Hey guys,
Today I want to announce my add-in that I have been working on in my spare-spare time (that is, when I have spare time in my spare time, which unfortunately is hard).
At work, every now and then I have to deal with legacy code that happens to be written in VB6. I have tested a lot of add-ins, extensions and programs but most do cost money and I think that this is not the right thing. Eventually, since I happen to still have a VB6 Pro CD lying around at home, I tried to give it a shot myself.
I have looked into VS Add-In creation, but thought it was too complicated and the giant API... you know, I don't want to read books about an API. I figured I'd need more time digging the API than the extension itself ;-)
Then, I remembered SharpDevelop. I wanted to check it out, and see what has changed in recent years. I was blown away. Really good API and thanks to DanielGrunwald I got the add-in hosted in almost no-time. Thanks again, Daniel!
After some hours, I got a rough draft together, which I'm very glad to share with you guys and the internet.
Here is the link to GitHub: https://github.com/chrishensel/vb6leap
Before you check the link and the source, please be aware that it is in the roughest, draftiest form. But I will continue working on it as time goes onward and - as stated - I find some time. However, you may all feel free to critize it, give feedback, and of course help me with development. It'd be an honor! I gladly accept pull requests.
The add-in itself is very basic (ATM). However, it already supports:
- Loading a VBP (VBG not yet)
- Editing CLS, BAS and FRM files (no designer yet), although only "the whole thing" (including the noisy header stuff - what were they thinking back then?)
- Compiling the project (you need to have VB6 installed)
Note that the VBP-parser is also basic (like everything in there), but from tests with some projects I can tell that it should work fine. Otherwise please let me know and of course feel free to contribute.
I'm looking forward to hearing your comments :-)
Best Regards,
chris