Easier than Visual Basic 6?

Question

Some years ago I used to program in VB6, I really liked it because it was very simply and fast, when VB.net came out, I abandoned it because they changed a lot of things. I wonder if after all this years there's a new language or IDE that helps programming in an easier and faster way than VB6. I'm not very interested in academic/personal issues like, very high performance, great movility through OSs, open source, etc. I would like to know if there's is something to program small and medium desktop apps. in an very easy and fast way.

Excuse me if my english isn't very clear.

Edit answering Nicholas: Well, I must admit that I didn't try VB.Net too much, I was a little disappointed because I would had to learn a lot of new things and I've had learned VB6 not so long before (in that moment).

Answer 1

One of the easiest languages to learn and use is Python.

Answer 2

I always felt Microsoft Access was far and away the best for this kind of requirement.

edit - I realize this isn't a politically correct answer. But the total package of a built in DB, a great GUI development package, a great report generator (far superior to crystal reports, for example), the easy development of tables and queries, all put in one friendly package, make it nearly trivial to develop with. For rapid development, it's the best I've used.

FWIW, I do Java, C++, C, VB4/6, ASP, JSP, Perl, PHP, CSS/ DHTML, JavaScript, Pascal, Fortran, Kenemy and Kurtz Basic, BAL, unix shell scripting, Oracle, mySql, RPG III, COBOL, some proprietary stuff, various macros, various distributed technology, Job control language, CPL, etc. etc. I got out of developing in Access because of scalability limitations.

Answer 3

VB.Net is the natural progression of VB6, and has a lot of free tools and resources online to get started. Microsoft even provides a free development environment as well as a free database for development/bundling in your applications.

Check out this website for information and download links on all the free Microsoft software.

Also, you said you tried VB.Net and didn't like it-- I'd be curious to know why? Yes, there's a little learning curve, but the abundance of getting started information on the internet surely can help that. I was a bit overwhelmed by .NET at first (particularly ASP.Net) not seeing the value in switching/learning a new language.

Answer 4

Microsoft has a new dialect of BASIC called Small Basic. From the website:

Small Basic is ... a small and easy to learn programming language in a friendly and inviting development environment, Small Basic makes programming a breeze. ...

Small Basic derives its inspiration from the original BASIC programming language, and is based on the Microsoft .NET platform. It is really small with just 15 keywords ...

The Small Basic development environment ...provides powerful modern environment features like Intellisense™ ...

Answer 5

Python or Ruby.

Dynamic languages has a number of advantages (and disadvantages) but for what you propose they seem perfect. I would recommend python or ruby bindings of a high level toolkit as a perfect environment. For instance Qt library gives most functionality you would need and dynamic languages let you easy experimentation

Answer 6

Perhaps Clarion is what you're looking for? Personally, I don't have much experience with it, but you can build some nice apps with virtually no coding skills.

Answer 7

Powerbasic may be to your liking -

http://www.powerbasic.com/

Answer 8

You could try FreeBASIC.
It's syntax is very similar to that of VB and it is an actively worked on open-source project, it is also portable across different platforms.

You can grab a download here and there are several exemplary works that can be found here.

Answer 9

If it already wasn't done I'd recommend python. It's one of the easiest languages to learn.

My first language was Pascal and I think it's also one of the easiest languages and with Delphi getting popular again I think it's a very good alternative to VB6.

I've always found Delphi to be easier than VB despite popular belief.

Answer 10

take a look at Lua

• very small core language, the whole documentation is a single (very readable) webpage. you can easily learn the basics in a weekend.
• very good (small) books with good tips.
• very helpful community.
• very fast, both with the standard bytecode VM, and the JIT.
• used a lot in games, both because it's fast and easy to embed in the application, and because it's easy to explain to players interested in extending the game.
• readable sources.
• MIT license, use for whatever you like, no strings attached.

Answer 11

I think C# is a very good language to program GUI apps quick and easy.

Answer 12

The first two versions of VB.NET had serious shortcomings compared to Visual Basic 6. However most of these issues has been fixed since Visual Studio 2005. Today, for new projects, I feel that everything that made VB6 so easy to use is available with VB.NET plus you get new language constructs, and the .NET framework. There also refactoring, and the VB Power Pak which brings back the older simple to use print engine.

Of course there is a learning curve involved. But no more than the leap from QuickBASIC/PDS to VB 1. If you have to maintain or transfer an older project then the differences between VB6 and VB.NET are much more serious.

Finally there is the Mono Project which support the VB compiler. This provides a degree of relative immunity from Microsoft deciding to break backwards again.