Alternative IDE for VB6 and VBA [closed]

I have never heard of an alternative IDE for Vb6. However, these two (free) VB6 add-ins are indispensable and will make your life easier - especially if there is a lot of code. They are equally effective for VBA in Microsoft Office.

MZ-Tools: provides a superb collection of IDE tools - finding unused variables, unused methods, a great "search all", code snippets. Written by Carlos J. Quintero, to whom I now owe hours and hours of time.

http://www.mztools.com/v3/mztools3.aspx

And SmartIndenter, which takes care of all the auto-indenting. It does one thing and it does it well.

http://www.oaltd.co.uk/Indenter/Default.htm

Some time ago I did some research and nothing came up. I don't believe you have have any real alternatives...

But you could consider checking this out:http://www.axtools.com/products/cs2k3vb_screenshots.htmIt looks quite promising.

Addin for Visual Basic 6.0 packing more than 50 professional tools and assistants. The Code View Assistant enriches the standard VB6 code editor with branch lines for conditional statements, end-of-line details, and hotspots. Moreover, the Code Analyzer pinpoints dead and slow code, the SmartComplete and AutoText tools help you write code with a proficiency you never dreamed of, while the Enhanced Project Explorer with expanding code and Code Flow View can make accessing a code location the speedy action you always needed. Other tools: Extended Find, Find References, Designer Explorer, Code Formatter, TabOrder Designer (with auto-order), HotKey Designer, Error Handlers Inserter, Exception Protection, Spelling Checker, Strings Reviewer, Comments Conformity Checker, Task List Manager, Code Snippets Manager, Naming Standards Manager.Version 2007 adds Designer Analyzer, User Interface Standard Properties Manager, Library Explorer including Designer Snippets, many enhancements in most subsystems.

Because the VB6 IDE does not detect file changes made outside of the IDE, it can be quite difficult to develop code outside of the VB6 IDE, without running the risk of loosing code changes.

But it is possible to run a VB6 project build from the command line so it is possible to do simple VB development using any text editor/IDE capable of running a command an capture it's output.

But for things like GUI changes and debugging there is really no choice but to revert back to the VB6 IDE.

Here is the commands needed to run the build from the DOS prompt:

set PATH="d:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\VB98\";%PATH%vb6.exe /out ErrorFile.txt /make MyProject.vbp

FWIW the Zeus IDE has the ability to import a VB Project file and display the project details into project/workspace tree. It will also run the build an capture the output.