Thread

A browser-native classic Visual Basic VB6 IDE

155 points · 57 comments · wiso

Loading the complete thread in the background. This saved snapshot is available now. Refresh

mkrishnan · 1791143026 · focus · HN ↗
Wow. very nice, it even runs the app
vunderba · 1791144072 · focus · HN ↗
Nice job - definitely consider implementing at least a little bit of the Win32 API layer! For kicks I tried importing an old highschool VB6 map editor at it which uses BitBlt but sadly it didn't work.
sijmen · 1791151625 · focus · HN ↗
Slick! Thanks for bringing back some memories of how i got into programming; by automating math-homework in visual basic.
486sx33 · 1791152267 · focus · HN ↗
[dead]
orthodonticjake · 1791152599 · focus · HN ↗
easy way to trigger an Epic developer
1. Onavo · 1791155004 · focus · HN ↗
  Wait Epic as in the medical software is written in VB6‽
  1. roywiggins · 1791157774 · focus · HN ↗
    The GUI parts are or were.
    And parts of their patient portal website were still VB6 on the backend a decade ago, not sure that's true anymore. Visual Basic 6 as a web backend.
    SoftTalker · 1791158148 · focus · HN ↗
    VB was the backend language for the vast majority of original Active Server Pages sites.
    zdimension · 1791172729 · focus · HN ↗
    My memory may fail me, but I'm pretty sure ASP used VBScript, not regular VB. Similar syntax but not the same runtime/environment. ASP could use any Active Scripting language (the other language shipped with Windows being JScript, MS's impl of a subset of JS)
    bitwize · 1791164796 · focus · HN ↗
    Here's something that will bake your noodle. Sage 100, the accounting/ERP software, is still to my knowledge written in Business BASIC from the 1970s—specifically the variant that ran on MAI Basic Four minicomputers (just 64 KiB of RAM!). This variant of BASIC was so, as Claude says, load-bearing that several companies emerged to support source-compatible versions on a variety of platforms as the non-mainframe business world evolved from custom-schmustom minicomputers to Unix workstations and PCs. The most common variants today are BASIS International's BBx and BBj (Java), and ProvideX. Sage 100, originally MAS 90 and MAS 200, was an accounting solution originally developed for those 1970s minicomputers and then forward-ported to new platforms as the business landscape evolved.
    theYipster · 1791177460 · focus · HN ↗
    For anyone who has had to touch any desktop version of Sage in 2026, this is not at all a surprise.
Sarkie · 1791153086 · focus · HN ↗
Intellisense?
Was that there?
1. nvme0n1p1 · 1791154764 · focus · HN ↗
  What do you mean?
  Does the site have intellisense? Yes
  Did VB6 have intellisense? Also yes
2. jimmygrapes · 1791175838 · focus · HN ↗
  IIRC even QuickBASIC 4.5 had a form of "IntelliSense" in the form of hints as to the defined data structure, if provided in DECLARE statements. F1 hints are mentioned elsewhere for built-ins but I seem to recall it (or a similar quick action) also working for a smart of "what kind of data are you allowed to pass to this user defined subroutine or function".
  1. vunderba · 1791176496 · focus · HN ↗
    So I think you're talking about TYPES.
    TYPE PERSON AGE AS INTEGER FIRSTNAME AS STRING * 12 END TYPE DIM KURTZ AS PERSON PRINT KURTZ._
    You could do something like this, but it wouldn’t provide any kind of code completion or autocomplete to show the AGE/FIRSTNAME fields where the underscore represents the text cursor.
    As far as subroutines/functions go, if you tried to pass data into a subroutine where the data couldn’t be coerced, it would just give you a type mismatch.
    DIM Y AS SINGLE Y = 10.5 PRINTIT Y ' Throws parameter type mismatch PRINTIT (Y) ' Succeeds because self-evaluated expression is effectively by val SUB PRINTIT (X%) PRINT X% END SUB
    But again I wouldn’t consider that to be intellisense of any kind; that’s just error handling.
    I've spent the last 6 months building a similar 1:1 faithful recreation of QBASIC and QuickBasic 4.5 that runs natively in the browser [1] - so I know way more about this than anyone should by right.
    [1] - <a href="https://mordenstar.com/share/qbasic-core-demos" rel="nofollow">https://mordenstar.com/share/qbasic-core-demos
hagbard_c · 1791153569 · focus · HN ↗
The speed with which this thing launches in a browser should put shame on the faces of current IDE developers. While VB itself was nothing to write home about there certainly was something lost when hardware became more powerful. Imagine what current and 'recent' hardware were capable of if only efficiency was taken seriously again. Maybe generative AI can provide a boost where human developers would rather spend their time on chasing the latest fads, adding yet another feature or inversely removing even more functionality in an attempt to create the 'perfect' sparse application? Let the humans think up the features and write the initial implementation, then loosen the bots on the code to make it run as efficiently as possible on hardware which used to be current a few generations back.
1. hyperhello · 1791156282 · focus · HN ↗
  The power relationship between the computer and the human has shifted since then. We want our computers to run slower so we don’t feel quite so inferior.
  1. fuzzzerd · 1791159778 · focus · HN ↗
    I don't. It's a machine, it should be fast and efficient.
    hyperhello · 1791160138 · focus · HN ↗
    Are you sure? A UI based on instant gratification? Seeing everything simply blink into place instantly might not be as fun as you think after the newness wears out.
    Anyway, if you really want to, you can emulate old OSs with a very fast modern computer. Some emulators even bridge the network and file system to support enough that you can really live in it.
    aero_code · 1791161521 · focus · HN ↗
    I would love if everything on a computer were instant. One of the fastest programs I use is Sublime Merge for a Git UI. It opens and does everything so fast, and I love it. Since the first time I opened it, I haven't even opened the previous Git GUI I was using, even though I like both their UIs about the same. I had to buy Sublime Merge, compared to the free app I was using before it.
    It's not just me who prefers everything as fast as possible, but true of people in general. Google measured that slowing down loading a search page by only 400ms caused people to do fewer searches. And the biggest reason I heard people say they switched to Chrome was that it was faster than other browsers (which was true for the first couple years after release).
    hyperhello · 1791163047 · focus · HN ↗
    [dead]
    nvme0n1p1 · 1791165404 · focus · HN ↗
    The less work something has to do, the faster it is, and the less things that can go wrong.
    Compare a simple light switch circuit vs a "smart" light switch that's slow because your smart hub talks to some AWS service. Or a native app vs an electron monstrosity that takes 10 seconds to load.
    So yes, I want my tools to be fast, because speed is correlated with simplicity and reliability.
    bitwize · 1791164424 · focus · HN ↗
    > Are you sure? A UI based on instant gratification? Seeing everything simply blink into place instantly might not be as fun as you think after the newness wears out.
    laughs in Amiga
  2. [deleted] · 1791162134 · focus · HN ↗
    [deleted]
  3. sakesun · 1791162157 · focus · HN ↗
    I guess you don't have the same opinion with your vehicle.
Onavo · 1791155054 · focus · HN ↗
How does it compare with
<a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42105869">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42105869
1. tech234a · 1791165023 · focus · HN ↗
  This one supports opening existing projects
truetraveller · 1791155666 · focus · HN ↗
Was this done with an LLM? Repo?
1. ranger_danger · 1791156721 · focus · HN ↗
  Their github account lists over 5,000 commits and 1,500 pull requests... just in the last 4 days.
  1. tech234a · 1791157592 · focus · HN ↗
    Yes, if you look at the developer's Twitter account they've shared a large number of projects in the past week, including in-browser recreations of Windows Vista, XP, 2000, ME, 98, 95, 3.1, Mac OS 9, Word, Excel, OneNote, Access, Visio, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Reader, a Git Client, a CAD program, a video editor, etc. <a href="https://x.com/wieslawsoltes" rel="nofollow">https://x.com/wieslawsoltes
    pan69 · 1791159885 · focus · HN ↗
    Looking through his work it seems that he has build a whole .net browser based ecosystem [1]. Pretty impressive its own right. However, for his showcase projects I was wondering how he'd prompt to guide these recreations, i.e. what is used as the input, I can't image that he'd describe every tiny detail...
    [1] <a href="https://wieslawsoltes.github.io/Home/ecosystem/" rel="nofollow">https://wieslawsoltes.github.io/Home/ecosystem/
    userbinator · 1791165378 · focus · HN ↗
    I was wondering how he'd prompt to guide these recreations, i.e. what is used as the input, I can't image that he'd describe every tiny detail...
    I thought the same way when I saw some impressive AI-generated videos not long ago, and I suspect the author prompted AI to get a basic idea, and then possibly after many iterations, finished it up with manual editing.
    krackers · 1791165529 · focus · HN ↗
    Author of this one shared the exact process <a href="https://x.com/anabology/status/2106473469441384788" rel="nofollow">https://x.com/anabology/status/2106473469441384788
    <a href="https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1aIbRs2f6sVpCxO4TGoBfBpaZXgHngphJ" rel="nofollow">https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1aIbRs2f6sVpCxO4TGoBf... (direction-log.md shows all the human provided input). It is far less than you'd think.
diavelguru · 1791156988 · focus · HN ↗
talk about a blast from the past!
broast · 1791157474 · focus · HN ↗
This is amazing
pcdoodle1 · 1791158097 · focus · HN ↗
Awesome! If only we could publish the programs as a PWA :)
1. brian_herman · 1791163287 · focus · HN ↗
  This would be awesome
2. WillAdams · 1791168270 · focus · HN ↗
  Thoughts on tools capable of that?
  - Xojo is a commercial tool which I believe does that (but with a price and license to match)
  - MoonBasic seems like a promising start
  - Gambas for folks using Linux?
  - For folks using the very affordable PureBasic there is the matching (also commercial, just about as affordable) SpiderBasic
  Naturally if one extends the search to other languages there are lots of options, but Lazarus with a .js Object Pascal compiler seems worth mentioning. For my part, I was swayed when flet.dev announced their v1.0 and so went the Python route....
imnotr0b0t · 1791159756 · focus · HN ↗
Wow, that's great. It brings back so many memories
egonschiele · 1791163902 · focus · HN ↗
This takes me back! Right clicking works too, this is awesome. I miss property tables, that was a nice UX. Flash had it too.
bitwize · 1791164408 · focus · HN ↗
OK, so I followed through to the author's GitHub page and the project's repository and...
no CLAUDE.md, no AGENTS.md, no SKILL.md, no .claude or .agents directories either.
Dare we dream? A project this ambitious, done without AI help? I'm getting that feeling like when I see a piece of really well done art come across my feed—and it was done entirely by a human!
1. drnick1 · 1791164857 · focus · HN ↗
  > no CLAUDE.md, no AGENTS.md, no SKILL.md, no .claude or .agents directories either.
  Untracked.
2. tech234a · 1791165110 · focus · HN ↗
  Unfortunately I have to point you at some of the other comments here: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49958929">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49958929
Kuyawa · 1791165361 · focus · HN ↗
Oooh beautiful! Visual Foxpro was the same, only the language changed but their screen designers were almost identical
dkga · 1791165560 · focus · HN ↗
My first <del>love</del>IDE…
Dwedit · 1791165790 · focus · HN ↗
Best part of VB5 was that when you hit F1, you instantly got help for whatever was under the cursor. VB6 changed it to use some much slower MSDN help system instead.
1. sssilver · 1791168027 · focus · HN ↗
  This was also the best part of QBASIC.
  It was just wonderful. I owe so much to that thoughtful feature as a child.
  I wish I could meet the person who decided that. You’ve changed my life.
2. nurettin · 1791178191 · focus · HN ↗
  It was the best part of turbo pascal as well. Before IDEs decided to hide information.
964279964377 · 1791166026 · focus · HN ↗
[dead]
Narishma · 1791167217 · focus · HN ↗
These kinds of browser recreations of old native apps always fails at text rendering.
1. functionmouse · 1791168242 · focus · HN ↗
  LLMs lack taste
2. nullpoint420 · 1791169942 · focus · HN ↗
  What's wrong with it? Sure it's way more higher quality but the layout seems... fine?
wiradikusuma · 1791170264 · focus · HN ↗
Debugging and IntelliSense don't work, and the deliverable isn't a .exe but an .html (though it works). Wondering if it can access ODBC lol.
vjvjvjvjghv · 1791170283 · focus · HN ↗
[delayed]
1. 2001zhaozhao · 1791178765 · focus · HN ↗
  For what it's worth, I'm thinking of some version of this for my upcoming game's modding tools, although the backend processing will be on a web server unlike this demo, and there is much more of an AI agent focus.
JodieBenitez · 1791175709 · focus · HN ↗
Damn... brings back memories...
qxxx · 1791177782 · focus · HN ↗
really cool! brings the memories back.. I used to create few shareware products back then with VB3 - VB6.
karlkloss · 1791178690 · focus · HN ↗
3 - 3.01 = -0.009999999999999
That brings me back.
waldrews · 1791178912 · focus · HN ↗
The property grid control is still the greatest general purpose UI of all time. Define your classes with some attributes and it just works. It was all downhill from there with web and mobile.
webprofusion · 1791179609 · focus · HN ↗
Looks great! However using an active trademark from a mega corp seems like risky move even for a fun project.
_blk · 1791180136 · focus · HN ↗
Uhoh, that'll bring back 1-based array indices

Open on Hacker News to reply ↗

Unofficial Hacker News client; not affiliated with Y Combinator.