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.