XYplorer Beta Club

I'm happy to officially announce that XYplorer will switch from Visual Basic 6 to twinBASIC (https://twinbasic.com/) this year. The advantages are numerous and overwhelming. To name just a few:

• XYplorer.exe will be a 64-bit executable with full support for 64-bit preview handlers, 64-bit thumbnail providers, 64-bit IFilters, 64-bit context menu, 64-bit codecs, 64-bit you name it (XY64.exe, XY64ctxmenu.exe, and XY64contents.exe are no longer needed).

• Full multi-threading (XYcopy.exe is no longer needed).

• Full Unicode support throughout the user interface, so that all Unicode characters work always and everywhere, regardless of the OS system language (aka locale).

• No more 100MB string memory limit.

• Zero dependencies. You can throw it into any Windows (from XP onwards). It's all included.

• Cross-platform support planned: Mac, Linux and Android.

• XYplorer will be even faster than it already is thanks to a greatly improved compiler.

• Note that all current licenses for the 32-bit version will be valid for the upcoming 64-bit version. Full continuity guaranteed.

• Last but not least: Using a modern living language like twinBASIC will make development even faster and much easier. I can tell you: Writing this application in VB6 (dead since 1998) was a black art. I often felt like a voodoo programmer.

There's still a lot of work to be done, but I expect to see tangible results in the first half of 2025.

It’s been AGES since I was active here, partially because my needs for anything more than the OLD version that I am running on my ancient but still usable Windows XP (yes, ) Dell laptop!

But i have XY active constantly on that laptop! I won’t tell you how obsolete the XY is yet it does everything I want and more…

Happy to see that you found a way to continue developing this excellent software!

So saw this posting today and thought it appropriate to say howdy!

Addendum - realized that i joined this forum in Jan of 2006!
Thus - The dedication of this developer, Donald, is simply amazing and incredible!

j_c_hallgren back in the house, what a pleasure!

Thanks! I am on my iPad and didn’t have my laptop on….
Want a laugh? The version I am using is…drumroll…14.10.0113!
I told you it was OLD!

Please, no screenshot! I wouldn't survive it.

PS: well, it's okay, slight retro vibe: https://www.xyplorer.com/release_14.10.php

most amazing news! Kudos to Don. Peeking back here after a long absence, and not surprised at all to see the speed of development hasn't waned one bit.

can't wait to see a native version of xyplorer running on linux, haven't found anything close to comparable yet. time to dust off my xydata folder soon!

Never too old to get excited. I'm truly happy and excited for Don and all the Xyplorer users out there.

I should mention that it was jupe who drew my attention to twinBASIC six weeks ago. I had never heard of it before. That private message was worth the effort.

This is exciting news. I have been amazed by the author's ability to milk VB6 this long--and not merely keep XYplorer working, but improving it nearly every single week for a very long time. Kudos, sir!

One thing I have really enjoyed about the current deployment scheme is that the entire application is a mere handful of files. Not that it really matters, but is cool to see when so many applications created with more modern tools spit out scores of runtime files and directories. It will be interesting to see how the twinBASIC-generated runtime fileset looks.

Wow - News of the year ( )!

I surely wish leaving VB6 behind will work out this time. I guess your exciting announcement is already based on some successful experiments.

Multi-threading for the win. Planned support for Linux and MacOS is even more thrilling (though this may be longest road ahead).

kger wrote: ↑12 Jan 2025 03:43 It will be interesting to see how the twinBASIC-generated runtime fileset looks.

It will be a single executable of about 30MB with no dependencies other than the Windows core itself.

Not sure yet if there will be a 32-bit edition along with the 64-bit one. (But technically it would be easy to make it.)

Filehero wrote: ↑12 Jan 2025 07:22 I surely wish leaving VB6 behind will work out this time.

There is no comparison to the VB.NET disaster of a few years ago. This thing basically works NOW. It's only a few glitches away from emulating the current XYVB perfectly. I can probably upload a 32-bit test version in a few days. Making the 64-bit version will take some work, but not much more than a week. The multithreading stuff will take longer. And then there is a lot of destruction to be done under the hood, because maybe 75% of the current code is just there to do stuff that VB6 is not supposed to do. Tricks, voodoo, hacks. All of that can be thrown away and replaced with simple, straightforward code. I can finally trade in my camo for something cool and comfortable.

Thanks God ….

I sometimes had bad dreams about MS stopping support of 32bit apps…

Seeing all the mentioned advantages: overwhelming!
And all the old names being there immediately - great!

All I can say: CONGRATULATIONS!!!
And may it all work as you expect...
(And: thanks to jupe, too!)

Seems it's a good day, today

PS: I'm not convinced that a 32bit version is needed. But that's just me!

Reading the possibility of a MacOS version gave me heart-eyes instantly!

admin wrote: ↑11 Jan 2025 18:49 I'm happy to officially announce that XYplorer will switch from Visual Basic 6 to twinBASIC (https://twinbasic.com/) this year. The advantages are numerous and overwhelming.

Very good news ! This will allow you to add a long claimed feature : double tree for double pane. Thanks a lot and happy new year