Using thincore.dll with Visual Basic 6.0

[Joe Caverly]

I would like to use thincore.dll with Visual Basic 6.0

I looked in the \thinBasic\sdk\sdk.zip,
and found thinBasic BASIC SDK\PB,
which I could use as a reference for embedding in VB6.

Before I do so,
I was wondering if anyone has already created a thinBasic SDK for VB6,
and would be interested in sharing it.

My end goal is to create a COM DLL,
which I can use with Visual Basic 6.0,
Visual FoxPro 9.0,
and other COM-callable languages.

I occasionally use AutoIt, which comes with AutoItX, a DLL/COM control.

Add AutoIt features to your favorite programming and scripting languages!
Also features a C# assembly and PowerShell CmdLets.

Perhaps a future addition to thinBasic could be something similar,
maybe a thinBasicX COM DLL,
which is what I am hoping to do with VB6 and thincore.dll

Regards and Thanks,

Joe

[ErosOlmi]

Hi Joe,

thanks for your suggestion, I will check what I can do.
thinBasic Core engine is written using Power Basic compiler and should definitely possible to develop COM components using it.

Eros

[Joe Caverly]

I'm having issues in getting thinCore.dll working with Visual Basic 6.0

Option Explicit
' Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 (SP6)
' Windows 10 [Version 10.0.19045.3693] 22H2
'
' AddIn Used - Visual Basic 6 IDE Linker Addin
' - LinkSwitches /SUBSYSTEM:CONSOLE
' Ref: https://www.vbforums.com/showthread.php?866321-VB6-IDE-Linker-AddIn
'
' Ref: https://github.com/ErosOlmi/ThinBASIC_On_GitHub/blob/master/Lib/thinCore.INC
' thinCore.dll is in my App.Path folder
Declare Function thinBasic_Init Lib "thinCore.dll" (ByVal hWnd As Long, _
                                                    ByVal cInstance As Long, _
                                                    ByVal sKey As String) As Long
Declare Function thinBasic_Release Lib "thinCore.dll" (ByVal hScript As Long) As Long
Declare Function thinBasic_Run Lib "thinCore.dll" (ByVal hScript As Long, _
                                                    ByVal sBuffer As String, _
                                                    ByVal BufferType As Long, _
                                           Optional ByVal Options As Long, _
                                           Optional ByVal DebugMode As Long, _
                                           Optional ByVal LogMode As Long, _
                                           Optional ByVal ObfuscateMode As Long, _
                                           Optional ByVal CallingProgram As Long, _
                                           Optional ByVal DependancyMode As Long) As Long
                          
Dim Con As New Console
Dim hScript As Long
Dim sScript As String
Dim hRun As Long
Const thinBasic_BufferType_IsFile = 0
Sub Main()
  On Error GoTo CatchError
  sScript = "E:\Documents\vb6\ThinBasic\Alert.tBasic"
  Con.OutStd ("App.hInstance = " + Str$(App.hInstance))
  Con.OutStd ("App.Path      = " + App.Path)
  Con.OutStd ("Init")
  hScript = thinBasic_Init(0, App.hInstance, "")
  Con.OutStd ("Run")
  hRun = thinBasic_Run(hScript, sScript, thinBasic_BufferType_IsFile, 1 Or 2, False, False, False, 1, False)
  'Program quits here
  'From IDE: Run-time error '0'
  'From EXE: No error, Alert.tBasic is not run
  '
  'Output:
  'App.hInstance =  4194304
  'App.Path      = E:\Documents\vb6\ThinBasic
  'Init
  'Run
  Con.OutStd ("Release")
  thinBasic_Release (hScript)
  Exit Sub
CatchError:
  Con.OutStd (Err.Number)
  Resume Next
Return
End Sub

The program quits when thinBasic_Run is called.

I have probably missed something in the translation of the Declare functions.

Constructive assistance would be appreciated.

Joe

[ErosOlmi]

Sorry Joe, I forgot about this thread.

If you change

thinBasic_Init(0, App.hInstance, "")

to

thinBasic_Init(0, App.hInstance, "thinbasic")

should work
But there are other problems if you try to execute your script again using current thinCore.dll


I'm making some fix to:

• thinBasic_Init
• thinBasic_Run
• thinBasic_Release

in order to make it working as an engine


Attached a VB6 example with an update thinCore.dll that works better but still some problems.

I will work on this next days and will be back.

[Joe Caverly]

Thanks Eros,
Your example works as described.

I'm now trying to figure out how to modify a variable from VB6.

For example;

Dim sScript As String
    Dim hRun As Long
    Dim test As Long
    
    test = 1957
    
    Const thinBasic_BufferType_IsFile = 0
    Const thinBasic_BufferType_IsScript = 1

    On Error GoTo CatchError
  
    sScript = txt_thinBasicSourceCode.Text
    If Len(sScript) Then
        hScript = thinBasic_Init(0, App.hInstance, "thinbasic")
        If hScript = 0 Then
            hRun = thinBasic_Run(hScript, sScript, thinBasic_BufferType_IsScript, 1 Or 2, False, False, False, 1, False)
            'thinBasic_Release (hScript)
        End If
        Debug.Print thinBasic_VariableExists("test")
        Debug.Print test
    Else
        MsgBox "Please type some thinBasic code into textbox"
    End If

Note I have created a Long variable called "test",
and assigned a value of 1957.

thinBasic_VariableExists("test") returns 1 if the variable exists, which it does.
In the text box, if I add;

long Test = 1960

sMsg += Str(Test)

...before the MsgBox 0, sMsg, 1960 is returned in the MsgBox.

The help file has a blank page for thinBasic_VariableExists, along with all of the other thinBasic_ functions.

I was just guessing what the thinBasic_ functions do,
but not being very successful.

I did a review of \thinBasic\Lib\thincore.inc,
but still having issues in understanding.

How would I return the test variable,
with a value of 1960, to VB6?

Joe

[Joe Caverly]

After a restful sleep, I've done some more research.

I'm thinking that I have to use thinBasic_LoadSymbol

I've declared it in VB6 as follows;

Declare Function thinBasic_LoadSymbol Lib "thinCore.DLL" (ByVal SymbolName As String, ByVal ReturnCode As Long, ByVal FunctionOrSubPointer As Long, Optional ByVal ForceOverWrite As Long) As Long

So, if I want to use thinBasic to increment a number from VB6 by 1,
in VB6 the flow would go something like this...

thinBasic_LoadSymbol "VB6AddOne", thinBasic_ReturnNumber, VarPtr(TBAddOne(20))

VB6AddOne will be my new "keyword" (function) that I call in VB6.

TBAddOne will be my function in thinBasic.

I pass the number 20 in TBAddOne,
which will increment by 1,
and return 21.

CODEPTR is not recognized by VB6,
so I am using VarPtr.
Not sure if this is the proper replacement.

In the text box,
I add the following function for thinBasic;

function TBAddOne(theTest) as long
  function = theTest + 1
end function

As shown in attachment, I've got issues.
image.png

Constructive guidance would be appreciated.

Joe

[ErosOlmi]

Hi Joe,

will prepare an example next days.

In the meantime refer to thinCore.inc file here https://github.com/ThinBASIC/module_...r/thinCore.inc that shows thinCore.dll exported functionalities you can use.

thinBasic_LoadSymbol is used to add new keywords inside thinBasic. You need to have a compiled Sub/Function an map it in thinBasic passing its Sub/Function pointer.
Then you will be responsible to parse thinBasic source code. This is a little complex but I can show you next days
I do not know if VB6 has the possibility to have a pointer to a Sub/Function like CodePtr

Anyway, to add a new variable use thinBasic_AddVariable
You can just create a variable initializing it value and also create a variable that uses a memory area of your own VB6 variable passing optional parameter VarMemPtr

Example for numeric (%VarSubType_Long = 5, refer to https://github.com/ThinBASIC/module_...r/thinCore.inc )
call this before thinBasic_Run to add a variable of type LONG called MyLog with value 1234

thinBasic_AddVariable("MyLong", "", 1234, %VarSubType_Long)

call this before thinBasic_Run to add a variable of type LONG called MyLog that share the same memory area of your VB6 MyLongInVB6 LONG variable

Dim MyLongInVB6 as long
thinBasic_AddVariable("MyLong", "", 0, %VarSubType_Long, VarPtr(MyLongInVB6 ))

[ReneMiner]

Just as a hint: put an invisible (OUT OF VISIBLE RANGE ONLY) Textbox on your vb-form. Save the hwnd of it simply as Hex$ for a filename in an empty subfolder of your project. From thinbasic send

Dword Htext =val("0x" & SHELL_CAPTUREOUTPUT("CMD /C DIR /A:-D /B " & app_scriptpath & "the_folder\*.*", "", %Sw_hide,10))
Since its from same process you can use STRING sNUMERICS = mkbyt$(49,00,57,00,53,00,55,00,00)

Thats "1957" in widechar with a terminating zero
Then sendmessage(htext, %em_settext, sNumerics,-1)
No more sure if it was -1 but it should do something as redraw or refresh the control.
In vb your form should have a sub textbox1_textchange() that should fire up. Use val(textbox1.text) ...

[ErosOlmi]

Here attached a VB6 project in which I've injected a thinBasic variable connected to a VB6 variable so calling VB program can share variables with thinBasic script at runtime.

The script evaluate a math expression over X with X from a min to a max with step

ATTENTION: I've created a new thinCore.dll version for this script.
There is a a new exported function called thinBasic_AddVariable_VB
I did this because most of thinBasic API interfaces use EXTENDED numeric data type and EXTENDED (10 bytes) are not supported in VB6
So I developed thinBasic_AddVariable_VB that accepts Doubles

Hope this can help.

[Joe Caverly]

Thanks Eros!

I've tried your sample out,
and it works as documented.

I will do some more testing over the next few days.

Joe