Best open-source, cross-platform, compiled, GUI alternative to Visual Basic? [closed]

Question

I'm about to write a little GUI app that will sit in the system tray, doing a little FTP and ODBC.

I'd like to develop in Linux, if possible.

What would you recommend?

Thanks a bunch!

Answer 1

I'll probably be down mod but I think that FreePascal is your best bet.

Most, if not all, of the functionalities are cross platform and resolved quite nicely. I'm not sure, but I could investigate, but the TTrayIcon is cross-platform and that's about what you need to get your app in the tray. It also has very good core connectivity with the major players on Databases. It's cross-platform in Windows, Linux, MAC OS and even in ARM and other embed environments.

The only thing is it's Object Pascal and not VB'ish.

Answer 2

Gambas is the obvious choice given the way you asked the question. But I don't think that it is probably what you really want. It is the closest thing to VB6 for Linux, though.

If you really have to be compiled, Perl is an option (JIT) and is available ubiquitously on Linux. Most Linux apps in this situation, if they require being compiled, would use C/C++ wth the QT or GTK toolkits. But more often on Linux you would see Python or Perl being used.