VB(ish) replacement

[Tim Daneliuk]

Dave Boland wrote:

> The other day I was asked if there is an open source replacement for VB6 
> that is cross-platform.  I spent a little bit of time at Barnes-Noble 
> and looking at news groups, but don't have a good answer.  Hope you can 
> help without geting into a language war.  These will be for commercial 
> applications with a GUI.
> 
> What they seem to be looking for is:
> 1. High level language, but not necessarly VB compatible.

Python

> 2. OOP

Python

> 3. Reasonalble learning curve

Python

> 4. Cross-platform

Python

> 5. IDE and ability to graphically design windows.

Python + a variety of IDEs

> 6. Distribute programs as .exe's, so some sort of compiler needed.

Python + py2exe - but it is NOT compiled.  For some level of
compilation, pysco is available.

> 7. Serial communications library (RS-232, 485, USB)

Dunno about Python, but I would guess "yes"

> 8. SNMP library

http://yapsnmp.sourceforge.net/intro.html
http://www.pycs.net/users/0000231/weblog/2004/02/05.html

> 9. Good performance (not expected to be as fast as C/C++)

If you code it properly, yes.

> 10. Windows are native to each O.S.

Yes, if used with wxWindows as the GUI foundation

> 11. Database support of Access and MySQL

Yes, via odbc type stuff (I think)

> 
> It looks like any of the three languages have most or all of what they 
> need, but I don't use scripting languages enough to give a good answer.
> 
> Dave,
> 


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Tim Daneliuk     tundra at tundraware.com
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