There is a very large community of developers that grew up on VB6 and are still looking for a worthy substitute, said Erel Uziel, CEO of Anywhere Software

Others seem to have more interest in VB6 programming than Microsoft...

Anywhere Software, a leading provider of developers' tools for native Android, iOS and desktop apps, has enhanced its B4X Rapid Application Development (RAD) suite with the addition of a new developer's tool for desktop and server applications.

Known as B4J (http://www.b4x.com/b4j.html), this free tool was designed to meet vocal market demand for a modern alternative to Visual Basic 6 (VB6), which was discontinued by Microsoft eight years ago. Similar to VB6, B4J is a simple and powerful cross-platform tool designed to take the learning curve out of desktop app development. The compiled apps can run on Windows, Mac, Linux and ARM boards (such as Raspberry Pi).

"There is a very large community of developers that grew up on VB6 and are still looking for a worthy substitute," said Erel Uziel, CEO of Anywhere Software. "Their voice is loud and clear - they want a modern RAD tool that will let them build real-world desktop and server apps without the hassles and complexity of existing programming languages. B4J provides an easy-to-use environment that lets developers get the job done."

Based on the same B4X language and concepts as its B4A (Android) and B4i (iOS) counterparts, B4J offers an IDE with a full set of features. These include a visual designer, debugger, compiler, hundreds of libraries, and a packager that creates self contained installers with no dependencies. Another advantage of B4J is that the code developed for the desktop can be easily reused to build similar applications for Android or iOS platforms, and vice versa.

"B4J is being used by our growing developer community to roll out real-world apps that solve everyday business problems faster than ever before," said Uziel. "Based on the feedback we've received, B4J is being welcomed as an effective and long-awaited successor to Visual Basic."

A comment by Microsoft, update or open source VB6 programming