Some questions bevore buying PB

BackupUser · Post by **BackupUser** » Thu Feb 21, 2002 9:12 pm

Restored from previous forum. Originally posted by Newbie.

Hi,

i'm new to PB and currently i try to decide, which language i should prefere. Maybe someone can enlighten me about the advantages and disadvantages of Purebasic for Windows.

I need a BASIC programming language, that is mainly *stable* and do not "hacking" in any way for faster speed or such things. My applications should run on Windows 3000

I read the entire forum the last two days and find so many problem-reports (well, not many compared to the VisualBasic Forums, i guess). So my next answer is. How "future-stable" is Purebasic? Is there a active development? Are bugs fixed within a reasonable time. (Don't mean the tiny bugs such "must open console prior to printn, but such things like incompatibility with tools and other programs. I read Facefactorys report about Windowblinds. Well, i'm using this tool with great success and had never any problem like Facefaktory. The only reason for such problems are inproperly designed CallNextHook implementations, so the event-chain is breaking up. Windowblinds3 is written in cooperation with Microsoft and is native on WinXP. So When my programs don't run with this wide-spreaded tool, PB is just dying for me)

My main interest is application-programming. I want to jump from the visual basic train to another language, because programming sizable GUIs with dynamic GUI-elements is a hassle on VB. Is it possible to dynamic size Gadgets in PureBasic? (it come without a Interface-Designer, so i guess Gadgets are drawn entirely with functions)

BackupUser · Post by **BackupUser** » Thu Feb 21, 2002 9:35 pm

Restored from previous forum. Originally posted by PB.

> I read the entire forum the last two days and find so many problem-reports

PureBasic is a young language, and thus has a few teething problems. Big deal.

> Is there a active development? Are bugs fixed within a reasonable time.

Yes. The author, Fred, releases a new version every two months or less. You
can see this yourself at the news page at http://www.purebasic.com .

> I read Facefactorys report about Windowblinds.

WindowBlinds is (reportedly) not 100% OS-compliant. PureBasic is.

> My main interest is application-programming.

PureBasic is perfect for this sort of programming.

> it come without a Interface-Designer, so i guess Gadgets are drawn
> entirely with functions

Yes. Or, you could design your interfaces with Visual Basic and then use the
app called "vis2pure" to convert them to PureBasic source code:

http://www.bowlay.com/vis2pure.htm

> Is it possible to dynamic size Gadgets in PureBasic?

You need to code it, but it isn't hard. Perhaps the author of vis2pure could
add this feature to a future release, to do it automatically to the converted
forms?

I've had PureBasic for some time now and love it. I also own Visual Basic and
haven't touched it since getting PureBasic. I recommend PureBasic very highly.
The direct support from the author is fantastic and you'll get great help from
these forums. Just do it.

PB - Registered PureBasic Coder

Edited by - PB on 22 February 2002 10:45:17

BackupUser · Post by **BackupUser** » Fri Feb 22, 2002 9:18 am

Restored from previous forum. Originally posted by fred.

I read the entire forum the last two days and find so many problem-reports (well, not many compared to the VisualBasic Forums, i guess). So my next answer is. How "future-stable" is Purebasic? Is there a active development? Are bugs fixed within a reasonable time. (Don't mean the tiny bugs such "must open console prior to printn, but such things like incompatibility with tools and other programs. I read Facefactorys report about Windowblinds. Well, i'm using this tool with great success and had never any problem like Facefaktory. The only reason for such problems are inproperly designed CallNextHook implementations, so the event-chain is breaking up. Windowblinds3 is written in cooperation with Microsoft and is native on WinXP. So When my programs don't run with this wide-spreaded tool, PB is just dying for me)

Even if I try to do PureBasic as fast as I can, I will never pass trough normal Windows API functions. BTW, all commands are tested under W95 trough WinXP and works perfectly under three OSes. About your tough on WindowBlinds, I don't see why all PB programs runs perfectly on Win95, Win98(SE), WinMe, WinNT, Win2000, WinXP (regular) and fails with this hacky patch WindowBlinds. You think my event chains is breaking ? Sounds a bit strange isn't it ? . It's boring me to fix it to support a THIRD part os program, but I will probably do it as users want it. I've tested windowblind and the only thing I got is lot of crashs and unstability.

My main interest is application-programming. I want to jump from the visual basic train to another language, because programming sizable GUIs with dynamic GUI-elements is a hassle on VB. Is it possible to dynamic size Gadgets in PureBasic? (it come without a Interface-Designer, so i guess Gadgets are drawn entirely with functions)

Resizable GUI are very easy to do with PureBasic. In fact, it's one of stroing advantage to build GUI manually..

Fred - AlphaSND

BackupUser · Post by **BackupUser** » Fri Feb 22, 2002 10:50 am

Restored from previous forum. Originally posted by PB.

> It's boring me to fix it to support a THIRD part os program, but I will
> probably do it as users want it.

A noble gesture, but is it really worth wasting your time on WindowBlinds when
it's not even part of the native Operating System? I don't think you should
try to have third-party app support to PureBasic... what does everyone else
think?

PB - Registered PureBasic Coder

BackupUser · Post by **BackupUser** » Fri Feb 22, 2002 12:48 pm

Restored from previous forum. Originally posted by FAKEFACTORY.

Well, the Windowblinds problem isn't a PB-problem... Windowblinds seems to be hooked up in a very bad way. But if you want to be shure, your exe will run on mashines with Windowblinds installed, just ask me.

It's relativly simple to make an pb-exe "windowblinds-proof"

Registered PureBasic Coder

BackupUser · Post by **BackupUser** » Fri Feb 22, 2002 1:17 pm

Restored from previous forum. Originally posted by Rings.

tell it here to avoid conflicts.

Well, the Windowblinds problem isn't a PB-problem... Windowblinds seems to be hooked up in a very bad way. But if you want to be shure, your exe will run on mashines with Windowblinds installed, just ask me.

It's relativly simple to make an pb-exe "windowblinds-proof"

Registered PureBasic Coder

Getting better with a little help from my friends....thx Siggi

BackupUser · Post by **BackupUser** » Fri Feb 22, 2002 2:00 pm

Restored from previous forum. Originally posted by Ralf.

Since WINDOWSBLINDS is not part of PureBASIC you shouldn't waste any more time on it.
It's better too concentrate only on PUREBASIC.

BackupUser · Post by **BackupUser** » Fri Feb 22, 2002 8:48 pm

Restored from previous forum. Originally posted by PB.

TronDoc: I don't get it (the smiley) ?

PB - Registered PureBasic Coder

BackupUser · Post by **BackupUser** » Thu Feb 28, 2002 8:33 pm

Restored from previous forum. Originally posted by PB.

> Is it possible to dynamic size Gadgets in PureBasic?

YES. I've just posted a working example at the URL below, although you
probably can't test it with the demo version of PureBasic. And vis2pure v0.21
now supports this as standard, although it's not ready for release for a while.

The best thing about this example is that the dynamic sizing is AUTOMATIC: there
is NO additional coding required by the programmer to do it. It's all mathematical.

viewtopic.php?t=932

PB - Registered PureBasic Coder

Edited by - PB on 28 February 2002 20:40:17