Is there any method so that Small VB Programs can be converted into Flash so that it can be put to webpage? I want to convert small VB programs which has a single form and few buttons and text boxes to Flash. The programs are small games and word puzzles and date calculators. Please tell me how can I do it. Is there any software to do that conversion? Give some ideas.
No. There isn't. VB programs run under Windows and a special run-time environment provided by vbrun.dll Flash programs (ActionScript actually) run under Flash player environment, which in turn runs under different browsers and operating systems. Furthermore, those languages (VB and ActionScript) are different paradigms. A VB program is a monothread, sequential application. ActionScript is a scripting executing in frames of a Flash Movie clip. It would be very much like converting a dog into a fish.
I tend to disagree with caprichoso (it is not similar to converting a dog into a fish) since there already is a way for C/C++ programs, using adobe alchemy, there is no way (yet) for VB though...
Adobe alchemy isn't a magic converter of C/C++ programs to ActionScript. It's a mean for reusing already written code in the form of a library. "Alchemy is primarily intended to be used with C/C++ libraries that have few operating system dependencies. Ideally suited for computation-intensive use cases, such as audio/video transcoding, data manipulation, XML parsing, cryptographic functions or physics simulation, performance can be considerably faster than ActionScript 3.0 and anywhere from 2-10x slower than native C/C++ code. Alchemy is not intended for general development of SWF applications using C/C++." Quoted from http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/alchemy/ I tend to read the whole text, not just the headlines. Furthermore, VB is an old (quick and dirty) language falling into disuse. Specially with the appearance of C#
I don't see where the specs you quoted differ from what I said... Let me add that it is not possible to convert C/C++ code that calls win32 dlls or ocx simply because flash player cannot interact with these DLLs without a wrapper, the same will apply to VB code. However, a simple program that pops up a reminder message box when a certain date or condition is reached can be easily converted by a human programmer and should not pose any obstacles for a well written parser. If you think VB is an old language, well what do you think of C then? Remember that Alchemy supports C. As for being quick and dirty,well isn't actionScript a scripting language? aren't scripting languages meant to be quick and dirty as well? So from where I'm standing, it makes more sense to support converting VB code that to support C/C++. I don't see any technical miracles in writing a program that would, with certain restrictions, convert VB code to AS3 code or at least, convert the hardware independent portion of the VB code into bytecode that runs in the flash virtual machine.
"Alchemy is not intended for general development of SWF applications using C/C++." This is just the opposite to what you say. The whole text in the Adobe Alchemy home page explains that using Alchemy for converting an application makes no sense and will fail. And it is obvious even before reading Adobe site. VB is old in the sense that it falling in disuse. C is older but still used and supported for newer technologies and platforms. It certainly won't be a miracle, it will be non-sense. As 99% of useful VB programs are operating system dependents, you won't be able to convert a single running program entirely. You would end up with partial code scattered in your project. Putting it together will be much more time that writing the program in ActionScript from scratch. Anyway, as I may be wrong, you are welcome to post some C/C++ programs (real-life, stand alone programs) ported to AS using Alchemy.
Have you seen Doom running in the browser? This is an example of a real world application converted using alchemy. have a look here: http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/470460 This kind of application (games, string manipulation, calculators, crypto...) are real world applications that could benefit from a converter as they don't rely much on dlls or a specific functionality in the runtime. If you read the first post carefully you will see that this is the type of programs the guy is talking about
Interesting! All right then, let's sit here and wait for the VB to Flash port utility. If it doesn't happen in the short term, please PM me so I get the message! I'm subscribed to this post anyway.
Interesting! All right then, let's sit here and wait for the VB to Flash port utility. If it doesn't happen in the short term, please PM me so I get the message! I'm subscribed to this post anyway.
There is also a tool that convert c/c++ project to flash.download it herehttp://www.voicing.cn/product/anytoany/c2flash.1.0.english.rar