Forums Developers Exporting Functions in VB6 DLL

http://www.vbadvance.com is the link for a utility which you can use to make VB6 export DLL's.

I spent a couple minutes and tried this out. It looks like it can work. mIRC appears to have found the function I exported but when I tried calling it it crashed.

My guess it might have to do with the fact that VB is using a bstr and mIRC is probally expecting a character array. Who knows maybee someone will get it to work.

I'd love mIRC to support VB.NET directly as a scripting language but I doubt it will ever happen. Dunno about VB DLL's though.

And we can all thank God that it never will...

You might, I won't. What's wrong with it? It has all the functionality of C++ and C# (according to all the gurus anyway) and I am in the throes of preparing to get it happening on my website as soon as the host starts supporting it. VB.NET has a big bright future. Your alliegence to C/C++ are dominating your train of thought. :tongue: You will become a pawn on the chess board of modern practices.

That said, traditional mIRC scripting is still good and I am by no means knocking it. It suits it's purpose 100%.

Why would you even want to export VB functions in DLL files? VB is very very slow, because almost every function in VB relies on another DLL (msvbvmXX.dll). So when you would call a VB function from mIRC, it'll also call the VB DLL which will be very slow. If you really wanted to create a DLL in VB for mIRC, i'd recommend creating an ActiveX DLL, and use mIRC's COM support to call the functions

Partial quote from my original post: I'd love mIRC to support VB.NET directly as a scripting language but I doubt it will ever happen.

Where did I suggest VB DLL's apart from stating that I didn't know about the original posters suggestion? Sometimes I think people purposefully live in a fog so they can post.

yes you're right I do prefer C/C++. I prefer code that works correctly, that doesn't require me to provide my users with large dll files, that gives me fine control over what I'm doing, that allow me to directly access the APIs and underlying system calls, that allows me to embed asm code when I feel it is appropriate to increas speed, etc, etc. Also, are you aware that they don't even really mention VB in computer classes? It's considered a "quick fix" language, you need something done in 20 mins, you use VB, if not, you don't. To get my degree in computer science I need to take courses in probably every language except VB. C, C++, Java, Prolog, FORTRAN, lisp, COBOL, etc, etc; however, no VB, it's one of those things that they say "yea it exists, but you probably want to stay away from it." It is very rare that you will see a professional program written in VB. I mean MS doesn't even use VB for their own programs.

Because I can export functions from VB6, so it would be cool to get this to work. I know about the COM support for mIRC I've used it a bit, probally going try and play around with a C# component and create a COM interface for it and see if it will work. But getting the export function to work would be a personal victory;-)

On another note, I am so tired of hearing people knock VB. LIke someone on this thread was. Imbed ASM code? Why not you CAN do it in VB. Call system API's? Why not you CAN do it in VB. Create Objects on the fly, hook the IUnknown interface why not you CAN do it in VB.

And speed. There are web based applications supporting 10,000 users on a single server performing 50,000 - 100,000 hits an hour. I'll build something in VB in 20 mins and go outside and play while you spend weeks doing it in C.

And you think Java is fast? It's just as slow as VB. Yes VB will never be as fast as C/C++ it's not designed to be. It's designed to be a rapid enviroment where you can roll out new software and take a concept to beta in 3 weeks and full production in 6.

I've seen amazing stuff done with VB. 90% of bad VB code is because the programer is a moron who doesn't know his left hand from his right.

As far as VB.Net and C# they are for the most part the same. In C# you can call unsafe code.

Now I have a suggestion Mr. Engineer, you know computers you were trained as you said in every language possible but you obviously missed a lesson. Every tool has a place and purpose. And if you've never found VB's purpose as anything more then a 20 minute proof then I am sorry.

Sorry for my rant but I am really tired of this discussion. One last thing before I close. I am not saying VB is perfect or it does everything cause it doesn't. It is definetly crippled as far as speed, flexibility and performance goes but it is not as crippled as people think it is. All you need is a little imagination.

Josh

I love mIRC script for what is. Although the parsing could be improved upon. And version to version compatibility.

My only suggestion is it's possible to export a function from a VB6 DLL. It would be fun if I could figure out how to get mIRC to use it without crashing.

I mean MS doesn't even use VB for their own programs.

I bet the CEO of General Motors doesn't drive a Caddy either so your remarks are completely devoid of any reasoning.

You bet he doesn't, thats a supposition, but I know the owner of Ford does drive a Mustang. My example is a fact, yours is a guess.

The point I am trying to make is that because someone does not use their own product it's not a real case of disendorsement.

Looking at this from another angle I look at what commercial operators use to power websites and from where I look at it far more use ASP, which more often than not run VB Script coding, rather than using Perl or Javascript or even using the poor man's alternative PHP. There must be a reason why. Perhaps it works better, perhaps you can do more with it or do more in less time.

The reason why you go to university and learn C/C++, Perl, etc is because they work across Unix and Windows platforms with no problems. Unless I have read the books I have the wrong way I do believe that VB is suitable only for the Windows environment.

In any case, what has the time taken to code in a new function got to do with anything? If it does the job you want and the work takes less time I would consider that a definite advantage.

Well you would be wrong in your assumption that VB only works on Windows. There are in fact several VB clones for UNIX (and as a result OS X), that are currently under development.

And why do people use ASP? Same reason they are hell-bent on using MSSQL. They think MySQL is free, therefore it must be worse than the one MS charges you thousands of dollars for. Dispute that all you want, I'm sure it is a fact because I worked for a company that had that very opinion. I informed him the MySQL was completely free, and that in numerous benchmarks MySQL was less than 1% slower than MSSQL, which after showing the cost of the software vs the 1second slowdown in processing, it still came out in favor of MySQL. His response was, why would MS charge thousands of dollars for theirs if there is a serious competitor that offers it for free? He concluded that it must mean MySQL doesn't even come close to comparing the MS's, which is simply not the case.

Well your reply here is typical of many of your replies, you again misquoted me. I didn't say VB dod NOT work on other platforms. I just mentioned it's suitability for anything but Windows and was quoting from books I'd read.

I am aware of current developments, including a version of .NET for Linux (if it's not already available it mihgt be one day). But really, why would you bother, it's like people that run PHP on a Windows webserver and ASP on a Unix one, where clearly both work just as well, if not better, on their native environments.

When it all comes down to it, I go with my gut feelings and be a leader instead of being a blind follower. In saying that I use my own website as an example. It's hosting on Windows, runs VB Script, ASP and MS Access, all four attributes are considered taboo by the so-called l337 of the web but then again my website has had about 0% downtime in the last 18 months. What could I possibly complain about? Ohhh, I could take into account the speed differential of 0.00000000345573264875 seconds harvested by some silly benchmark which the naked eye could never see but then I'd suffer in some other way.

I suppose people that use the web to make money agree with me.

Well if you did not mean to say it doesn't work on other OSes, your analogy is flawed because the reason you said they teach C/C++, Perl, etc is because "they work across Unix and Windows platforms." One would assume that would mean since VB is not taught, then it does not work across platforms. And if you did not mean this, than the above statement about C/C++/Perl is irrelevant. And I still fail to see why VB is not suitable for Unix-like OSes. Yes, if you use a command line system you are correct, but if you have X Windows running, why is it not suitable?

So I have to make my post three times longer just to make my point to your exact requirements? Well I could do that but it would just give you three times as much to disagree with. :tongue:

My last version of X Windows doesn't seem to come with MSVBVM60.DLL... how strange. This might explain why VB doesn't work though. I could include the 1600 other runtimes and libraries that it is missing too, if you really desire.

- Raccoon

I still think every tool has it's time and place. Codemaster you remind of the carpenter who uses a hammer to drive a screw in.

Instead of using a drill to make a whole and a screwdriver to push the nail in.

Every language has it's purpose. Some are more multi purpose then others.

As for ASP we choose to use ASP with Java Script, using VB COM components in COM+ and a SQL server database because we can build an application and have it in the field including the time it took from design to deployment 3 weeks.

I love open source solutions but I wouldn't place my critical components on a product which offers minimal support. MySQL e-mail support for one year is 1,500. I wonder how much is the phone support I demand when our server goes down or when the night before a release we find a show stopping bug (Not to mention I don't think it has the same XML support that SQL server does or comparable so now I'd have to build strings in a scripting language or a component, lot of code unless I built an engine for that but at this point I just paid for the SQL server license)

Also since when is ASP free? I'd love to know where you can go and get Windows 2000 Server for free without paying anything.

General response:
Much as anyone would love to know where to get something the creator/manufacturer/supplier charges for without having to pay for it, we cant allow anyone to post info on where here. We arent aiming to be warez central.

pre-proccessed languages do suck, a lot. Java is slower than VB. anything in .NET isn't worth learning, it's slower than the VB runtime and slower than Java. C++ rocks monkey butt, apart from the fact that it takes so long to do everything and requires lots of knowledge and experience to make an equivilant to a Visual Basic program, with the graphics that is. But the overal out come would be faster running, smaller file size and les dependant on everthing like OCXs. Microsoft Visual C++ replace Microsoft Visual Basic, but have the same GUI design so that it's completely easy to make fast programs in C++ but, being C++ it would be so much better than Visual Basic.
PRE-PROCESSED LANGUAGES SUCK.