twinBASIC Weekly Update

twinBASIC Update: January 6, 2026

Highlights include what could be your last chance to get a perpetual twinBASIC license and the first of twelve monthly tB challenges for 2026.

Mike Wolfe

Jan 6, 2026 • 5 min read

On April 23, 2021, I helped Wayne Phillips introduce the world to twinBASIC at the Access DevCon Vienna conference. I boldly predicted that twinBASIC (along with the Monaco editor) would replace VBA and its outdated development environment by 2025. With that goal in mind, this weekly update is my attempt to keep the project fresh in the minds of the VBA development community.

Every ~~Sunday~~ ~~Monday~~ week, I will be providing updates on the status of the project, linking to new articles discussing twinBASIC, and generally trying to increase engagement with the project. If you come across items that should be included here, please leave a comment below.

Here are some links to get involved with the project:

Highlights

Last Chance for Perpetual Licenses?

While twinBASIC is primarily a subscription-licensed product, Wayne has offered perpetual licenses on occasion during certain sale periods (such as Black Friday). If you missed your opportunity in November, you're in luck, as Wayne is celebrating the New Year with another sale.

Here's Wayne in Discord:

As part of our New Year sale period, we're once again offering perpetual licences, available until Friday 9th January: https://twinbasic.com/newyear2026

With the impending v1.0 launch date, this current perpetual license sale may be your last chance to lock in a lifetime subscription to one of the premium twinBASIC licenses. Wayne noted in a follow-up Discord conversation that future perpetual license sales are not a guarantee:

...the longer term view for tB is that we will be pushing subscriptions more and more, and so there's no guarantee we'll be offering any perpetual licences in future.

If you've been thinking about buying a perpetual twinBASIC license, you should get on that before it's too late.

Monthly twinBASIC Challenge: £100 Reward

From Wayne in Discord:

As we kick off 2026, we’re introducing monthly twinBASIC challenges, giving you the chance to win a £100 account credit redeemable against future twinBASIC licences.

Here's the January challenge:

📣 twinBASIC Monthly Challenge #1

🛠️ Self-Contained Diagnostic Tool

Build a self-contained Windows diagnostic tool using twinBASIC.

Your tool should report useful information about the system it is running on.

There is no single correct output - different approaches and interpretations are expected.

🎁 Prize

£100 twinBASIC account credit
- (non-transferable, no cash alternative, can only be used towards future twinBASIC licences)

✅ Requirements

Built using twinBASIC
Submission must be a single .twinproj file
Produces a single Windows EXE
Runs on Windows 10 and later
No admin rights required (optional enhanced output when elevated)
No external dependencies
(Built-in twinBASIC packages and built-in OS / WinAPI features only)
Output may be console or GUI

📊 Diagnostic content

Report information from at least three distinct categories.

Examples:

OS version / build
CPU information
Memory usage
Disk information
Process information
Environment variables
System uptime
Locale / codepage
Network configuration
Installed runtimes (e.g. .NET)

🏆 Judging

Entries will be judged across multiple categories, including:

Usefulness of reported information
Performance
Smallest EXE size
Well-documented or self-documenting code
Interesting or clever use of APIs
Derived or inferred system metrics
Overall elegance and polish

Bonus points may be awarded for:

Use of newer twinBASIC features (e.g. delegates, generics)
Particularly clean or insightful design

Winner selected at the sole discretion of the twinBASIC team.

⏰ Deadline

Saturday 31st January 2026

Submissions will be locked after the deadline.

Discord Chat Summary

^{* Auto-generated via Claude-Sonnet-4.5}

Overview

The final week of 2025 and opening days of 2026 brought significant community engagement around project architecture, licensing strategy, and technical discussions. Wayne announced a New Year sale featuring perpetual licenses and introduced monthly coding challenges with £100 prizes. The community actively explored WinRT socket implementations, database connectivity options, and addressed several migration issues from VB6.

Licensing & Business Strategy

Wayne announced perpetual licenses available until January 9th as part of the New Year 2026 sale, emphasizing this may be the last such offering as twinBASIC transitions toward a subscription-focused model
The perpetual license sale aims to boost cash reserves for planned 2026 growth initiatives
Wayne shared optimism about upcoming developments, stating "So much is happening for twinBASIC right now" with major announcements planned for coming months
Monthly coding challenges launched with £100 account credit prizes redeemable against future licenses

Project Architecture & File Management

Wayne clarified that all source files are currently embedded within the .twinproj file, making projects portable by simply copying the file
Files can be exported via the File menu, though exported files aren't automatically linked back to the project
Detailed guidance provided for importing individual VB6 forms into twinBASIC projects via GitHub documentation

WinRT Socket Implementation

Extended discussion around WinRT StreamSockets as a potential Winsock replacement, with VanGoghGaming providing detailed technical guidance on async patterns
Community members explored the learning curve of WinRT's async-first architecture versus traditional socket implementations
The official twinBASIC Winsock replacement is scheduled for 2026-Q3 according to the roadmap
Discussion highlighted the difference between lightweight socket controls and full WinRT implementations for various use cases

Database Connectivity & Scalability

Community discussion explored cross-platform database compatibility layers beyond standard ADO/ODBC drivers
Interest expressed in heterogeneous joins between different datasource types, similar to LINQ capabilities
Conversation touched on enterprise scalability concerns when moving from SQL Server to cloud databases like Snowflake

Bug Reports & Migration Issues

Validate event firing incorrectly for control arrays - triggers on next control gaining focus rather than current control losing focus
WebView2 control showing "not ready" errors with no current fix available
Memory locking error reported when reading file bytes in a loop using FileSystemObject
Type alias support confirmed via Alias type1 As type2 syntax, with known bug in VarPtr(arrayOfAlias(0))

Documentation & Community Resources

The new features documentation page migrated from GitHub wiki to docs.twinbasic.com with improved formatting
Main website's "New Features In Detail" button needs updating to point to new documentation location
Community praised fafalone's comprehensive "new in tB over VB6" features resource
VB6 CHM documentation file shared privately to assist with documentation writing efforts

Conclusion

The transition into 2026 marks a strategic shift for twinBASIC toward subscription-based licensing while maintaining strong community engagement through new initiatives like monthly coding challenges. Technical discussions demonstrated the community's maturity in tackling complex topics like async socket programming and database scalability. Several migration issues from VB6 continue to surface, particularly around control events and WebView2 integration, providing valuable feedback for ongoing development. The roadmap's Q3 2026 Winsock replacement and continued focus on server-side capabilities position twinBASIC for expanded use cases beyond traditional VB6 client applications.

Changelog

Here are the updates from the past week. You can also find this information by visiting the GitHub twinBASIC Releases page.

AI-Generated Changelog Summary

^{* Auto-generated via Claude-Sonnet-4.5, sorted in order of its opinion of "most impactful changes."}

Improved IDE Stability: Fixed multiple errors reported through automatic error reporting, enhancing overall development environment reliability

WARNING: The following issues are present in each of the releases below:

IMPORTANT: This is a BETA release under active development. It is not recommended for production use.

BETA 949

fixed: some IDE errors as reported via automatic error reports

BETA 950

fixed: some IDE errors as reported via automatic error reports