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Comment by _f1dq | Hacker News Reader

I can write HTML/CSS/JS and a few back-end languages like PHP in my sleep but there's no way I could hand-code a web app as fast as I could a desktop app in 1997 using VB.

I would LOVE it if I could, though.

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Have you tried https://anvil.works? (I'm a founder!)

It's quite explicitly VB-esque (only using Python), and having a single paradigm rather than stitching together several different programs speeds things up even for those who can write HTML/JS/CSS in their sleep. (And of course, you can drop out to JS/CSS/HTML if you want.) Overall I think the development speed is comparable to VB6.

It looks significantly better since the last time I checked it - well done!

Reminds me... maybe I can finally build that app I couldn't be bothered to build before...

I tried it out and followed the entire tutorial, but the compulsory 'anvil' branding on every free published app kinda killed it for me.

VB never had that.

But VB also didn't host web apps for you including databases, user accounts, email etc. I think self hosting is an option with Anvil by now, in which case you may be able to remove the branding.

I started with Delphi 5 and completely share the sentiment of OP, development experience (mainly when building GUIs) was way better back then. For anyone who feels similarly I can only recommend you to look into Anvil. It is a fantastic tool, under active development and with a helpful and supporting community. It allowed me to build web apps by myself that I previously thought about hiring someone for. Very enjoyable experience and of course the fact that I am building web apps instead of desktop apps is a big plus in many scenarios today.

Great to see you here, Merdedydd! I was thinking about sending this thread to you. I discovered Anvil in a similar thread years ago and am very happy I did.

meredydd, can I host my own instance of an anvil app?

Same. I’m very good at cranking out Tailwind + React UIs, but nothing touches the productivity I had with VB6 or even early C# and Winforms.

Be careful what you wish for: https://www.wix.com/

I've never written VB, but I can bang out a React UI in jsxstyle like nobody's business.

You've piqued my curiosity.

Check out Lazarus and FreePascal

Development in VB6 was basically dragging and dropping controls onto a window or dialog box, setting properties on them, and then filling in snippets of code to tie things together.

And "control" here means anything from simple labels and buttons up to database connections and embedded COM objects.

Literally anybody could bang out a simple Windows .exe like nobody's business.

It would have been really cool if Microsoft included it in the OS like they used to do with QBasic.

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