Post by Jonathan BerryPost by Michael MattiasTrue, there's not a whole lot more PB can do with its Windows product
I don't want to start an argument, but .... PB is a
professional product priced so that it is accessible to
amateurs. Well, I'm not a complete amateur, I've programmed
for money, but not every day or every week or even every month.
You are a professional, and I wonder if that opinion is from
your professional point of view only, or could PB improve their
product from the point of view of amateurs, possibly to the
detriment of professionals?
....
For instance? Widening the functionality available without
resorting to API calls. An example of that might be
manipulation of file names, dates and times, which still have
remnants of the days when BASIC was in a tiny ROM.
Oh, I did not mean there aren't gaps or holes... I was thinking a bit more
"big picture.'
The few times I've tried to use the Dynamic Dialog Tools for something, I,
too, have been amazed at how much you CAN'T do with "controlname
dosomething" syntax. For example, in listboxes and combobboxes you CAN'T get
the text of item number "n" in the list. (You can only get the text of the
currently-selected item). You also can't get/set the individual row item
data value with these controls. You can't get or set the selection INDEX.
Would be nice to have a metastatement to allow DDT LISTBOX and COMBOBOX
controls to do everything in ZERO-based indexes. (All PB stuff uses
ONE-based indices.. very bad when you consider you have to use the
zero-based WinAPI indices to get the above done with the one-based 'DDT'
controls. Really easy to get off-by-one errors, trust me on this).
With the edit control (TEXTBOX), you can't Set/Unset the 'selected' text.
DDT handles are not valid across code modules. (This one is undocumented).
DDT only works for DIALOGS, it does not work for WINDOWS
More 'general' holes in the product include...:
Forward referencing at compile time is not supported.
SIZEOF is not valid at compile time, even though that's when SIZEOF must be
known anyway.
Numeric Equates are limited to integers.
Documentation has gradually moved with each version from mediocre (meaning
"unexceptional) toward sub-mediocre.
But as I said, when I look at the "big picture" the compiler has pretty much
everything you'd want, other than an integrated forms designer-IDE.
(Well, maybe some 'native PB syntax' database access would be good. Right
now that's kind of a complicated thing to do for the casual/hobby/newer
programmer.)
The rest of the WIndows API stuff (that is, the stuff not related to
handling screens) is probably beyond the needs/wants of all but the more
advanced programmers, who will use the WinAPI anyway (guilty).
MCM