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I've been spoiled by Visual studio 2008 and Eclipse and have to do a little maintainence work on a VB6 app.
Does anyone know of an alternative/ updated IDE for VB6?
A rewrite is not an option I'm just fixing a couple of bugs and it's a big codebase.
I have never heard of an alternative IDE for Vb6. However, these two (free) VB6 add-ins are indispensable and will make your life easier - especially if there is a lot of code. They are equally effective for VBA in Microsoft Office.
MZ-Tools: provides a superb collection of IDE tools - finding unused variables, unused methods, a great "search all", code snippets. Written by Carlos J. Quintero, to whom I now owe hours and hours of time.
http://www.mztools.com/v3/mztools3.aspx
And SmartIndenter, which takes care of all the auto-indenting. It does one thing and it does it well.
http://www.oaltd.co.uk/Indenter/Default.htm
Some time ago I did some research and nothing came up. I don't believe you have have any real alternatives...
But you could consider checking this out:
http://www.axtools.com/products/cs2k3vb_screenshots.htm
It looks quite promising.
Addin for Visual Basic 6.0 packing more than 50 professional tools and
assistants. The Code View Assistant
enriches the standard VB6 code editor
with branch lines for conditional
statements, end-of-line details, and
hotspots. Moreover, the Code Analyzer
pinpoints dead and slow code, the
SmartComplete and AutoText tools help
you write code with a proficiency you
never dreamed of, while the Enhanced
Project Explorer with expanding code
and Code Flow View can make accessing
a code location the speedy action you
always needed. Other tools: Extended
Find, Find References, Designer
Explorer, Code Formatter, TabOrder
Designer (with auto-order), HotKey
Designer, Error Handlers Inserter,
Exception Protection, Spelling
Checker, Strings Reviewer, Comments
Conformity Checker, Task List Manager,
Code Snippets Manager, Naming
Standards Manager.Version 2007 adds
Designer Analyzer, User Interface
Standard Properties Manager, Library
Explorer including Designer Snippets,
many enhancements in most subsystems.
Because the VB6 IDE does not detect file changes made outside of the IDE, it can be quite difficult to develop code outside of the VB6 IDE, without running the risk of loosing code changes.
But it is possible to run a VB6 project build from the command line so it is possible to do simple VB development using any text editor/IDE capable of running a command an capture it's output.
But for things like GUI changes and debugging there is really no choice but to revert back to the VB6 IDE.
Here is the commands needed to run the build from the DOS prompt:
set PATH="d:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\VB98\";%PATH%
vb6.exe /out ErrorFile.txt /make MyProject.vbp
FWIW the Zeus IDE has the ability to import a VB Project file and display the project details into project/workspace tree. It will also run the build an capture the output.
Visual Basic Tools For Visual Studio lets you open vb6 project in visual studio 2012/2013, with basic outlining, syntax coloring, and a few more things.
Its a work in progress, but if like me you have some living dead vb6 programs to maintain, it's... intriguing.
Except there's no GUI editor, no debugging. I fear these points (especially debugging) are deal breakers. (Of course, I understand that not everything is possible).
Yeah, no alternative IDEs to VB6 afaik. But one indispensable add-in I used was CodeHelp. It gives you tabs! for the windows, easy tab ordering, fullscreen switcher and maybe a mousewheel add-in. Check it out from the Planet Source Code page. And be sure to check the comments for a download to a setup file as I had problems with the source code and the author's site.
CodeHelp Add-In 2.2 Amazing VB6 plugin to help organize and coding.
http://www.planetsourcecode.com/vb/scripts/ShowCode.asp?txtCodeId=62468&lngWId=1
I used Visual Assist X while programming in VB6. It's a code coloring add-in.
A must have, once you got used to VS2005+
I don't know if VB6 is still supported in current version, so you should take a look and see for yourself (and perhaps get an older version)
DoyleSoft BASIC alternative visual basic
jabaco compiler too-
Related
One of my customers asked us to develop a "VBA macro". However, in the 2010s, it seems weird to me to still use such outdated language, and I'm thinking about trying to convince the customer to use VSTO dev instead. However, as I'm new to both worlds, I need help to fill a pro/cons page to be able to argue this.
Of course, the answer can't come without the actual requirement, let me try to resume:
Target : Word 2003/2007 (but I'm suspecting 2010 as a not yet known requirement) edit 2010 requirement confirmed
An external publishing system requires .doc file as input. The .doc file must have some specific styles applied : "Custom Header 1", "Custom header 2", etc.
The user can build documents, using Word, using two possible ways:
Start the new document using a .dot file deployed on the computer
Transform any existing document to match the target template
Users can "apply" the styles "simply" (simple UI): context menu, styles menu, custom action pane, etc.
By now, I see the following pro/cons:
VBA
Pros:
?
quick and dirty development (quick part of the sentence)
The customer has already some in production macro
Cons:
hard to find skilled developer
quick and dirty development (dirty part of the sentence)
VSTO
Pros:
benefits of the .Net language (compiled, typed, rigorous, class library, etc.)
security model more flexible and powerful (trusting code signed with a trusted authority)
bridge to WPF panes possible
You work in Visual Studio and have access to its full set of features: refactoring, source control, etc.
Cons:
requires installation of the .Net framework (probably not an issue today) and VSTO runtime
harder to deploy
slightly more work at the start (but less in long term)
I am not familiar enough to .NET but here is my humble opinion about VBA:
VBA
Pros :
easy to deploy and to make it work with the Office apps
quick and dirty development (quick part of the sentence) - agreed
Cons :
hard to find skilled developer
hard to select a skilled developer and explain your customer he needs to invest in this skill
quick and dirty development (dirty part of the sentence) - partial agreement. It will be dirty if:
you give the project to a VBA beginner and don't frame him/her
your project gets too big in terms of requirements
requires to have the .Net framework installed (probably not an issue today) I don't think so (maybe a CONS of VSTO?)
I would say that if you only want to have some code or add-in to merge some syles, you could easily do it with VBA and it won't be dirty (unless you really want it to).
I'm answering myself to the question, as the project is finished.
I finally decided to write the application using a VBA macro. Here is the post-mortem conclusion of this choice :
Pros:
The team that will maintains the application has no C# knowledge, only VBA (main reason of my choice).
Poor security model : it's a pro because there is no other setup that putting the files in the right place.
No runtime prerequisites
Cons:
The deployment was supposed to be simple.
I was counting of the possibility to play with Word options "User-template directory" and "Startup template directory". But it wasn't possible, because the app is not related to a specific entity in the customer organisation. I wasn't allowed to "take ownership" of this settings for this application.
I ended in writing a custom NSIS script to deploy the application on the correct folders. With VSTO, a simple setup project (clickonce?) would have done the job.
The language is so prehistoric ! Collections index starts to 1, array to 0, no OOP, poor out-of-the box language and library feature. That is not always a problem, but in my case, modeling the business rule was a bit painful (representing hierarchical data in a tree was not an easy job)
Very limited integration with source control (code, as it's embeded in the .dot files, was not historisable. Only the full .dot was)
Error management very limited with VBA
Poor IDE
Remark:
As an experienced C# developer, the pros/cons may be partial a bit.
I am a heavy Excel VBA developer.
VBA pro:
One of the major hurdles for me switching over to VSTO from VBA - and believe me, I love C# coding - is that there's no debug-on-the-fly which my userbase has got used to. I often jump straight into a VBA problem on the user's PC as it is happening, but with VSTO, that's not possible. (Unless someone can correct me.)
If your users have no such expectations this might be something you can easily live without.
VBA con:
VBA is one of the those languages that are easy to play with and thus easy to make a mess with. It doesn't enforce "clean coding" principles which means while decent programmers can make great applications with them, VBA can become associated with hackjobs and sprawling, organic code due to its low bar of entry. VBA developers are often considered a lower class of developer for this reason, when really there is a failure to distinguish between those that use it wisely and those that don't.
I doubt anyone chooses VBA as their career language of choice, it just sort of happens to them. Aside from being hard to find skilled developers, too much VBA work might turn away potential hires as they don't want to be associated with the "quagmire of another unmanaged VBA sprawl". Some people take use of VBA as a statement about how "serious" you are about technology.
(I tend to see Perl in the same light; great for short scripts but when someone used to using for scripting starts to use for a larger piece of work - you tend to get something that's a bit unwieldy.)
In this article I tried to summarize similar questions, in the context of Excel. Same arguments apply for all of the Office applications including word.
According to my observations :
VSTO :
CONS : that if we have developed Addins ribbons control for word 2007, we can only deploy with word 2007, but we can not deploy with word 2010 or word 2013.
This is major drawback for me to develop Addins for word and excel for all its versions like 2007, 2010 and 2013. plz correct me if am wrong or suggest me how could I develop Single Addins for all office version.
Does anyone know if the code editor used by VSTO IDE is available to use in my own projects?
I need to use a code editor in my project. I Googled to try to find one, but I found several third party solutions (pay or free) but they don't fit my needs.
In same way as Webbrowser control, is the "sourcecodeeditor" control of VSTO available to use as a project component?
In same way as Webbrowser control, is the "sourcecodeeditor" control of VSTO available to use as a project component?
[. . .]
Exists the class "MSVSTOSourceCodeEditor"? This is the question. Thanks
Unfortunately, no. Microsoft doesn't allow you to subclass its source code editor, nor do they provide a version for use in your own projects. As I mentioned before, they don't really want to encourage you to rewrite Visual Studio. They'd prefer that you bought it instead!
Have you considered creating a plug-in or extension for Visual Studio instead? It's a little bit different way of going about it, but it just might work for you. Your developers might find it more convenient since they won't have to switch back and forth between two programs.
If you're really set on rolling your own custom solution, probably the best thing to do is check the source code for some of the open-source, Visual Studio-style IDEs, and see how they've written the code editor:
MonoDevelop
SharpDevelop
KDevelop
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Is there anybody using Fortran on stackoverflow? What IDE do you use and which one do you think to be the best?
Seems lots of people surround me are quite inconvenient with Intel Visual Fortran. Because there is no support for intellisense, refactoring, etc.
What about these ones:
Photran - An Integrated Development Environment and Refactoring Tool for Fortran (this one is everything you need :D)
Oracle Solaris Studio Advanced C, C++ and Fortran development platform
Well, as others already mentioned you could use instead of an IDE a separate text editor. Several come to mind;
VIM (or one of the family) - great editing capabilities, very customizable. Unfortunatelly, it is still an editor
not an IDE. It can be customized in a variety of ways of course, but that gets boring after a while. Also, it's syntax highlighting capabilities are somewhat wrongly made. Also has some problems/confusions with free/fixed format and f77/f90/f95 ...
Emacs - pretty much same advantages/shortcomings as the above.
SlickEdit - has very nice fortran support; unfortunatelly, modifying it is a little annoying and the support forums are not much help.
In general, editors like the above mentioned can be used, but in that case it is best to choose one from the start and stick to it; modifying your work habits as you go; since customizing everything can be time consuming to suit your needs.
Most editors have problems with fortran's syntax, since they're used to C's (where everything that "opens" has a "close").
As far as IDE's goes, your options are not that great:
Silverfrost's compiler used to come with it's own IDE (Plato, if I do remember correctly; it's been a while) - don't know what happened to it, and whether it still is "alive"
Absoft has one of it's own as well (never used it so ...)
There was a specialized fortran editor I once encountered; ya...something; unfortunatelly I cannot remember it's name; maybe someone else will know
One of the best options (which I used to use myself, so I may be biased) is Visual Studio + Resharper, which will add a few editing features to VS's editor. Most of them can also be accomplished with macros.
This post could use some editing but it is written in a hurry, so ...
Geany is nice too. I use it for my small projects in Fortran. Works pretty good too.
http://www.geany.org/
I've never used it, but according to the documentation, the NetBeans C/C++ plugin also adds support for Fortran. I use NetBeans as my IDE for everything except .NET development and love it. If Fortran support is half as good as support for C, C++, Java, Python, Ruby, and PHP, then it is worth looking at.
Many Fortran developers use text editors plus some build automation tool like CMake or SCons. Partially because of lack of well-featured IDE.
However there are some projects. I've tried Photran, Fortran IDE for Eclipse. It has limited support for autocomplete and refactoring.
Also take a look at Code::Blocks IDE for Fortran. I do not like Code::Blocks...
We use an in-house extension to visual studio to get code completion for our fortran code and to assist us with debugging. But even so there is a lot of room for improvement. Our main issues are:
instability of visual studio. An error in the debugged program can crash VS.
sometimes VS shows corrupted stacktraces (while WinDBG shows it correctly).
debugger wont show values of variables of type CHARACTER(LEN=:), ALLOCATABLE
Edit and Continue not supported
We used Sun workshop and it was very good, but there is no windows version.
jedit has a nice fortran mode and you can define keybindings for the compiler and debugger.
for small to medium sized projects it is quite nice. it also has svn and multiple files search. also very nice is hypersearch where you get a list of you matches and you can go to the position with a single click. another goodie is a plugin for gdb and for ctags. you can very easily script all functions using jython. it feels a little bit like a modern version of emacs that uses python instead of lisp. check out the plugin manager. it lets you download all the plugins from the server and installs them for you (like in eclipse).
http://www.jedit.org
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Is there a good IDE to work with VHDL projects ?
Or are most of the professionals working with emacs/vim/notepad++ ?
I use Emacs+VHDL-mode which is great if you don't mind (or have already climbed) the learning curve of Emacs.
Alternatively, you could try Sigasi-HDT which is Eclipse-based and has more GUI. And some more powerful refactoring tools by the look of it.
I have been using Sigasi HDT since it was released in january (I think) and am very pleased with it so far. Previously I used Vim for all my editing (C or VHDL), but since I switched to Sigasi I have not looked back. The Eclipse based plugin is much more than just syntax highlighting. The auto-completion of components and entities is a real time-saver and you avoid a lot of errors. You can download a free trial from their website (http://www.sigasi.com) and I encourage you to give it a try with grlib (http://www.gaisler.com) to see the real power of the plugin.
Maybe Xilinx ISE or Altera Quartus.
I once tried - at least I wanted to try - Altera Quartus, but I soon switched to a normal editor and took GHDL for simulation.
But I am no professional, so I suppose they are using some of the former two products.
Engineers in large semiconductor companies are using emacs/vim for code editing.
Integrated Development Environment doesn't make much sense there, since a project is a few thousand HDL files taken from different places on a *NIX network, setup scripts for a dozen different tools, and cron jobs to do frequent builds.
For simpler FPGA projects developed on Windows I've seen people using Borland CodeWright, UltraEdit, and Crimson Editor.
I've been using Notepad++ along with the free vendor tools to edit my VHDL on Windows.
My best bet is to use VIM to do whatever i need to for VHDL formatting. VIM has an extremely powerful facility to develop custom plugins, and no amount of IDE hopping will give you all the customization you would ever need.
Things like signal names < 20 characters, procedure lengths < 100 lines, no use of linkage ports -- all of these can be coded in VIM with minimal effort. You could actually run vcom or ncvhdl from within VIM and then see where the errors are.
Having said all this, you might want to take a look at what Sigasi has to offer. If you need more help on this, let me know -- it'd be fun coding a VIM plugin.
Emacs + VHDL mode + a compiler / simulator + source control.
The VHDL mode is configured to use the compiler to compile the design and optionally run the simulation.
Emacs can link with the source control to correctly check in, diff and tag.
I personally like this set up because the editor is open source and I can use it anywhere (Mac, Linux, Windows). The compiler / simulator can be anything from a free download (FPGA vendor sponsored Modelsim or GHDL) to a grid engine. Once set up, it pretty much becomes invisible.
Simplifide also has an eclipse plugin which supports VHDL, Verilog and SystemVerilog which contains all of the standard IDE features and more.
It can be downloaded at http://simplifide.com
I'm just using Scite, like for most other coding.
Some things in Scite make my VHDL coding pleasant:
Coloring is easy to set up. Either download a ready .properties file or modify the Ada mode.
Scite has a snippets plugin that's very useful for VHDL. All those boring process and architecture definitions are generated automatically for me with a couple of key-presses.
Scite is easy to customize with external scripts: I have scripts for compiling the current file, for fixing indentation, for listing all processes and so on, the possibilities are limitless.
Besides the big ones Sigasi and Simplifide there is also ZamiaCad a free VHDL IDE: http://zamiacad.sourceforge.net/web/
It depends on the kind of project you are developing. Modelsim provides a good IDE but the code editor lacks the advanced features we are accustomed to use. I use VIM to write the code, and Modelsim to simulate, debug etc...
There's another VHDL-IDE, it's a plug-in for Visual Studio, but as far as I could see, it is also available as standalone version (ie, you don't need a Visual Studio license). It seems relatively new, but so far I really like it.
http://www.vide-software.at
I switched to use Vim because it has a very large list of plugins for almost any language (I believe Emacs do also). You might not get the best VHDL IDE ever with it, but you get a familiar interface for every code and non-code you must edit. Plus, as you move between companies, you can take your environment with you.
For the ones using Vim, check vim-hdl. It's a plugin I'm working on that provides syntax checking based on simulators/compilers. I'm using daily with ModelSim and so far works nice.
Emacs with the appropriate language mode is my vote. Basic editing is easy enough to learn and there are a lot of example config files out there.
Kevin.
I'm using Xilinx ISE for educational purposes, it works really well. And it has everything. After applying for a student license, the student version it free to use, but it takes up a lot of space. The installation file alone is more than 6 gb. The book we use for school is referring to xilinx special properties. (“FGPA Prototyping by VHDL Examples”). I'm also programming on a nexsys 3 spartan 6 testboard, and I'll be using xilinx for another year, but when I finish the course I’m gonna look for something smaller. Happy to read about the lightweight alternatives.
Does anyone know of an alternative IDE for Sybase Powerbuilder? It feels pretty clunky, after working with VS2008 and Eclipse.
If not, has anyone successfully worked with this language outside the IDE? I'm not against using a simple text editor, but I find edit-import-regenerate-test-export-edit is clunkier than simply using the Powerbuilder editor.
To date, the only tools I have had any success with are:
PowerGen, for builds (with NUnit and CruiseControl.NET)
ConTEXT, which has syntax highlighting for Powerbuilder
PBL Peeper, which has some interesting features not present in the IDE
EDIT: I added a bounty to draw some wider attention to the question. It would be a very nice thing to have, if it exists.
EDIT: Well that was disappointing. The bounty apparently did not cause even 1 new person to look at the question.
None that I'm aware of, although you could probably use a source control tool, edit in your source control repository, and Get Latest Version from the PB IDE to shorten your text editor cycle. Be warned that there are hacks required to edit anything over 128 ASCII. (My guess is that this is to allow everything Unicode to be source controlled in the most restrictive source control tools.)
As Paul said, PB12 is coming with based on the Visual Studio shell, and will include things like collapsible code blocks, Intellisense, etc.... However, for PB12, this will only be used for WPF targets and a few .NET-type targets (like assemblies), last I heard. Win32 targets will continue to use the "classic" IDE.
Good luck,
Terry.
P.S. Thanks for the PBL Peeper compliment.
The PowerBuilder IDE is clunky, but I don't think developing completely outside the PowerBuilder IDE is a good idea. I think there are just too many dependencies right now.
However, the IDE for PowerBuilder 12 will be built using Microsoft's Visual Studio Isolated Shell so it ought to be much better when that is released. Also, I believe they'll be doing away with the PBL format which ought to make source control much easier to work with.
Certainly something to watch.
What I do is right-click the object and edit source. Then I copy the text and paste it into Notepad++ to edit. I copy and paste back to PowerBuilder, then I can save and see any errors. I've got a fairly decent User Defined Language for PowerScript if anyone's interested.
Added:
Please be aware that I've seen the PB Source editor corrupt DataWindows. They were all large DataWindows. To be safe always export DataWindows to edit.
One tool that will most probably make your PB experience way better is Visual Expert, which provides a good source browser. Such a tool should have been integrated into the PB IDE a long time ago, IMHO. Only problem is that it's not free, as opposed to the other tools you mention.
Regarding using external source editors, you can probably take advantage of OrcaScript, which is a scripting language that lets you perform actions such as export and import of PB objects from outside of the IDE. It will require some effort, but you can setup a basic dev env using batch files with ORCA scripts and some additional external tools. However, this setup will lack any visual editing capabilities, which means no (feasible) GUI or DW work. If you're mostly into NVOs, it could work. But then if that's the case, why use PB in the first place?...
I too have heard PB12's use of VS will be limited to some .NET stuff, which will probably benefit only a very small portion of the PB programmers community. I'm afraid the rest of us are stuck with the awful IDE for years to come.
Other than exporting the source and editing it I don't know of another IDE for PB. One problem you may have is that the exported source contains a lot of syntax that is not documented in the manuals. The PB IDE generates this code but there is no support for creating it by hand. I think you are stuck with the PB IDE
In my modest five Years of experiences starting with Powerbuilder 5/6, now using PB 10, I tempt to :
build my own browser from the classdefinition object based on Powerbuilder
tried to use autohotkey in order to open datawindows comfortable (we have several thousands in the project and i am two-finger-driven)
truly investigated in the idea using an external editor/IDE suppoted by an autohotkey script which is undermined by sybase allowing only mouse-click-usage of PB
using Visual Expert which is neither a truly integration in the IDE, nor is really worth in analyzing datwindow/powerscript interaction
ending by build hopes on PB12 Visual Studio, which lacks - depending on compatibility issues - ...
... i came to the conclusion that there will be no chance in improving Powerbuilder to an state-of-the-art language
In my philosophy - I obtained during those years - I distinguish between two types of OOP-oriented languages:
the one that award using object-orientation like C#, Python, Ruby (C++) etc. and very much the Java-Eclipse/Netbeans-Universe does
the other one that punish using object-orientation like Powerbuilder and the old Visual Basic, for example (which is causative the OOP-Idea comes afterwards and is "plugged in").
Especially the demand that all object should always be compiled (regenerated) and that you could't work with ancestors and descandants concurrently makes it painful to use real OOP.
...In memory of the good old Unix(Solaris)/C++ days...
I was researching a replacement solution that would be similar to PowerBuilder and I came across two that caught my eye.
The first was 'React Studio' https://reactstudio.com/ which I found via Alternativeto.net .
And the second was from an ad at the top of some Google searches but it was similar enough and looked good enough at first glance for me to want to take a closer look at it, and it's called 'Servoy' https://servoy.com/ .
Still researching but I currently have React Studio at the top of our list.
The TextPad editor has a syntax definition file for PowerBuilder 6.x contributed by anr#aon.at that I downloaded for free and customized several years ago. It works fine for later versions (including 8), doing keyword color highlighting on PowerScript srx files. Editing large source files in PB could get it to crash so it's usually safer, faster and more convenient to export to srx file, edit outside the IDE then re-import.