Is it possible to use Netbeans for working on VB6 projects?

Question

I have to work on several VB6 legacy projects and despite some good VB6 plugins (CodeSMART for example) I hate the IDE more an more, especially now where I have the opportunity to work with Java/Netbeans on a new project. Unfortunatly it will stay that way at least the next few years.

So I'm asking myself: Can the Netbeans IDE be extended via plugins to support VB6 projects?

This is what I dream of:

• Better code navigation (Ctrl+Click for example)
• Better code highlighting
• Code folding
• Simple refactoring
• Organizing the source files in a hierarchy
• My own VB6 specific warnings ("Missing option explicit for example")
• Code generators (like in Java for getters and setters)
• Integrated debugging (But I assume this is virtually impossible)
• Auto-formatting of code

Can it be done? Has someone experience with Netbeans and a custom language? What's the best way to start?

EDIT: I want to do this myself as I'm aware that this is a highly specialized feature request :)

Answer 1

No. Netbeans is primarily a Java IDE. Although it supports a lot of languages besides Java, there is no much interested for VB6 in the Java community.

Answer 2

What IDE are you using for your VB6 projects currently? My memory is a little foggy, as it was a long time ago, but I remember Visual Studio being pretty good, especially for its time. That being said, I don't know how successful you would be tacking on VB6 support for Eclipse. Certainly it could be done, but I don't really think you would get features that are that much more rich than what VS already gives you. At least not rich enough that it would be worth developing the functionality.

Answer 3

I did a quick search to see if there is an available plugin to support Visual Basic on Netbeans, but was not able to find any.

As you've mentioned that you are willing to write VB support for Netbeans, you may want to take a look at Schliemann - Easy Integration of Scripting Languages in NetBeans IDE 6.0. This article provides information on how langauge support works in Netbeans 6 along with a how-to on adding new languages.

You may also want to check out the General Scripting Framework, which is used to provide support for Ruby, HTML, CSS and JavaScript. The advantage over Project Schliemann is that it will allow compilation of new languages as well, however, the downside is that you will have to provide the lexer and parser for the new language to support.

Here are some additional some resources which may come handy on your quest:

• Contributing Modules - First, check to be sure that there are no other plugins that will suite your needs.
• NetBeans Plugin Quick Start - Introduction to adding features to the IDE.
• Generic Languages Framework (Project Schliemann) - This information may be outdated as it references the current version of Netbeans as a "future" version.
• languages.netbeans.org - This site is listed as the official page for Project Schliemann.

Good luck!

Answer 4

I think you are out of luck however take a look at this question the answers might make your life slightly easier...

Answer 5

There are several problems with IDEs supporting VB6 because of unique setup that it uses for compiling and debugging. Unlike Java, or C/C++ there everything in VB6 is proprietary and largely accessible only through the add-in api of the current IDE.

As a VBx programmer since it's initial release, the key to maintaining and using VB6 is learning how to code and debug while the software is running in debug mode. VB6 strength continues to be that you can dynamically add or change code while running and immediately test the results. Most of my time is spent in the debug mode because of the power of this feature.

It is a different experience and methodology than other languages and IDEs. A lot of because what VB 1.0 was one of the first to have the features it did.

Not to say having a lot of those feature would be nice. Using VB6 after using VB.NET 2008 IDE shows the age of VB6 really quick. However since you have to deal with those legacy project you can only do what the tools allow you to do.