Hello, I'm new. I'm a teacher (not a programmer), but I would like to get a little more serious about hobby programming. I have Visual Basic 6.0 Working Model (this came with one of the programing books I bought for a college class a few years back). Unfortunately, I cannot create executables. I have to run my programs from inside the development environment. I'd really like to share my programs with friends and family. Please refer me to a site where I can download a free VB complier which will work on XP. I've found some for Windows 95, but they wouldn't install properly. Thanks for helping me.

No such thing.

That restriction is the reason it's free.
It's designed specifically as a learning tool, which is why distribution of the produced programs is inhibited by the requirement to run them inside the IDE.

There are NO free VB versions for Windows 95 either. There may be free BASIC compilers but those are not VB...

You can get free programming languages if you want, there are many examples.
Borland has a free version of their C++ Builder environment and compiler for non-commercial use.
Microsoft has a free version of their C++ compiler (without the IDE and tools) for any use whatsoever (and so has Borland of an older version).

Java is free of charge if you shop around a bit for editors and other tools you want.

If you want VB, it's not expensive. $100-$150 will get you the latest version on CD in a nice box from your nearest Microsoft dealer (who may have to order it for you as most don't stock development products).

Any site you find that has it for download will be distributing pirated software which is a criminal offense.

A criminal offence in most countries, that is.



Though, obviously, obtaining stolen goods (which is essentiall what you'd be doing) is probably a criminal offence where you are as well, unless you live on an oil rig or something.

Well since i dont know what you downloaded but if you download the one you found for win 98 all you have to do is right click on the exe and then go into compatiblity and run it in win98 mode. this should work and install it fine. here at work we had a program that a guy needed to install but it would only work on 98 and so they were goin to have me setup a 98 pc for him but i decided to try the 98 mode thing and it worked perfect and installed like a charm give it a try and see what happens

Thanks to those of you with helpful comments. As for the rest, I actually found something called Envelop that claimed to be a free VB clone (I haven't done anything criminal - gee!). Anyway, I can't figure out how to use it, so I guess I'll just buy the MS product.

You might want to look at BCX basic, it actually uses some common C compilers to to make the executable. It has a great help file and lots of nice samples (GUI and console mode). I use it a lot, it works well with Windows XP. Best of all, it's free and comes with a "VB like" EZIDE. Download from:
http://www.rjpcomputing.com/programm.../devsuite.html

I did this exact same thing - hobby programming. Actually I started writing calculator programs that applied some of the complex mathematical chemistry tools I had been computing longhand.

The solution for me was to go to my local college bookstore and buy the academic version of VisualStudio 6 for 100 bucks. VisualBasic 6 was only 60 clams.

As a teacher you should be able to get some price-break if you also use it in your curriculum.

-gkd

acedemic versions are available to teachers and students on showing their credentials. Though many stores sell them to just anyone you're not allowed to use them unless you're a teacher or student, and the license expires when you no longer fall in one of those groups.

The standard version of VB .NET 2003 costs about €140 including taxes, I think I saw it on Amazon for $100 or so.
At those prices I doubt there's an educational license of the standalone product, though there likely is one for the entire Visual Studio (I do know Microsoft sells an educational license to VB in combination with a student guide and I think a language reference, a nice set for about the same price as the standard version).