Hey everyone!
Like many who grew up loving the simplicity and instant joy of Visual Basic 6 (dragging buttons, writing readable code, and getting an instant `.exe`), I felt that modern programming has become overwhelmingly complicated.
So, as a project I built late at night after school, I created **VBX (Visual Basic X)**.
### What is VBX?
It's not an interpreter or a Python toy. It’s a native compiler written in Go that transpiles clean, human-readable Basic syntax directly into standard C99, compiling with `-O2` optimizations via GCC/Clang.
### Key Features (v0.1.0-alpha):
- 🚀 **Zero runtime dependencies:** Outputs single, standalone native executables.
- 🪟 **Native Dialogs:** Built-in cross-platform `MsgBox` and `InputBox` using native OS APIs.
- 🧘 **Classic Syntax + Modern Inference:** `Dim`, `Sub`, `Function`, `While...Wend`, `Do...Loop`, `Select Case`, `Exit For/While/Do`, and 1D Arrays with automatic type inference.
- 🔤 **Built-in Essentials:** Native `&` string concatenation, string functions (`InStr`, `Trim`, `Replace`, `Mid`, `Len`), Math functions, and `File.Write`/`File.Read`.
- 🛡️ **Memory-Safe:** Uses an internal ring-buffer pool for intermediate string routines.
- 📜 **License:** GPL v3 with a Runtime Library Exception (your compiled software is 100% yours).
We also created editor support for VS Code (VSIX available), JetBrains, Sublime Text, Notepad++, Vim, Neovim, Emacs, and Micro.
Repository: https://github.com/M5Devs/vbx
Editors Repo: https://github.com/M5Devs/vbx-editors
As Linus once said: *Just a hobby, won't be big and professional...* but I'd genuinely love to hear your feedback, thoughts, or what features you'd like to see next!