When VBScript Dies

[hartnell]

I really have to settle this issue. What happens when VBScript dies? It is a dying language. I hate it too. But there needs to be a plan.

--hartnell

PS. Why is it that the only thing Bill Gates gets right he abandons?

[u9]

well, even Visual Basic is a dying language. Vista does not support DX8 applications done with VB.

[hartnell]

Here's some solutions I can think of :

Switch to JScript : Problems, JScript implementation has some serious warts. Pros : I have javascript books, willing to share from ground up, as always. JScript will never die unless MS does.

Switch to a third party scripting language. Problems : foreign to us and guillect. No guarantee of the scripting language to continue. Pros : There is some great third party scripting languages out there, some OO.

Guilect could create his own. Problems: Severe headache, guilect is not motivated enough.

--hartnell

[Guilect]

Not sure where the info about VBScript dying is coming from.
There are tons of web pages out there that use VBScript for there ASP language.
I seem to think that it will be around for awhile.

B2D appears not to run on Vista. As U9 pointed out it is because the binding libraries between VB and Vista are not available in Vista. MS is tring to push everyone to .NET

I have of course been thinking of ways to keep B2D alive on Vista.
This includes copying needed dlls from XP to Vista (perhaps not allowed as redistributed files).
Using B2D as is but using a seperate DX dll based engine that you would include with every one of your projects.
Migrating B2D to .Net and using DX9 (but still only 2D functions).
Forgetting about B2D and using FreeBasic which is fast and has bindings for DX, OpenGL, SDL and to game-based engines like Allegro. And its FREE How can anyone compete against that!

[matthew]

admin said:

...Forgetting about B2D and using FreeBasic which is fast and has bindings for DX, OpenGL, SDL and to game-based engines like Allegro. And its FREE How can anyone compete against that!

Don't say that.

I really like using Brutus2D and although FreeBASIC is more 'Powerful' it would be much easier to write a simple 2D Game in Brutus2D than FreeBASIC.

I think that if you've got the time you should port Brutus2D to the .NET Framework.

[Guilect]

I spent ~30 minutes using the coverter engine in taking the B2D source from VB6 to VS2005 VB.NET.
It came out with something like 103 errors that would need to be fixed before it would build in .NET. Some of the errors would be easy fixes. Some of the code from VB6 (particularly the DX calls) has no equivalent in .NET.

Then I check the Microsoft pages and saw that they are still giving away for free the VB.NET express edition. Here is a link to the 2008 Beta version. Also on these pages you can find links were they have tutorials on how to make games with these free tools.

msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/express/future/bb676748.aspx

I have not downloaded the 2008 version yet, but if I remember correctly the 2005 version of VB.NET was ~ 250 Meg in size.

[u9]

admin said:

Not sure where the info about VBScript dying is coming from.

There are tons of web pages out there that use VBScript for there ASP language.
I seem to think that it will be around for awhile.

B2D appears not to run on Vista. As U9 pointed out it is because the binding libraries between VB and Vista are not available in Vista. MS is tring to push everyone to .NET

I don't know if VB (script) is dying, but as you say, to me it seems like they are trying to force people to .NET.

admin said:

I have of course been thinking of ways to keep B2D alive on Vista.
This includes copying needed dlls from XP to Vista (perhaps not allowed as redistributed files).
Using B2D as is but using a seperate DX dll based engine that you would include with every one of your projects.
Migrating B2D to .Net and using DX9 (but still only 2D functions).
Forgetting about B2D and using FreeBasic which is fast and has bindings for DX, OpenGL, SDL and to game-based engines like Allegro. And its FREE How can anyone compete against that!

Making a B2D DLL as you mention actually sounds like a good idea. Of course, migrating to .NET probably gives you more advantages, i don't know. I must say one thing though, all languages have quirks, as hartnell puts it, but when i trying FreeBasic resulted in me running away screaming from what i call a horrific syntax ... p.s. don't tell hartnell To put it short, i didn't like it.