Starting a project

This chapter follows the IDE from the moment it starts to a project that is open: what the first start asks, the dialog that makes or opens a project, every way of opening one, importing a VB6 project, and the sample projects that ship with the IDE.

  • First launch — the questions the first start asks, the splash, the empty IDE, the licence and the edition.
  • New Project — the New / Open Project dialog: its sections, its search and keys, what each template makes, the New Project Options box, and the recent lists.
  • Opening projects — the ways to open a project, one project at a time, the file association, what happens as a project loads, and what to do when one will not open.
  • Importing a VB6 project — the routes for a .vbp file, what the importer converts and what it leaves, and its log.
  • Samples — the 26 sample projects: what each is, and where the documentation uses it.

From a double-click to a project

When the IDE starts, it shows a banner picture while it reads its saved settings. Three questions can come before anything else, each only until you have answered it once: the licence agreement, whether the IDE may send error reports, and, on the very first start, the IDE Options dialog. First launch describes them.

What happens next depends on how the IDE was started:

  • With a project on the command line, for example by a double-click on a .twinproj file, the IDE opens that project at once. It shows no splash and no New / Open Project dialog. See Opening projects.
  • With no project, for example from the IDE’s own icon, the IDE shows the splash for two and a half seconds, and then the New / Open Project dialog.

The dialog makes a project from a template or a sample, imports one, or opens a recent project. A project made from a template or a sample, or imported, is new and has no file on disk until you save it. See What a new project is.

The compiler starts only when a project loads. Until then the status bar reads tB Services: UNAVAILABLE and tB Licence: NOT READY, and the editor’s language features have nothing to work on. The empty IDE says what works without a project.

See Also