Project Semplice - Visual Basic for the Java Platform!

[coderRohit]

You might have heard about this since this project was revealed back in May 2006, but since I have not seen a lot of buzz about this on the 'net, I thought I would post it here too.

Well, the nice people over at Sun Microsystems have been working on Visual Basic implementation for the Java platform. This project is called Semplice. Basically (ha ha!), Semplice is a true VB source code to Java bytecode compiler. That is, your VB code will be compiled in .CLASS files which the Java Virtual Machine can understand.

The project suffers from some serious limitations right now, which makes it quite unsuitable for commercial projects at the moment. For example, calls to the Win32 API from the VB source code are not supported. Also, third-party OCX controls are not supported. This severly limits the number of VB6 applications that can run unmodified on the JVM.

However, I still believe Project Semplice can be a useful tool for some projects. For those who are lucky enough to have no Win32 API calls in their VB6 code, and are not using any OCXes, this is obviously a big win. Now only can their application run on, say, Mac OS X or Linux on top of the JVM, they can also, if they want, deploy the application as an browser applet!  And last but not the least, it offers an easy, gradual migration path from VB6 (which Microsoft no longer supports) to a modern, object-oriented platform, i.e., the Java platform. (I have heard that many former VB6 pros were trying to decide between the Java and the .Net platforms for their future development.)

You can find more information about Project Semplice here:

http://blogs.sun.com/herbertc/category/BASIC

Happy coding!

[coderRohit]

Good news ... HerbertC over at Sun Microsystems has announced that Project Semplice is going to support ActiveX controls after all. However, the controls would (obviously) be available only on the Windows platform. Here is an excerpt of the announcement:

... After looking at some serious, real-world VB application we realized that they are using lots of 3rd party controls. ... The solution that we have come up with is to supply a simple COM server for Java that would allow connecting to ActiveX controls with Project Semplice applications.

... When we try to execute the compiled application and we are on a non-Windows platform then the application will start up with a message box warning you that some of the controls are not available on the platform you are running. ... When you are running on a Windows platform on the other hand, then the COM server will be started and the application will execute and look just like the original VB6 application.

For the full details, head on over to http://blogs.sun.com/herbertc/entry/project_semplice_and_activex_controls

I am pleased that ActiveX control would be supported by Semplice. IMHO this makes the Java platform much more appealing for the VB6 developers. As for me, a coder who normally doesn't work in VB, it gives me a chance to write VB code in a Java application. VB is somewhat less verbose than Java (though not as less as C/C++, and it will be fun to mix the different coding styles, even if just to get a welcome break from Java tediousness.

[coderRohit]

According to Tor Norbye's post here: http://blogs.sun.com/tor/entry/semplice_update , two of his colleagues working on Project Semplice have recently quit Sun Microsystems, and so the project is [apparently] dead.

However, Tor goes on to state that Semplice was basically a research project, and the learning from that project would go into implementing some "great new scripting tools" coming our way soon. Also, Tor seems to indicate that Project Semplice might ultimately be released as an open-source project.

So, some mixed news there. While I am disappointed that Project Semplice has apparently come to a halt within Sun Microsystems itself, I am hopeful that the "community" will be able to develop it further.