You used to be able to just create a Native GUI App in 10 seconds

12/10/2025 at 6:12:24 PM

I remember that not having the right VB DLL was a frequent issue when trying to run EXE files produced by people with visual basic. For me, this Windows "nocode" environment was a big gatekeeper which hindered me in learning programming. It may sound a bit sentimental, but I learned C with Linux, because docs where readily available and open. I literally read man pages.

Today the tooling is just better. Just think, for instance, of the go and rust tool chains which easily produce ready to ship EXE files. Classical toolkits such as Qt still are around.

by ktpsns

12/10/2025 at 6:45:00 PM

If you did it in Delphi it will work no matter what.

by kwanbix

12/10/2025 at 11:51:31 PM

"no matter what" is pushing it.

It was very common for Delphi programs to use stuff that required external DLLs.

by gaigalas

12/11/2025 at 9:51:33 PM

Only if you wanted to include database options.

by kwanbix

12/11/2025 at 10:24:06 PM

Connectivity to databases was one of Delphi's main selling points.

I think one dude spread the myth of no DLLs in the Twitter thread, lots of people repeated it, and since Delphi 6/7 is not around anymore and it's hard to check, they got away with a slight historical innacuracy.

by gaigalas

12/10/2025 at 8:50:44 PM

I remember not being able to get my C++ compiler to work on Windows and I remember struggling to get basic Linux functionality working. Software was hard back then.

by hippo22

12/10/2025 at 6:21:17 PM

Can view without subjecting yourself to "X": https://xcancel.com/tsoding/status/1998403967718400376

by amatecha

12/10/2025 at 6:24:55 PM

[flagged]

by coldtea

12/10/2025 at 6:46:13 PM

Was there an actual point or are you just being contrarian for the sake of it?

by amatecha

12/10/2025 at 7:02:03 PM

[flagged]

by coldtea

12/10/2025 at 8:30:24 PM

You cannot read the full thread unless you have an account and are logged in. That's reason enough to appreciate a mirror link like that.

by danielbln

12/10/2025 at 7:23:54 PM

I have no issue with Twitter's values or ownership. The website is just annoying and laggy, so I appreciate a readonly mirror.

by morshu9001

12/10/2025 at 9:57:00 PM

Did I say anything about morals or compromise or anything? Now you're just ranting to the void about a straw man, not furthering conversation in any way. I think you're the only one who needs to get over something here: the fact that people might not want to visit a certain website. The shock and horror! Take your negativity elsewhere.

by amatecha

12/10/2025 at 11:46:37 PM

>Did I say anything about morals or compromise or anything

So many have that it's an obvious deduction, and the bit 'subjecting yourself to "X"' alludes to the same.

Do you rather claim that X's UX is uniquely horrible than an alternative link was needed for those that can't bear it? If so, well...

Anyways, I just said we can handle the original link just fine. You asked for further clarification.

by coldtea

12/10/2025 at 10:11:40 PM

Someone replied to that post "notice how fast everything is to launch", but did Visual Basic really start up that fast back in the day? I'm old enough to have used XP as a kid, and I remember the languorous boot times, but I never programmed on it. My guess is that XP is running in a VM on modern hardware in this GIF.

by satiric

12/10/2025 at 10:25:29 PM

I can confirm that it took way longer than that on actual contemporary hardware.

by Bratmon

12/10/2025 at 11:44:32 PM

VB6 was old by the time XP appeared, and XP lasted for a long time. It was fast.

by gaigalas

12/10/2025 at 9:23:31 PM

There was a time when there were some VB clone languages including Envelop Basic: https://members.tripod.com/joe__shmoe/indext.htm These tools did a pretty good job of creating forms and software. Rebol was another language that was sleek at making UI Form: https://www.rebol.com/index-lang.html Now a days, you need to master many technologies to create one UI component. Too much bloat.

by SilentM68

12/10/2025 at 7:10:44 PM

You can still do this!

The only difference is that a lot of apps prioritize cross platform UIs over good, fast native UIs.

WinForms and WPF are still well supported.

by JaggerJo

12/11/2025 at 2:54:21 AM

There is a modern compiler/ide that’s improving (but also preserving compatibility with) VB6 https://twinbasic.com/

I was able to load up a VB6 project I worked on in high school and it compiled and ran with no changes. Pretty neat.

by treesknees

12/10/2025 at 6:18:16 PM

I mean...at least for GTK on Linux, you still can? It won't be 10 seconds (probably closer to 30-40 seconds) since you have to go through a couple of prompts to name it, decide a license, etc., but with:

https://apps.gnome.org/Builder/

You can do the same thing. In fact, this was the exact method I used to make a few GTK apps.

by kop316

12/10/2025 at 10:53:05 PM

but then GTK has issues with some DEs supposedly

by morshu9001

12/12/2025 at 2:57:14 AM

I saw this comment a while ago, and even now, I have no idea what point you are trying to make.

by kop316

12/12/2025 at 6:24:05 PM

If you want to make a native GUI app work across desktop Linux users, it's not this simple

by morshu9001

12/12/2025 at 9:26:46 PM

ok...and? The post was about making a native GUI app, which GNOME builder is clearly able to do. By your logic, the app in the video won't work across OSes.

My point is this is still clearly possible for native GUI apps.

by kop316

12/10/2025 at 7:25:30 PM

Would've thought the explosion of web apps would kick MS and Apple in the pants, but here we are. Native dev is still annoying and is arguably getting harder. There's no reason making an app work for just one specific platform should have more friction than doing it for all of them.

by morshu9001

12/11/2025 at 4:49:29 AM

I tried this using RosettaCode examples awhile ago and its still possible in quite a few languages. I was trying to find examples where you could just copy the code in, click run, and get a GUI.

by istillcantcode

12/10/2025 at 10:10:57 PM

I used PureBasic back in like 2003 or 2004. It was super simple. Looks like it's still around and the site looks unchanged since then. Probably crazy fast on modern hardware

by dham

12/10/2025 at 7:28:09 PM

Take a look at Slint or Avalonia if you miss this experience.

And I'll take needing an internet connection over having to install Visual Basic from a stack of CDs.

by joeld42

12/10/2025 at 8:51:30 PM

In HTML

  <button onclick="alert('Hello')">Command1</button>

by gabrielsroka

12/10/2025 at 10:36:49 PM

Sure, but that's not a native GUI app.

by jaredcwhite

12/10/2025 at 11:54:03 PM

Save that as `app.hta` on Windows (from XP up to this day!), then double click it.

Not native GUI, but as fast and useful as one.

It's more limited nowadays, but you can still do a lot.

by gaigalas

12/10/2025 at 6:16:22 PM

twitter.com?

Is that from OP or HN?

by nwhnwh