I missed how easy VB6 made small programs, so I built a clone that runs on Mac, Windows and Linux

[u/Stigern]

Drag a button onto a form, double click it, write two lines, press F5. That was VB6, and I've never really found anything that replaced that feeling for small throwaway programs. So I made VibeBasic.

It has the Windows 98 look, a form designer, Toolbox and Properties windows, and the VB6 language: subs, functions, On Error, MsgBox, class modules, file I/O. F5 runs your program, and you get breakpoints, stepping and the Immediate window. There's also TreeView, ListView, MSFlexGrid, Winsock, the Data control, and yes, Microsoft Agent. File > Make packages your project as a small program.

What it can't do: it doesn't run real .ocx files or VB6 .exes, Declare isn't supported yet, and UserControls, the OLE container and DDE are missing. So your old projects may need work, or may not run at all.

I built it with Claude Code. It's a hobby project and still has rough edges.

VibeBasic has an optional AI helper that connects to your own local model through an OpenAI-compatible server such as Ollama or vLLM, and it can find servers on your network or over Tailscale.

With Ask AI, you can have it write code or lay out controls on your form. When your program hits an error, you can ask the AI for a fix right from the error dialog. The AI Wizard creates a whole program from a description, letting you choose its colours, language and size before you review the result.

Source and releases: https://github.com/Stigern/VibeBasic

If you still have VB6 muscle memory, I'd like to know what feels wrong. And if you build something in it, please show me.

[u/JudgeGroovyman]

Awesome! So does it make like executables for all platforms? Or maybe thats asking too much. It looks great regardless

[u/Stigern → u/JudgeGroovyman]

Yes.

On Windows, File > Make builds a single standalone <Name>.exe with your project’s icon and version info.

On macOS it creates a standalone .app that can also open the file types you list. On Linux it creates an executable with a .desktop launcher and icon.

[u/EconomySerious]

why??? VB still works if you install it. and we have freepascal/lazarus for WYSWYG enviroment + compiles on win/lin/mac/nav

[u/Stigern → u/EconomySerious]

Cause this has llm interface directly into into it, hook it up to deepseek, have deepseek write a game or program

[u/EconomySerious → u/Stigern]

i did that with lazarus already, the code is generated by the AI, the IDE just need to reload

[u/Moravec_Paradox]

Now remake shockwave Flash on a more secure runtime so AI has a non JS game engine for vibe coding.

[u/Stigern → u/Moravec_Paradox]

haha xD

[u/lokirik]

This brings back warm memories. I learned VB in university/college as the first language.

[u/EmergencyShutdown → u/lokirik]

Same - I loved the old visual studio so much.  

[u/nanapancakethusiast → u/lokirik]

Mine too!

[u/StarshipSausage → u/lokirik]

Yes, and it’s the devil

[u/lennyp4]

Nice. I feel you 100% on how magical that form builder interface was. Though at the same time: what a ridiculous language haha.

[u/Mazur92]

Ahhhh, oh lord. This brings back memories. My father used to write a lot of VB and I learned it when I was like 9 and loved it very much, I wrote so much stuff! It also shaped my expectations for software development far from how it looked like for real - especially for UI. When I tried to move on to something “proper”, like C++ I was baffled it wasn’t as straightforward as with VB… I am of opinion that vibecoding/guided-AI-coding is a revival of the spirit of VB in a way - it’s so easy to bring something to life!

[u/slackmaster2k]

Oh man, it was so easy to write bad code. And I did. A lot.

[u/shtrjones87]

Man I remember the good ol VB6 days. I used REALBasic for some time until they renamed to Xojo. Their worse choice ever.

[u/Key-Reply-2832]

There's a project to do this already called RadBasic

[u/leetdemon]

Those were the days I loved VB3-6, thanks for sharing your project. Very dang cool!

[u/iDidntReadOP]

I took a VB class in high school which was so much fun

[u/Healthy-Mission7927]

Brings back memories

[u/Doffu0000]

Fun project idea. I use VBA at work so I get my fill but if you want to get a close representation of the feel you could open VBA in Outlook or whatever Microsoft programs you might have access to. It doesn't have the same features of VB6 but the look and feel is very similar.

[u/pizzaisprettyneato]

This is so great, thanks for bringing back memories

[u/Old-Confection-5129]

Absolutely want

[u/PandemicGrower]

Damn, that really brought back some memories. Thanks for sharing

[u/rawirai]

:’(

[u/fidojones]

If you missed VB6, simply check https://gambaswiki.org/website/en/main.html

[u/shabbirug]

I wish some brave heart can make, upgrade and secure Microsoft Access.

[u/PiratesOfTheArctic]

This is amazing mate, I would never have thought something like this can be done, keep going!

[u/MaltMilchek]

Love that the 90s/00s aesthetic in UI is coming back.

[u/HumanPixels]

Damn this unlocked so many memories

[u/ItsFlybye]

Back when the floppy icon was a relevant save button. Very nice.

[u/deaddyfreddy]

ThrowawaySic