PocketMatrix

I have had problems with ppl after installing the new beta (0.9.7). The visual form editor on the ppc version won't display any of my control I add to it. The controls exist, because when I run it, they appear where I randomly put them, but they don't show up in the editor. Is there a fix for this?

I have been pleased for the most part with ppl(awesome software), but I have two things to say about why I probably would not buy it. First, unless you can get the visual form editor to work, that takes out one of the main reasons why I liked ppl. Not many software can make programs for the ppc AND have a visual control add-on.(nsbasic and forward pass being the other two I know of) Secondly, Event handling is almost too complex. It takes almost 5 lines of code to put out an event handler I can barely decipher. Most other languages I know of (nsbasic and forward pass included) take only 1-2 lines to initialize this. This is one reason I haven't really made anything good with it yet. Besides this, there is alot of good stuff in ppl. Addition of gameAPI and physics and assembly and nice interpreter and compiles to EXE and much more makes this seem very attractive. I also think the pricing system is pretty good, except there isn't a whole lot in the standard version I think there should be. I think EXE compile should be in standard because, unless you can show me something great, there is no way I'm going to pay $80 just to get the EXE compiling I'd like.(just my preference, I like all possible programming languages to convert my code to EXE or equivalent.)I know alot of this is my opinion, but also remember that I could also be a potential customer and would love to buy this if I can comfortably use this to be productive in my coding.

Thank you!

Hi,

Thanks for your interest in PPL. Version 0.9.7. has a bug that was fixed last Friday. The Visual Form Builder is working just like before again. Sorry about the inconveniences, I will update 0.9.7. early next week.

Concerning the .exe compiling, the Standard version is geared at hobbyist programmers and .exe compiling is not required for them. The only reason why .exe compiling is necessary is when distributing applications is needed. The Pro version is geared exactly for this, distribution and profesionnal features.

You can easily distribute your applications with a .ppc file and include the PPL.exe in the same directory. A .ppc file is compressed and encrypted. The PPL.exe is around 250k. All that is needed are the two files.

You can rename PPL.exe to MyApp.exe and rename your .ppc file to autostart.ppl (I don't have the source code in front of me but I think it's autostart).

Sorry for the mis-understanding, I didn't know that you could run your programs like that. I guess It's beter then what I thought it would be.(I DEFINATLY don't like the way basic4ppc is and how nsbasic used to be. They made you install a runtime before anyone could run your program.) As long as the visual for editor is fixed like you said and that the events are easier to program, then I just may buy ppl in the future. Thanks!

I don't like installing runtime files myself. That was one of my goals not to have to install anything to run PPL.

I don't have plans to simplify the event handling for version 1.0. However I take every suggestions into consideration and I will look into a way to do this in a future version. My ultimate goal is to use an object-oriented visual api library like Delphi. But this might not be ready until version 2.0.