No, I'm sorry, SimpleIDE was designed specifically for targeting Linux.
However, the guys on the Discord Visual Basic server have managed to spin it up on WSL.
Readit NewsWait, you're not using GtkSourceView? Cool
You could also have used Mono.TextEditor btw. I personally find it better than GtkSourceView, and for having ported it to GTK# 3 myself, it was rather straightforward to port.
I actually had Claude do a lot of research into libraries. We tried a LOT of them before finding Gtk# 3 stable enough on the version used. What also was a factor was finding a version of dotnet on Linux that was stable for this combination. And it wasn't so much what would compile together, it was more what packages were available for MX Linux (my preferred flavor).
Gtk 3 has a weird way of doing scrolled controls that I couldn't accept because the nesting caused all kinds if issues. Also, the Gtk text control is incredibly slow when the file in it grows past 600 lines.
I wrote the editor control with an architectural design I created originally back in 2004, and subsequently lost. Much, much faster implementation. Took about 3 weeks with Claude.
Also wrote a treeview, listbox, colorpicker. Those took a day or two each with Claude. I will be releasing those controls in a dotnet library when I am finished with SimpleIDE.
I will be trying this later this week and can report back, if you like.
That this popped up on HN is fortunate, and oddly specific to my needs. I'm in a position where I have to support some legacy .NET software for the manufacturers we service and prefer working in Linux when and if possible, so this IDE seems targeted to me. Looking forward to giving it a shot and seeing if it replaces VSCodium in my routine.
Its still quite rough around the edges. I would not recommend it for production at this time.
Sorry for the stupid question, but would this IDE be a good place to create VB.net GUI apps for Windows 11?
I've been looking into "best" ways of creating Windows GUI apps from Linux and apart from C/Cpp with native Windows APIs most options seem to focus on React Native and web technologies.
Is SimpleIDE a valid option for this? Does it spit out an .exe file that I can run on a vanilla Windows 11 installation?
No, I'm sorry, SimpleIDE was designed specifically for targeting Linux.
I learned VB .net when it first came out back in 2003 (might have been earlier). VB was quite widely used back then and now days it's declined in popularity a lot. I checked the repo insights and it's a single person who's built this and has been maintaining it. Their contribution and dedication is definitely commendable even though the language isn't popular these and even more so on Linux! This is pure selfless programming!
Haha, I laughed when you said this. I've only been writing it for a little over two months now. But thank you!
This isn't meant to be a passive aggressive dig, but a genuine question...why make an VB.NET IDE?
I think it's cool that you did it, it's just not a language that I've seen get a lot of love.
VB.NET's verbose syntax actually makes it PERFECT for AI assistance. And it is being developed with full AI integration.
And, Linux lacks any such tools. Not even VS Code has a plugin for VB.
Interesting, I didn't actually know that VB.NET ever got ported to Linux with the rest of .NET Core.
Does it still have the drag-n-drop GUI feature to make graphical apps, or is that a strictly Windows thing?
And what makes this project significant is there's a lack of VB.NET tools on Linux.
It has been challenging trying to get Gtk 3 widgets to play nice. Finally just rolled my own custom-drawn editor, treeview, and listbox. Going to release them later in a library.
Interesting, I didn't actually know that VB.NET ever got ported to Linux with the rest of .NET Core.
Does it still have the drag-n-drop GUI feature to make graphical apps, or is that a strictly Windows thing?
Well, that would certainly be a stretch goal. Right now its all code.
I did learn programming with VB many years ago. It definitely holds some sentimental value for me although I wouldn’t consider using it today.
Definitely a great deal of nostalgia for me. Years ago, I had written this project up from scratch and later lost all my source code in an accident.
I learned about vibe coding two months ago and, wow, writing this with Claude has been lots of fun. Almost to the point in the project of having full AI integration in the IDE.
Ha, found: https://github.com/tanathos/ClippyVS