What's the best option to display Unicode text (hebrew, etc.) in VB6

Question

I have some customers who want to use our speech therapy software in Hebrew.

The programs are in VB6. The best option I\'m aware of are:

1. use the Forms

Answer 1

Presumably your users don't have Hebrew selected as the system default code page, otherwise you could just use the native VB6 controls (bearing in mind that Hebrew is right-to-left, obviously!).

Don't use Forms 2 - it will crash your VB6 program. Microsoft Knowledge Base article: "FM20.DLL is known to have many problems when used with Visual Basic and other developer products. Its use is neither recommended nor supported in any Visual Studio product."

I've no personal experience of the others, but your #3 option UniToolbox has been around for years and Google throws up some positive chatter about it on the newsgroups (EDIT - for instance VB6 internationalisation guru Michael Kaplan recommended it in a post in 2004 and a blog post in 2005).

One whacky option is to use API calls with the native VB6 controls - some pointers in Michael Kaplan's excellent book on Internationalization with VB6 and some sample code on his website too. But it would be lots of work. Do buy the book anyway as it's a gold mine of information on international issues in VB6. For instance the sample chapter explains your problems with Hebrew. Look for it secondhand as it's out of print.

Answer 2

Charset table from this link

• DBCS - Double-Byte Character Set

DBCS is actually not the correct terminology for what Windows uses. It is actually MBCS where a character can be 1 or 2 bytes. To illustrate this consider the following code which will take a Unicode string of English and Chinese characters, convert to a byte array of MBCS Chinese, dump the byte array to the immediate window, and finally convert it back to a Unicode string to display in a Unicode aware textbox. The byte array when converted using Chinese(PRC) LCID = 2052 contains single bytes for the english characters and double bytes for the Unicode characters. This proves that it is MBCS and not DBCS:

Answer 3

I found this tutorial very useful. Yes it is partially an ad for another Unicode Control Suite, but it has a lot of information about how to do it yourself and what issues are involved.

EDIT

I knew I had way more on this stored in my bookmarks.

First of all there is an article from Chilkat (another component vendor) about how to use the Font's charset (assuming it is a unicode font) to set different font types (you have to manually change the .frm since charset isn't exposed in the gui). Then all you have to do is convert from AnsiToUTF8 and back to support different languages (that is what Chilkat's control does).

Second, there are the Vesa Piittinen's free (Creative Commons, source included) VB6 controls for download here. They include Textbox, Label, Menu, List, Dialog, CommandButton, Caption (form's caption)). I haven't played with them much, but basically he is doing all the onPaint and the nice thing is that is all done in VB and you can look at the source.

Answer 4

According to KB224305 ("INFO: Usage and Redistribution of FM20.DLL"), you can install the free "Microsoft ActiveX Control Pad", which in turn installs the Forms 2.0 Library.

Maybe this is an option for you.

Answer 5

Here is all you should need:

Option Explicit
'
Private Type GETTEXTEX
    cb As Long
    flags As Long
    codepage As Long
    lpDefaultChar As Long
    lpUsedDefChar As Long
End Type
'
Private Type GETTEXTLENGTHEX
    flags As Long
    codepage As Long
End Type
'
Private Type SETTEXTEX
    flags As Long
    codepage As Long
End Type
'
Private Declare Function DefWindowProcW Lib "user32" (ByVal hWnd As Long, ByVal wMsg As Long, ByVal wParam As Long, ByVal lParam As Long) As Long
Private Declare Sub PutMem4 Lib "msvbvm60" (Destination As Any, Value As Any)
Private Declare Function SysAllocStringLen Lib "oleaut32" (ByVal OleStr As Long, ByVal bLen As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function OpenClipboard Lib "user32.dll" (ByVal hWnd As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function EmptyClipboard Lib "user32.dll" () As Long
Private Declare Function CloseClipboard Lib "user32.dll" () As Long
Private Declare Function IsClipboardFormatAvailable Lib "user32.dll" (ByVal wFormat As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function GetClipboardData Lib "user32.dll" (ByVal wFormat As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function SetClipboardData Lib "user32.dll" (ByVal wFormat As Long, ByVal hMem As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function GlobalAlloc Lib "kernel32.dll" (ByVal wFlags As Long, ByVal dwBytes As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function GlobalLock Lib "kernel32.dll" (ByVal hMem As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function GlobalUnlock Lib "kernel32.dll" (ByVal hMem As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function GlobalSize Lib "kernel32" (ByVal hMem As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function lstrcpy Lib "kernel32.dll" Alias "lstrcpyW" (ByVal lpString1 As Long, ByVal lpString2 As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function SendMessage Lib "user32.dll" Alias "SendMessageA" (ByVal hWnd As Long, ByVal wMsg As Long, ByVal wParam As Long, ByRef lParam As Any) As Long
Private Declare Function SendMessageWLng Lib "user32" Alias "SendMessageW" (ByVal hWnd As Long, ByVal wMsg As Long, ByVal wParam As Long, ByVal lParam As Long) As Long
'
' The following is from MSDN help:
'
' UNICODE: International Standards Organization (ISO) character standard.
' Unicode uses a 16-bit (2-byte) coding scheme that allows for 65,536 distinct character spaces.
' Unicode includes representations for punctuation marks, mathematical symbols, and dingbats,
' with substantial room for future expansion.
'
' vbUnicode constant:     Converts the string toUnicode using the default code page of the system.
' vbFromUnicode constant: Converts the string from Unicode to the default code page of the system.
'
' LCID: The LocaleID, if different than the system LocaleID. (The system LocaleID is the default.)
'

Public Property Let UniCaption(ctrl As Object, sUniCaption As String)
    Const WM_SETTEXT As Long = &HC
    ' USAGE: UniCaption(SomeControl) = s
    '
    ' This is known to work on Form, MDIForm, Checkbox, CommandButton, Frame, & OptionButton.
    ' Other controls are not known.
    '
    ' As a tip, build your Unicode caption using ChrW.
    ' Also note the careful way we pass the string to the unicode API call to circumvent VB6's auto-ASCII-conversion.
    DefWindowProcW ctrl.hWnd, WM_SETTEXT, 0&, ByVal StrPtr(sUniCaption)
End Property

Public Property Get UniCaption(ctrl As Object) As String
    Const WM_GETTEXT As Long = &HD
    Const WM_GETTEXTLENGTH As Long = &HE
    ' USAGE: s = UniCaption(SomeControl)
    '
    ' This is known to work on Form, MDIForm, Checkbox, CommandButton, Frame, & OptionButton.
    ' Other controls are not known.
    Dim lLen As Long
    Dim lPtr As Long
    '
    lLen = DefWindowProcW(ctrl.hWnd, WM_GETTEXTLENGTH, 0&, ByVal 0&) ' Get length of caption.
    If lLen Then ' Must have length.
        lPtr = SysAllocStringLen(0&, lLen) ' Create a BSTR of that length.
        PutMem4 ByVal VarPtr(UniCaption), ByVal lPtr ' Make the property return the BSTR.
        DefWindowProcW ctrl.hWnd, WM_GETTEXT, lLen + 1&, ByVal lPtr ' Call the default Unicode window procedure to fill the BSTR.
    End If
End Property

Public Property Let UniClipboard(sUniText As String)
    ' Puts a VB string in the clipboard without converting it to ASCII.
    Dim iStrPtr As Long
    Dim iLen As Long
    Dim iLock As Long
    Const GMEM_MOVEABLE As Long = &H2
    Const GMEM_ZEROINIT As Long = &H40
    Const CF_UNICODETEXT As Long = &HD
    '
    OpenClipboard 0&
    EmptyClipboard
    iLen = LenB(sUniText) + 2&
    iStrPtr = GlobalAlloc(GMEM_MOVEABLE Or GMEM_ZEROINIT, iLen)
    iLock = GlobalLock(iStrPtr)
    lstrcpy iLock, StrPtr(sUniText)
    GlobalUnlock iStrPtr
    SetClipboardData CF_UNICODETEXT, iStrPtr
    CloseClipboard
End Property

Public Property Get UniClipboard() As String
    ' Gets a UNICODE string from the clipboard and puts it in a standard VB string (which is UNICODE).
    Dim iStrPtr As Long
    Dim iLen As Long
    Dim iLock As Long
    Dim sUniText As String
    Const CF_UNICODETEXT As Long = 13&
    '
    OpenClipboard 0&
    If IsClipboardFormatAvailable(CF_UNICODETEXT) Then
        iStrPtr = GetClipboardData(CF_UNICODETEXT)
        If iStrPtr Then
            iLock = GlobalLock(iStrPtr)
            iLen = GlobalSize(iStrPtr)
            sUniText = String$(iLen \ 2& - 1&, vbNullChar)
            lstrcpy StrPtr(sUniText), iLock
            GlobalUnlock iStrPtr
        End If
        UniClipboard = sUniText
    End If
    CloseClipboard
End Property

Public Sub SetupRichTextboxForUnicode(rtb As RichTextBox)
    ' Call this so that the rtb doesn't try to do any RTF interpretation.  We will just be using it for Unicode display.
    ' Once this is called, the following two procedures will work with the rtb.
    Const TM_PLAINTEXT As Long = 1&
    Const EM_SETTEXTMODE As Long = &H459
    SendMessage rtb.hWnd, EM_SETTEXTMODE, TM_PLAINTEXT, 0& ' Set the control to use "plain text" mode so RTF isn't interpreted.
End Sub

Public Property Let RichTextboxUniText(rtb As RichTextBox, sUniText As String)
    ' Usage: Just assign any VB6 string to the rtb.
    '        If the string contains Unicode (which VB6 strings are capable of), it will be correctly handled.
    Dim stUnicode As SETTEXTEX
    Const EM_SETTEXTEX As Long = &H461
    Const RTBC_DEFAULT As Long = 0&
    Const CP_UNICODE As Long = 1200&
    '
    stUnicode.flags = RTBC_DEFAULT ' This could be otherwise.
    stUnicode.codepage = CP_UNICODE
    SendMessageWLng rtb.hWnd, EM_SETTEXTEX, VarPtr(stUnicode), StrPtr(sUniText)
End Property

Public Property Get RichTextboxUniText(rtb As RichTextBox) As String
    Dim uGTL As GETTEXTLENGTHEX
    Dim uGT As GETTEXTEX
    Dim iChars As Long
    Const EM_GETTEXTEX As Long = &H45E
    Const EM_GETTEXTLENGTHEX As Long = &H45F
    Const CP_UNICODE As Long = 1200&
    Const GTL_USECRLF As Long = 1&
    Const GTL_PRECISE As Long = 2&
    Const GTL_NUMCHARS As Long = 8&
    Const GT_USECRLF As Long = 1&
    '
    uGTL.flags = GTL_USECRLF Or GTL_PRECISE Or GTL_NUMCHARS
    uGTL.codepage = CP_UNICODE
    iChars = SendMessageWLng(rtb.hWnd, EM_GETTEXTLENGTHEX, VarPtr(uGTL), 0&)
    '
    uGT.cb = (iChars + 1) * 2
    uGT.flags = GT_USECRLF
    uGT.codepage = CP_UNICODE
    RichTextboxUniText = String$(iChars, 0&)
    SendMessageWLng rtb.hWnd, EM_GETTEXTEX, VarPtr(uGT), StrPtr(RichTextboxUniText)
End Property

Public Sub SaveStringToUnicodeFile(sData As String, sFileSpec As String)
    ' These are typically .TXT files.  They can be read with notepad.
    Dim iFle As Long
    '
    iFle = FreeFile
    Open sFileSpec For Binary As iFle
    Put iFle, , &HFEFF ' This is the Unicode header to a text file.  First byte = FF, second byte = FE.
    Put iFle, , UnicodeByteArrayFromString(sData)
    Close iFle
End Sub

Public Function LoadStringFromUnicodeFile(sFileSpec As String) As String
    ' These are typically .TXT files.  They can be read with notepad.
    Dim iFle As Long
    Dim bb() As Byte
    Dim i As Integer
    '
    iFle = FreeFile
    Open sFileSpec For Binary As iFle
    Get iFle, , i
    If i <> &HFEFF Then ' Unicode file header.  First byte = FF, second byte = FE.
        Close iFle
        Exit Function ' It's not a valid Unicode file.
    End If
    ReDim bb(1 To LOF(iFle) - 2&)
    Get iFle, , bb
    Close iFle
    LoadStringFromUnicodeFile = bb ' This directly copies the byte array to the Unicode string (no conversion).
    ' Note: If you try to directly read the file as a string, VB6 will attempt to convert the string from ASCII to Unicode.
End Function

Public Function AsciiByteArrayFromString(s As String) As Byte()
   ' This converts the "s" string to an ASCII string before placing in the byte array.
   AsciiByteArrayFromString = StrConv(s, vbFromUnicode)
End Function

Public Function StringFromAsciiByteArray(bb() As Byte) As String
    ' This assumes that the "bb" array uses only one byte per character and expands it to UNICODE before placing in string.
    StringFromAsciiByteArray = StrConv(bb, vbUnicode)
End Function

Public Function UnicodeByteArrayFromString(s As String) As Byte()
    ' This directly copies the Unicode string into the byte array, using two bytes per character (i.e., Unicode).
    UnicodeByteArrayFromString = s
End Function

Public Function StringFromUnicodeByteArray(bb() As Byte) As String
    ' This directly copies the byte array into the Unicode string, using two bytes per character.
    '
    ' Interestingly, you can assign an odd number of bytes to a string.
    ' The Len(s) function will not count the last (odd) byte, but the LenB(s) function will correctly report it.
    ' However, it is advisable to keep the byte array an even number of bytes.
    StringFromUnicodeByteArray = bb
End Function

Answer 6

Here are some comments about displaying Unicode characters in Microsoft Visual Basic forms using resource (.RES) files:

When I pasted Russian or Japanese characters to Microsoft Visual Basic 6 Resource Editor when creating a resource (.RES) file, the characters would appear as question marks (?) both in MSVB6 Resource Editor and in MSVB6 forms displayed on a computer with Russian or Japanese locale, respectively, using the resource DLL that I built from the RES file through MSVB6.

However, if I added the characters to the resource file by pasting them into Resource Hacker http://www.angusj.com/resourcehacker, the characters still would display as question marks in MSVB6 Resource Editor, but would display correctly on a computer with appropriate locale after I built the resource DLLs through MSVB6.

One can make resource DLLs for each of several languages and use Microsoft's GetUserDefaultLCID or GetUserDefaultLocaleName to decide which to load.