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Microsoft Urged to Open Source Classic Visual Basic (i-programmer.info)

"On the 25th anniversary of classic Visual Basic, return it to its programmers..." reads the plea at UserVoice.com from Sue Gee -- drawing 85 upvotes. "The new Microsoft claims to back open source, why not in this case? There is no need for Microsoft to do any more work on the code base - simply open source it and allow the community to keep it alive."

In an essay at i-programmer.info, Gee shares a video of young Bill Gates building an app with Visual Basic in 1991, and complains that in the 25 years since Microsoft has open sourced .NET Core and the .NET Compiler Platform Roslyn, "but it has explicitly refused to open source VB6." She notes that Friday Visual Basic's program manager announced a "Visual Basic Silver Anniversary Celebratiathon," promising he's reaching out to the VB team members from the last 25 years for a behind-the-scenes retrospective, and adding "this is a party, so feel free to be interactive."

"What the post glosses over is that this history was blighted by the fork in the road that was .NET and that many Visual Basic fans are highly unsatisfied that the programming environment they cherished is lost to them..." writes Gee. "Vote for the proposal not because you want to use VB6 or that you think it is worth having -- Vote for it because a company like Microsoft should not take a language away from its users."

6 of 331 comments (clear)

  1. While we're at it... by AmazingRuss · · Score: 5, Funny

    ... lets let smallpox out of those freezers.

    1. Re:While we're at it... by ColdWetDog · · Score: 4, Funny

      At least smallpox doesn't always cause permanent brain damage.

      --
      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
  2. Too many floppies? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Maybe the source is just too large to distribute??

  3. Re:Even slightly sorrier by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Stp t! Nbd ss vwls nmr.

  4. Re:ummm.no. by Billly+Gates · · Score: 4, Funny

    Let it die. It's a terrible language and it should die a death. don't open source it or you'll just encourage a new wave of cheapskate programmers to start learning bad habits and producing crappy code.

    I sooo agree man they shouldn't open it! Hold on let me finish this JavaScript project I am working on ....

  5. Re: Corrections [Re:Why Mainframes Live] by ADRA · · Score: 4, Funny

    For someone so incredibly naive about the world of business, how do you expect to be competitive? Out-smug the competition?

    --
    Bye!