes sense to use the same terminology because its home ground. Looking at the comparison operators just signifies very close similarity to javascript.

My early prog languages were LISP and Turbo Pascal, did some C++ but then again my mind is blank now. o_O VB took over and then Erel with B4X.
 

LucaMs

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then you've never coded in COBOL
Beautiful language (at those times)

8.jpg



I feel like to read it again :D
 
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npsonic

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What really is interesting is the state of VBScript. VB might be somewhat dead, but VBScript is not going to die in very long time as Siemens is using it and will use it to years to come. It's implemented to be part of WinCC which is used by industry around the world. VBScript is kind of layer that you can use to read tags and such from CPU, so scripts are most of the time used between CPU and databases. Although with the years of experience with such systems I can say that WinCC script editor is truly horrible. It's beond me how people can build working nuclear power plant automation and such with that kind of crap.
 

Swissmade

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Very nice VB story's here then we get also mine.
Starting from ASM, Cobol and Pascal I also start to use VB at the time when we had Ms-DOS 1.1
At the moment still ANPR software I build is running in the Netherlands and is written in VB 6. Wrote this about 16 years ago.
Running like a charm and will do this for the next years as long I can support it with Windows.
 

j_o_h_n

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Very nice VB story's here then we get also mine.
Starting from ASM, Cobol and Pascal I also start to use VB at the time when we had Ms-DOS 1.1
At the moment still ANPR software I build is running in the Netherlands and is written in VB 6. Wrote this about 16 years ago.
Running like a charm and will do this for the next years as long I can support it with Windows.

ANPR = Automatic Number plate recognition? I'm impressed, even if you are contributing to the surveillance state!
 

kohle

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Very! That exactly mirrors my experience in coding over the last 50 years. Although starting out with machine code (even symbolic assemblers didn't exist back then) and later using various assembly languages, Forth, C, C# Java, Python etc. I have always had a soft spot for the BASIC language syntax. Although I did switch from VB to C# for .NET use as VB got over-verbose and I don't like typing a lot so C# is much terser and easier for me to both enter and read.

And of course the flame lives on today in all B4X versions and I still maintain my own version of Basic4ppc for desktop use and have my own Basic interpreter that has traveled with me from Pocket PC to Windows Mobile and now Android and B4J.

The same to me, I also had also had my expierence with IBM OS/2. In this time I wrote an interpreter named KIM what worked under DOS,WIN and OS/2. Good old time.
 

MarkusR

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Visual Basic 6 was the best development tool i ever met.
fast & productive work, great community, great windows api, a lot of ui components, database connectivity.
it had only a few deficiencies.
2003 - microsoft put this product into trashcan^^
this .net frameworks was never finished, got permanent modifications, bad backward compatible, unhandy / bad / unintuitive class design.

i just found that GFA-BASIC 32 (a visual basic clone) is still alive, wth "Update to GFA-BASIC 32 v2.56 - April 2019" i can't believe.
http://gfabasic32.blogspot.com/
 

omo

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Believe me, i really missed my "On Error Resume Next" feature in vb6, very useful to escape stubborn program that refuses to run in some instances. All the same, thanks to B4X for bridging the gap and connecting Vb6 fans to mobile world and beyond.
 
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