In the past, I used Turbo Pascal for Windows (which became Borland Pascal 7 Windows), Visual Basic and Delphi.
A long the way, I've also meet Profan and other obscure (by todays standards) IDEs, namely Visual Fox Pro and dBase Fast for Windows (based on XBasic).
Some methods of making programs for both Win16&Win32:
VB: Write in VB1 and take it with you until VB6. Or VB4, which has support for both Win16/32.
Then, save it as VB6 project and open it in .Net 2005 or 2008 and use the converter to create an .Net application.
- Note that simple VB6 programs still run out-of-box (W98+) on the newest Windows, even, since MSVBVM60.DLL is part of it.
TPW: You can write in TWP and import your code in Delphi 1 and compile it with the help of old API support (TPL instead of VCL ?).
Delphi: Write your project in Delphi 1 to get a Win16 application. If you like, Import in Delphi 2 and complie a Win32s application.
Once importet in Delphi 3, it can be compiled as Win32/Win32c application (last lassic Delphi is 7).
In either case, modern common controls can be used in applications made with old compilers by adding a dummy manifest file to them.
That way, some modern retro program written for, say, Win98 does look far less ugly on Windows XP/7/10..
Re: Programs for building software (dos, windows 9x)
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