Finding info on built-in controls?

[mmtbb]

I know you can find the supported properties of ActiveX controls be using Properties() and other funtions. However, where can I learn about the controls that are part of the PIDE, like the Tab control? Properties, events, methods

[kornalius]

Best place is WWW.MSDN.COM

Do a search on COMBOBOX, EDIT, etc...

[mmtbb]

[bmanske]

[mmtbb]

bmanske,

Thank you for the post. You put a lot of time into it.

You know, when it comes to programming, I have been down a lot of roads. Every package seems to have it's strengths and weaknesses. I had narrowed it down to Five categories that were important to me in picking:

C++ -
Language learning: Hard
Visual Forms/Control coding: Feature rich, medium hard to design
Speed: Very Fast
Game Programming: must know hard language
Program on PPC: Not so easy
C# -
Language learning: Medium difficulty
Visual Forms/Control coding: Feature rich, Very easy to design
Speed: Fast
Game Programming: Not so easy
Program on PPC: Not so easy (there is a way)
NSBasic -
Language learning: Very Easy
Visual Forms/Control coding: Feature rich, easy to design
Speed: medium (I did new tests, faster then we thought).
Game Programming: Not so easy
Program on PPC: Very easy
PPL -
Language learning: Easy-medium difficulty
Visual Forms/Control coding: Not so easy (easy design/hard coding)
Speed: medium (PASM - Very Fast)
Game Programming: Feature rich/ easy
Program on PPC: Very easy

By coincidence I happened upon PPL when I was in a gaming phase. I ate it up! Nothing was as feature rich and easy to use as PPL! I knew it was in its infancy and so I knew it could only get better.

Now, I am back to the "Form/Control coding" phase. It is only know that I have realized that this is the only real weakness in PPL(as I haven't used it heavily until know). Putting the control on the form is easy in PPL. Actually coding the controls for me is a mightmare (no offense meant). The later, unfortunetely is the most important part.

PPL is sooo close to being a perfect all-round choice, but now we live in a visual/windows based world of programs where most languages make it very easy to do.

Sorry for the shpil. Just my opinion.

[kornalius]

You have to understand that all these packages (Delphi, VB, C++, NSBasic ...) all handle Windows controls like PPL. Under windows you have no choice but to deal with it's crappy API. They, on the other hand, wrote wrappers around this crude API. Delphi has a VCL, C++, ATL and MFC. A wrapper like that can take years to write. It has to be written in OO preferably and each control has to be addressed. PPL is still handling the Windows API at it's lowest level. It takes a little while to get use to it but with time it's not too bad.

I definetaly plan to have a control wrapper one day. I really couldn't do all the PPL stuff plus this for v1.0. It's a huge project that I won't be doing myself. If PPL sells great, then I will hire some people to do it. Maybe community projects will start to flourish and will do it too, I don't know.

[PointOfLight]

mmtbb,

First of all, I'd like to say thanks for your breakdown of the various languages / tools for PPC programming. You've clearly put a lot of time into this. I'd like to just offer a couple of clarifications / ask a couple of questions about it.

1. Programming C++ on the PPC - what tool would you use to do that? Short of writing the code in a text editor, I didn't think there was anything available for actually compiling code on the PPC.

2. C# Game Programming - I don't know how far along the support is, but I believe GapiDraw is building C# support into the latest releases of their product. Of course, there's a potentially hefty fee to go along with this, but it should make game development easier. Also, you can use the Edge library with C# if your target is WM2003 and above (I'm not sure if this supports WM2002 or not).

3. NSBasic and game development - from a "professional" standpoint, game development is nearly impossible with this tool. Unless you're going to write an ActiveX wrapper, the use of Game APIs such as PocketHAL, GapiDraw or Edge is impossible, and the native PictureBox control isn't going to cut it. Even the ASpriteCE control isn't a viable option since it is no longer supported.

4. NSBasic development on the PPC - yes it is easy, but development between the PPC and PC is not compatible, so once you start working on a project on the PPC there's no going back.

5. PPL and visual forms coding - there are a couple of things (one old, one relatively new) that can help in this department. One of the newest versions of the PIDE supports object events that work more like Visual Basic. I don't believe this ever made it to public beta, but it's a cool feature. That's the new one. If you look in the lib directory of PPL, there are several files with a _lib extension (for example, combobox_lib.ppl). Many of these were authored by myself and tweaked out over time by kornalius and others, but all of them are designed to make working with their respective objects much easier. It's still not as friendly as NSBasic, I'll admit, but I think everything else that PPL offers more than makes up for this slight inconvenience.

I hope this has been of some use to you.

[mmtbb]

Kornalius,

Of course PPL is writen by only you (and a few others). It is amazing what you have been able to do. I know that the way PPL handles controls is at a low level, and that all other languages use wrapping to get around it. You have done wonderful on every aspect of PPL. I am so used to the easy of programming controls in other languages that I am having a difficult time with the low level manipulation that PPL uses at this time.

PointOfLight,

Thank you for your post.

-C++ can be coded/compiled on the Pocket PC with PocketGCC freeware project.

-There actually is a third-party C# wrapper for GapiDraw.

-NSbasic/CE and NSBasic/Desktop do have compatibilty problems.

-We have already talk about Gaming in NSBasic. I may be the only individual who has had moderate success with the ASpriteCE. I just got frustrated having to find workarounds (which I found) for stuff the author refused to address.

Anyway, I'll check out the _Lib files.

For now, I may have to use NSB and PPL for the time being to get the full compliment, though I really, really hate to.

[kornalius]

mmttb:

It's only a matter of time until PPL is up to the others in terms of control handling.

I am sure that when things will calm down after the initial release I will have to find some major new PPL feature to work on.

[mmtbb]

THAT, is what I like to hear.

[phendric]

[PointOfLight]

[phendric]

[PointOfLight]

[Guest]