A browser-native classic Visual Basic VB6 IDE

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

A browser-based recreation of the classic Visual Basic 6 IDE is impressing developers with how faithfully it mimics the original’s rapid application development workflow, including drag‑and‑drop UI building and instant execution in the browser. Commenters praise its speed, nostalgia factor, and ability to export working HTML apps, while noting missing pieces like full debugging, Win32 API support, and pixel-perfect rendering. The project also fuels a broader reflection on how modern tools have lost VB-style discoverability and efficiency, and how AI-assisted development might enable a new generation of similarly accessible environments.

Overall Reaction & Nostalgia

  • Many commenters are delighted and nostalgic; VB6 is remembered as their first IDE or where they “got into programming,” especially via simple apps, school projects, and MS Access integrations.
  • Several note how fast they can still work in this style of environment decades later.
  • There’s broader nostalgia for old RAD tools (VB, Visual FoxPro, classic Visual Studio, Turbo Pascal, QuickBASIC).

Features & Capabilities

  • IDE closely mimics VB6: drag‑and‑drop UI designer, property grid, event handlers, right‑click behavior.
  • It can open existing projects and export applications as a self‑contained HTML file or “Make [ProjectName].html.”
  • Some form of IntelliSense is present, and users compare it to classic context-sensitive help and symbol lookup.
  • Author mentions ongoing work on Win32 API compatibility and a WebGPU-based rendering engine; future exports “more original” than HTML are hinted at.

Limitations, Bugs & Missing Pieces

  • Debugging and IntelliSense are incomplete; output is HTML/JS, not native .exe.
  • No clear support yet for things like ODBC, keyboard/mouse motion events, or full Win32 APIs (e.g., BitBlt) — users trying old projects hit these limits.
  • UI/editor bugs: non-visual/disabled controls can’t be directly selected; control lists and event lists don’t always refresh correctly.
  • Floating-point quirks (e.g., 3 − 3.01 ≈ −0.009999…) still present, as in many modern languages.

Performance & Comparison to Modern Tools

  • Launch speed in the browser impresses people; some argue this exposes how bloated modern IDEs have become.
  • Others debate whether ultra-instant UIs are always desirable, but multiple users strongly prefer maximum responsiveness.

UI Fidelity, Text & Rendering

  • Several praise how close it “feels” to the real VB6, but others point out imperfect pixel-level details, missing bevels, odd borders, and anti-aliased text that breaks the retro illusion.
  • Some dialog copy is described as “AI-sounding” and overly technical for user-facing text.

AI Involvement & Scale of Work

  • Commenters note the author’s huge number of recent browser recreations and repositories and debate how much is AI-assisted.
  • Some are impressed by productivity; others question quality and warn that AI can generate large volumes of “slop.”
  • There is also appreciation for the possibility that at least parts could be hand-crafted.

Desire for Modern VB‑Like / Low-Code Environments

  • Multiple people lament that modern tooling lost VB’s discoverability: palettes, property grids, visual designers, one-click event wiring.
  • There’s interest in reviving this paradigm using contemporary stacks or AI coding agents, with proposals that agents generate underlying code while humans work at a higher RAD level.
  • Alternatives and cousins are mentioned (Xojo, Gambas, PureBasic/SpiderBasic, Pascal-to-JS, Python-based web RAD), but none are seen as a direct drop‑in spiritual successor.