Some questions before moving development over

[JackieBlue]

Good afternoon.

I am currently a VB developer having used VB 3 through VB 2008. I am basically fed up of working with object oriented programming - I find it very difficult to follow the code - it just curves back on itself. I'm looking to go back to a more procedure oriented system and would like multi-platform support. Another problem with VB is that it is difficult to deploy and update exes. I'd like to be able to either e-mail my clients a new exe file or let them download rather than trying to figure out which DLL to install. My questions:

1. Does PureBasic support event driven programming? It is not clear from the documentation (at least to me) that the newest version supports this.
2. Do the forms created in the form designer work across platforms or are they platform specific? If I code a form in Windows does the code transfer to OSX and Linux windowing systems?
3. Can the non-Windows version interact with a SQL Server database on a Windows server?

Thanks. Jack

[Tenaja]

1. Yes.
2. Cross.
3. I believe this depends more on your db and server setup than PB itself.

[spikey]

1) Yes - although not in an identical fashion to that you will have experienced with VB. Its up to you to create the event loop to process the events and despatch them to the event procedure. There are loads of examples in the forum and I also wrote a demo for the online help. http://www.purearea.net/pb/english/index.htm look at the examples linked to by "UserGuide - Building a graphical user interface (GUI)", "UserGuide - Displaying graphics output & simple drawing", "UserGuide - Dynamic numbering of windows and gadgets using #PB_Any" and "UserGuide - Managing multiple windows with different content"
If you ever programmed in MS VC++ 6 its kinda like a cross between VB and VC. Its not difficult once you get the hang of it. Some clever bods (Ie not me) on the forum have created libraries that do more closely emulate the VB paradigm though - which certainly look interesting and might be worth checking out.
http://www.purebasic.fr/english/viewtop ... +procedure
http://www.purebasic.fr/english/viewtop ... +procedure

2) Providing you only use PB own functions (ie not API calls) then the forms will be mostly cross platform - there are differences in form metrics between Windows, Gnome and Mac that require a little jiggery pokery to sort out to make things look visually appealing - but nothing too hard. MacOs menus work differently too which would need to be allowed for.
For example the DatePicker gadget is different sizes on Win XP, Win 7, Linux and Mac.
PB provides directives to assist in this though.
Have a look at "UserGuide - Compiler directives (for different behavior on different OS)"

3) I think you'd need to use ODBC to do this.

[JackieBlue]

Thanks to both of you. I think I'll play around with the demo and see where I get!

[Zebuddi123]

Hi JackieBlue

As you are new maybe initially you should give Pureform a try (this is my GUI designer of choice) it will produce the event code for you it is free as with all Gnozal`s work (the author) http://www.purebasic.fr/english/viewtop ... t=pureform and then progress to PB`s Inbuilt GUI Designer which will get better as it is a relativity new addition

GUI wise, main issue you will face for cross platform is gadgets scale size wise differently, design on windows and linux & osx offsets will be slightly different and the size of gadgetsalso, but easily tweakable.

Also download the CodeArchive v4 Tons of examples covers all areas. http://www.purearea.net/pb/english/index.htm

You`ll find the PB Forum has a "great community, friendly, very helpful & knowledgeable Guru`s" I cant emphasize how good the forum and members are.

As a total package PB stands miles above any of its competitors. Buy a licence you cant go wrong something you would so come to realize.

Zebuddi.

PS you`ll find an immense amount of knowledge and examples scattered through out the forums too from db to api to gfx

[infratec]

Hi,

one remark to point 3:

If you can use Postgres, you have no problems and native access.
No drivers, no trouble on all OS.

Bernd

[JackieBlue]

Thanks Zubb. Other than cost, do you know if there are major differences between PureView and PureVision?

[Zebuddi123]

Have never tried purevision. I think it offers the ribbon interface. maybe some of the purevision users on the site can answer that question.

Zebuddi.

[skywalk]

I would lean towards the built-in Form Designer if you are starting from scratch.
Coming from VB, it will be a disappointment of sorts, but you have more control and once you understand gadget creation and #PB_Any, you will probably use the designer less and less.