The Jabaco project actually consists of two parts: the Jabaco IDE and the Jabaco framework.
The IDE was developed by Manuel Siekman. The source is not open. External contributions to the IDE have to be handled by Manuel.
The framework - although also developed by Manuel - is now open source. There is a Google site where enthusiasts can look at and work on the code.
Unfortunately, the creation of new Jabaco.jar framework files is complicated and troublesome.

Manuel Siekman provides the www.jabaco.org site, but he has not been visibly active on Jabaco for several months by now.
There are some people active in the forum (including myself) discussing new findings, exchanging ideas and answering questions.
All in all, I would not regard Jabaco a production-ready tool.It definitely needs more work on the framework.

The Jabaco community is not centrally managed. So there is no master team which could be asked how to contribute.
If you or your team have the energy and knowledge to improve the framework, this would be a great help.
I hope that you enjoy the intellectual challenge and come up with some useful modifications and extensions.

Greetings

A1880

The Open Source of the framework is good news, but I can't find downloads (although I can see the changes log). This is crucial to instil confidence for VB6 professionals stranded by "the great treason of Redmond" (quoting www.vbforums.com/showthread.php?t=565238 ).

Being a strandee, I can't invest time in this great project only to find it stagnates or changes. I don't mind paying say $100 for access to source as long as it IS open (and I know it compiles). The IDE source is important too, but failing that, an Open Standard i/f for IDEs?.
For the record, I've tried Jabaco and find it follows the philosophy of VB6 s/w well. It's simplicity despite portability and power is genius.
Why VB / Jaba? I argued with Microsoft at high level to retain VB6. It is the event driven, departmental hierarchy and bug-defying tight-binding & single-thread that I miss most. VB6 is not "bad software" or a "horrible hack" as non-VB forums suggest -- we bought the enterprise edition and VB was the 2nd biggest part of MS's VS6 (high-level in VB, low level in C++).
Why bring this up now? Although VB6 went out in 2000, it was only the 2010 MS Dot Net release that announced no more attempts at a proper upgrade path to Dot Net. There are still major users out there including me, banks, public services etc, who were all secretly holding out for a decent upgrade path. Now we don't trust MS even if they did one.
What does this mean? It seems Jabaco is well placed to take over RAD. However, to be a serious contender against the staying power of MS etc, Jaba must show dedication to the ethic of open source. Major clients (banks etc) and suppliers (Oracle etc) are going this way.
So I will be watching closely, hope to see source soon, and will help where I can.

Hi,

Quoted

The Open Source of the framework is good news, but I can't find downloads (although I can see the changes log).

Here in the Forum, move your eyes up to the Jabaco Panther, move your eyes to the right, click "Download" move your eyes back to the Jabaco Panther, below you will find Download and Framework, click "Framework" under "Related information" you will find the tutorial "Develop the Jabaco Framework" there you will find the information to use a subversion tool like Turtoiswe SVN, to be able to download the Jabaco Framework.
at the moment the Framework will not compile because the Jabaco compiler at Google.code is not able to compile without the form designer loaded properly.
regards
OlimilO

That's brilliant, I have not seen an open source project that is that open, well managed and documented. I'm sure the compilation glitch is being resolved. Reassurance has been duly received!

Like I said above, I think what you are doing is very important. It should become a very pivotal future tool. Let's hope the IDE catches up and gets back in the swim soon!