Welcome!

Hard to believe it's been over three years since I put up this new design. I'm afraid the proverbial "dust" still hasn't fully settled. Wish I had more time to put into this. Hard to get as enthusiastic as once was possible, I'm afraid, given the horrible  destruction done. Seems that the general consensus is starting to swing, though, back towards "maybe Classic VB wasn't so bad after all." VSM has decided there's enough interest still that, for the time being at any rate, they're going to revive my old column! Here's the first few installments of what hopefully will be many:

Classic VB Corner  <<== new Classic VB column!
    * Viva la VB!
    * Vista Versus VB
    * VB Statement Against Vista
    * Are You Safer Now?
    * Simple Asynchronous Downloads?
    * Take Control of Window Movements
    * Executing Debuggables

The code sample offerings have gone under the most redesign of all. Whereas they used to be listed on a single page for all, you will now find a descriptive page for each! Unfortunately, it's going to take a bit more time to get the descriptions updated for all those projects, so I've copied the old page over for your reference.

This site is totally devoted to Classic Visual Basic, as millions once knew and loved it. This is a certifiably .NET-Free zone.

What's New

March 28, 2008

• Added the SnapDialog code sample. A drop-in ready class that uses subclassing to detect when the user is dragging your form around, and snaps the form to the screen edges when it's within a preset number of pixels. Supports multiple monitors and taskbar position.

February 13, 2008

• Updated the Grabber code sample. Major clean-up! Removed two of the methods that relied on subclassing and another that used window styles, as none of these really worked in XP or Vista. Added a new method that fully supports themed grab handles in XP and Vista, but also offers the standard grip all the way back to Windows 95.

February 7, 2008

• Added the NetGrab code sample. Drop-in ready UserControl demonstrates how to download files asynchronously using nothing but native VB5/VB6 code.

November 27, 2007

• Updated the SendInput code sample. Original version used the wrong constant for PrintScreen emulation. Also added a VB5 implementation of Split, so module will work in VB6, VBA, and VB5.

November 15, 2007

• Added the SendInput code sample. This one provides a drop-in ready module that is a total functional replacement for the standard ClassicVB SendKeys statement, which was rather severely broken by Vista.

September 4, 2007

• Visual Studio Magazine resumed publication of my old Classic VB column. The first few will focus on getting VB to cooperate with Vista, but ultimately I intend to refocus fully on the sort of down to Earth stuff I did previously.

June 18, 2007

• Updated the DirDrill sample to add an AttributeMask property so that you can limit recursive file searches to only files with specific attributes.

April 26, 2007

• Added the vbMarkUp online code colorization utility. This tool can be used to create code suitable for pasting into Microsoft Word, so that you can make a color printout. (I use an offline version of this tool to create the listings on my Samples pages.)

April 10, 2007

• Added the NetCam code sample. Here's a full-blown UserControl, ready to drop into your projects. This demonstrates how to retrieve and display webcam (or any graphic!) from the internet, including how to transform a raw bitstream into an OLE StdPicture object.

March 22, 2007

• Added the Locale code sample. This provides a drop-in ready class module that offers full read/write access to the system and user regional settings.
• Posted a raw CShellLink.cls module that can be used together with the ShellLnk typelib provided on the VB5 disk to create new shortcut (LNK) files.

Comprehensive Updates List

Odds and Ends

Here are a few offerings you won't find linked to in the main menus on this site, but that I'd like to make sure you were aware of regardless. 

Hardcore Visual Basic, by Bruce McKinney

When Microsoft decided to drop Bruce's classic tome from MSDN, I quickly offered to host it here at MVPs.org and, against what I considered all odds, they agreed. I'm glad we could save this one, and make it available to everyone from here onward. More recently, this site assumed the honor of hosting The End of Hardcore Visual Basic, a fond farewell to what was.

 

Visual Basic 4 How-To

Several of us put  together this little tome in 1994-95, during the world's longest beta. I don't believe there ever was a fully electronic copy suitable for online publishing, at least I never encountered one. While much of the text is now somewhat obsolete, the code may still contain a few tricks.

 

Site Statistics

Call it vain, or whatever. In case you care, here are a few stats taken over the years. I hope to provide a more up-to-date selection of frequent downloads once this new site stabilizes.

 

Those Awful Midis

Okay, it took three (or more?) years, but I finally rolled out a new site that isn't a throwback to the 90s. If you actually miss those old Pink Floyd midi tunes, don't fret! They're still here.

 

Donations

After great agonizing, I have decided to plop a PayPal Donations button down on the bottom of every page here. The simple truth is, Visual Basic Programmer's Journal used to (unwittingly?) finance this site by commissioning my articles on Classic VB. Sadly, that publication is no longer with us, and the one that's taken its place isn't much interested in the programming language you and I still use. So, long story-short, if I've saved you (or your boss!) a bundle of money with the code you've downloaded from here, and you're feeling generous (or you have access to the company credit card!), well, I'm not too proud to let you help me defray the time I spend building the samples offered here. Thanks!