r/visualbasic • u/mika • Jul 10 '26
VB6 Editor Modernizer addin
Hey people, I still need to work in VB6 now and then and I got frustrated with the editor being so old fashioned. I missed a lot of the functionality from the newer Visual Studios.
Anyway I used Claude Fable to create an addon for VB6 to update and modernize the editor with some nice new features like a much nicer find and replace and text highlighter, text manipulation shortcuts like moving lines up and down, commenting blocks, some light git integration, etc...
Anyway, I know there's not many of us that have to actually still work in VB6, but if you're one of us you might like this.
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u/Beneficial-Citron-56 Jul 10 '26
Says connect.dsr not present, even though file is there.
If I add it manually, and run, it says "No creatable Public Component detected.
Am I doing something wrong?
Could you check the project? Looks interesting.
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u/mika Jul 10 '26
hmm weird - did you try compile the project or just register the dll?
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u/Beneficial-Citron-56 Jul 10 '26
Compile.
Extracted to folder from zip file, and ran the project file.2
u/mika Jul 10 '26
Could it be a different version of VB6? I use Visual Basic 6 Enterprise Edition SP6
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u/Beneficial-Citron-56 Jul 10 '26
Yeah, Visual Basic 6 Enterprise Edition SP6 too.
Weird. Will play some more and see what I can find. My lack of knowledge is a problem :)3
u/mika Jul 10 '26
No stress - could you maybe make an issue on the repo and maybe add a screenshot or the exact text of the error you're getting.
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u/Beneficial-Citron-56 Jul 10 '26
Will do as soon as I get a gap :)
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u/mika Jul 10 '26 edited Jul 10 '26
I asked claude and his/it's guess is that the zip you download has changed the line endings of the text files to LF (linux) instead of CRLF (windows) so VB6 is then not loading the files properly. It would probably be better to use git to clone the repo instead of downloading the zip.
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u/drahthaar Jul 11 '26
I can confirm that is was indeed (part of) the problem. Although I use MZ tools for a lot of the functionality you have included I wanted to try your add-in and also had a problem with the connect.dsr.
The problem was indeed the line endings in Connect.dsr AND the project file (vbp), plus the fact that I am running VB6 in a windows 7 32bit VM so I also had to manually edit the references in the vbp file to match the paths to system32 (not sysWOW) and to the correct Program Files\ (not (x86)).
I especially liked the tabbed windows functionality though. Excellent piece of work.
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u/Beneficial-Citron-56 Jul 12 '26
Thanks for the info. Will try fix that too. Also use MZ Tools,but wanted to try this.
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u/Super13 Jul 10 '26
Thats awesome, thankyou. I don't know anything about it, but do you think there'd be a way to search the file list on the right by filename or module name? I'd so love that. We have 100ish and it can take time to scroll up and down to find one.
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u/mika Jul 10 '26
Currently there is a code browser list where you can search for subs and functions in the whole project, but I suppose a quick-open file search could also be added...
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u/mika Jul 10 '26
I've done a ver 3 and added quick-open functionality - just press CTRL-P and it will pop up a dialog where you can filter filename - and I tried to make it clever like VS Code - you can use single letters to match long filenames - like FM will match frmFileManager.frm, etc...
Check it out at https://github.com/mika76/vb6-modernizr#discoverability
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u/Super13 Jul 10 '26
Oh damn, you're a legend :) I'm away right now but will check this out in a week when back.
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u/createaforum Jul 10 '26
Very cool project and idea! I thought about maybe a new IDE just linking VB's compiler but would have to figure how to do play button to test applications before fully compiling.
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u/mika Jul 10 '26
it would be quite a project which is probably why people haven't done it quite like that. There are 2 projects I'm aware of where they are rewriting the whole thing including the compiler and the IDE: Twin basic and RAD basic.
My idea was just to have an addin improve my experience while using the good old VB6 editor. I also did not want to use external dependencies so as to keep it "simple".
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u/createaforum Jul 10 '26
True, I am aware of those.
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u/mika Jul 10 '26
Having said that - AI is absolutely amazing now and could help you our a lot - maybe you should try it out...
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u/createaforum Jul 10 '26
Oh I have a lot, mainly in the decompiling side of VB6 etc for source code recovery. And bringing back old ideas/project back to life finally.
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u/testednation Jul 10 '26
Pretty cool! And don't feel bad, it works better then the Microslop! Is it possible to make look as pretty as winUI 3?
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u/mika Jul 10 '26
I didn't really want to change the look so much as to just add functionality that I felt was missing. So kept it simple with no external dependencies and fully built in VB6 itself.
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u/fafalone VB 6 Master Jul 11 '26
On the more cosmetic side check out https://www.vbforums.com/showthread.php?885973-RESOLVED-ModernVB-Modernize-your-VB6-IDE-Now-released-publicly-for-testing!
Perhaps could be combined with this for both looks and functionality?
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u/Mayayana Jul 12 '26
It's funny how much keyboard shortcuts have come back in style. I generally have no use for them, except in emergencies, so none of that is relevant for me. Tabs? Why? It's an MDI window and it's easy to switch from the right-side treeview. With 16/10 or 16/9 ratio monitors, horizontal space makes far more sense to sacrifice than vertical space. Again, tabs are a fad that have some value but are overused.
Find/Replace -- I can't say that I find the existing system problematic.
Github tie-in -- No, thanks!
Line numbers? That might be handy.
Commenting blocks? That's already there on the toolbar. Select, then click that little icon with the green and black lines. What could be easier?
It sounds like you've made something to get exactly the editor that you want for yourself. That's good. But I'm not sure it translates. I generally don't have any complaints with the VB6 IDE. The only thing I can think of that I might like is object browser staying on top.
But I sympathize with your motives. I wrote my own editor years ago for script and web design, gradually putting in every convenience I wanted. It's not for everyone, but it's perfect for me. (Though I did make some concessions. For instance, while I never use hotkeys, it was fairly easy to design it so that people could set their own hotkeys for common operations.)
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u/mika Jul 12 '26
Yeah my main problem is that I've gotten pretty used to modern IDE's and editors (visual studio / vscode / sublime text / zed / etc...) and I missed the functionality. I work in Vb6 but rarely these days so coming back in is a chore. I did add a toolbar in the last version but yeah I've gotten used to shortcuts myself.
But yeah this definitely started as a personal project and I'm just sharing for people who feel the same. I was also trying out Claude Fable and wanted to see what it could do in an older language. Seems a lot. 😊
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u/mladenmacanovic Jul 10 '26 edited Jul 10 '26
Oh man, I loved the Visual Studio 6 IDE. The last IDE that was lightning-fast.
*fixed typos