PureVision Users, please advise ..

[Dare2]

I am currently involved in skinning (by this I mean general look and style, eg, irregular shapes, background images, etc) an app.

This is taking me ages as I have to look through the windows sdk help to find out what is required per gadget, develop strategies to avoid flicker, ensure resizing, ensure redrawing, etc, etc.

I understand PureVision can handle some (all?) of this.

The demo shows potential for this, but the potential is disabled.

Some questions on purevision, constructive answers (no flaming PV or this post) please.

1: Is there a big learning curve involved with PV. Allow for an average inteligence here ( or do I flatter myself? )

2: Are there any dependencies for apps based on code created with PV, eg, is a dll required? Is a userlibrary involved?

3: How effective is the skinning (or styling) and how robust is the final app? Eg Flicker, etc. Perfection is not required but "good" is good.

4: This is the biggie: What sort of code does PV create? Structured? Monolithic? Reasonably useful/relevant names? Comments? Easy to follow and track code->gadget relationships? Etc.

In fact, on the last, if it is not too big an imposition and is not something that Paul would object to, what would a simple app with a few gadgets look like, code wise. A raw code listing would be neat and would answer many questions.

Finally

5: Does PV work with 3.91?

Thanks


PS: What is FreeStyle? Heard of it but searching google leads to swimming styles, painting supplies, etc.

[Paul]

Hi Dare2, I can answer a few of your questions to get things started...

1. Learning curve will be different for ever person. Some will have to take baby steps while others dive right in and produce amazing results right away. (a new version is just around the corner that has a much better help file/manual for new comers)

2. Some of the "special" features make use of a special asm user library that ships with PureVision, but the rest is 100% PureBasic commands.

3. In my own opinion the results are great. Of course the final results also depend on your coding skills since you must add your own code at some point

4. If you downloaded the help file for PureVision, you will have a folder called C:\PureVision\Demo Files. This folder contains a number of examples each with a PV project file, what the exported project looks like and a compiled exe to view.

5. We create high-end commercial apps here using PV and the latest PB (which is 3.91) and it works great !! Actually if you look at the PV download webpage, it tells you the latest version is for 3.91


Karbon is quite good with PureVision... maybe he can give some comments??

[PB]

> if you look at the PV download webpage, it tells you the latest version is for 3.91

True, but in a tiny font. And the main PureVision page says:

# Supports PureBasic v3.80 Gadgets
# Supports PureBasic v3.80 Gadget Flags

That's where the confusion comes from, I think.

[Paul]

Thank PB, missed that. New stuff is constantly being added and enhanced. It's hard to remember all the little files that must be adjusted each time an update is released
(sigh.. must be getting old)

[Dare2]

Hi guys,

Thanks.

Paul:

1: Yep. From what I've seen so far I can probably get quick and dirty apps up fast. New version sounds good.

2: Okay on the lib. No extra files to ship to user (and maintain) is good.

3: Actually I was going to PM you but decided that would be unfair on you (doing a critique on your own product) so posted here instead. And the the "add own code" bit that had concerned me. But the code shown in the demo's is neat and easy to work with/around.

4: Did not download the help - WAEFRTFM ( When All Else Fails Read The Friendly Manual ), so I just have and am looking at code (and help) now.

5: Missed the bit about 3.91 on the page, sorry. (lol, just noticed the change. Can't miss it now.)


A couple more questions:

On the skinning and general look-good stuff, I notice in the properties box a background image allowed for most things. This is usually greyed out except for obvious things.

Is that because it is the demo version or because it is not supported? For example, would it provide a background image for, say, a treeGadget in real life.

PV gadgets, PV pointmaker and PV converter are included? And are what, exactly? (I assume the last converts PV 3.8 stuff to 3.9)


Anyhow, thanks again the responses.

[PB]

> PS: What is FreeStyle?

Yeah, I want to know, too. A search of these forums for "freestyle" shows
10 results but no announcements or anything... and there's nothing about
it on SkunkSoft's web page.

[thefool]

since im a beta tester of freestyle(sadly they closed beta testing for a while, to have some more work..)

Its a skinning engine. It comes with a skin builder app to make your own
skins 100% perfect, aligning them on gadgets etc. The skin builder creates a theme file, that can be loaded by freestyle and added to your app in very few lines of code [just opening a dll then calling a skinwindow command"].

btw polyvector said that there might be a userlib for this, but i havent heard about that yet.

But the results it gives are truly amazing. Flicker free, fast, and require very very litle work.
The hardest work is of course to design a nice skin

1: Yep. From what I've seen so far I can probably get quick and dirty apps up fast

no.. pb and pv allow only quick and good apps

[Karbon]

Some questions on purevision, constructive answers (no flaming PV or this post) please.

1: Is there a big learning curve involved with PV. Allow for an average inteligence here ( or do I flatter myself? )

I don't think there is a big learning curve at all. Everything in PV is very straight forward and documented. The new version Paul mentioned is even better.

2: Are there any dependencies for apps based on code created with PV, eg, is a dll required? Is a userlibrary involved?

A very tiny userlibrary is required for some of the things but you really do get a lot of nice functionality. The userlib is tiny, too..

3: How effective is the skinning (or styling) and how robust is the final app? Eg Flicker, etc. Perfection is not required but "good" is good.

While I don't use any skins in my main app I have developed a few smaller ones and I think "Perfect" about sums it up. I haven't seen any problems. If you do find some problems Paul is always there to fix them (or in my case, point to the documentation that I haven't read!)..

4: This is the biggie: What sort of code does PV create? Structured? Monolithic? Reasonably useful/relevant names? Comments? Easy to follow and track code->gadget relationships? Etc.

Positively excellent - and I'm MAJORLY anal about code structure.

In fact, on the last, if it is not too big an imposition and is not something that Paul would object to, what would a simple app with a few gadgets look like, code wise. A raw code listing would be neat and would answer many questions.

I think Paul pointed you to some examples already.

5: Does PV work with 3.91?

Absolutely.

PV is well worth the $25, it is a must-have IMHO.

[Dare2]

Hiya Karbon,

Thanks for the response. And you're right. I bought PV licence within a few days of the original post: Should have mentioned it here and saved you some typing. But your response is appreciated.