Question from Challenged user

[Graham Hadlington]

Hi everyone

Having recently retired from working for an organisation that helps challenged people I wish to start programming on a more serious basis to create applications to help in alternative healing. I am registered blind and also suffer from Spina Bifida Occulta.

The questions I have are as follows:

Why should I choose PowerBASIC above RealBasic, Delphi or Windev? If I choose PowerBASIC I would also use EZGUI or a competive product for producing the front ends.

I only wish to create stand alone exes (Win32) and am not interested in the bloatware of the .NET overhead.

Second question: Although I think the design side of things will not cause me too many problems, I do not consider myself a coder: Would anyone here be willing to offer me code snippets when I need them?

Thank you to all who offers input to these queries.

Graham

[Chris Boss]

When a programmer is blind (or nearly blind) they may prefer to skip the whole Visual Designer routine of coding. Since most design tools depend upon a visual approach, you need to look for a more hand coding approach.

The only two alternatives I know of for PowerBasic are either:

- Hand coding using PowerBasics DDT command set.

DDT is better suited to this than pure API coding, IMO, since it has an easier syntax. Once you get used to working with Dialog units, it is not too difficult to hand code with.

- EZGUI 4.0

More details can be posted about why this is so, but it would be better to repost your question in the third party forum, rather than here.

[Graham Hadlington]

Thanks for your answer Chris, it is appreciated.

Actually, although visually challenged, I do enjoy the visual designing of applications and would probably opt for EZGUI for this. Pity there isn't a demo (time limited) available.

Thanks again Chris

Graham

[Chris Holbrook]

Why should I choose PowerBASIC above RealBasic, Delphi or Windev? ... I do not consider myself a coder...

That would seem to rule out PB and Delphi! Know nothing of RealBASIC and dangerously little of Windev.

What sort of applications did you have in mind?

[Fred Buffington]

Graham, there are several visual products available that are quite good for
power basic for windows. Also, this forum has the greatest, nicest bunch of
experts (including PB staff) that are unselfish in their giving of suggestions and sample code.

I think you would find it a pleasure to work with PowerBasic. I know I have.

[Graham Hadlington]

Thanks very much Chris and Fred, your answers are appreciated.

>>That would seem to rule out PB and Delphi! Know nothing of RealBASIC and dangerously little of Windev. <<

>>What sort of applications did you have in mind?<<

Would you think it would help if I took a course on VB6 programming then used this as much as possible with PB or, is there a PB course/book available?

The apps I would like to create are smallish programs for use for charities that specialise in any kind of alternative health practises.

Thanks again
Graham

[Chris Holbrook]

The apps I would like to create are smallish programs for use for charities that specialise in any kind of alternative health practises.

Graham, maybe I should expand on my earlier comment. You said you did not consider yourself a coder. I don't think you are going to be abe to avoid coding using the development environments to which you refer, it's a bit like someone contemplating a career in butchery without wishing to cut anything up.

As far a I can see, there is a lot of support in the user communities for all of these approaches. What attracted me to PB was the willingness of contributors to get right down to "brass tacks" and actually post code to the forums in order to illustrate and resolve problems.

In answer to your question about posting code snippets, I have no doubt that if you can accurately describe a function or problem, someone will contribute code, but you will have to be pretty specific about what you need, and in the case of help with code you have written, it is very desireable to post the exact code which is under consideration.

Good luck with your decision.

[Fred Buffington]

There is a manual available with the products. I have only the one i got with version 6.0 (we are now at 8.04) and I refer to it frequently. It has some programming examples in it but it is not a tutorial. There were some books written (if im not mistaken) on PBDOS which could help some depending on your level of knowledge. The manual does have most if not all the statements and commands and may provide somewhat more information than the help file included with the program.

VB, in my opinion, would not help really because VB does so many things for you (behind the scenes so to speak) and the resulting code is often 'bloated'.

I came from a QuickBasic background (and before that other O/S versions of basic) and since QuickBasic and PBDOS are closely compatible in syntax (most of the time), I had the 'basics' for the non-window specific coding already learned. Calling DLL's is similar to using libraries in quickbasic though windows has lots of dlls and routines within them (usually referred to as API).

With PBwins DDT (dynamic dialog tools) it's really a snap to get dialogs up and running. There are lots and lots of examples, here and on jose roca's board and the powerbasic main web site. There used to be an ABC (All Basic Code)
site that included pbwin programs too.

I actually wrote some routines for a guy who did something with health records for insurance or something so i dont think you would have a problem coding something like that. Many of the ones i did, either didnt have a dialog at all or was minimal at most.

You might even do well with PBcc which has full access to windows API as well as internet coding and the console can be
displayed just as QuickBasic/PBdos in text mode. And it's the less expensive of the two compilers.

[Graham Hadlington]

Thanks again Guys, your input is most helpful and encouraging.

Chris, is there anyway of getting a feel of what EZGUI is about? I cannot see a demo available on your website or maybe this is just eluding me

Thanks again fellas

Graham

[Chris Boss]

Graham,

Email me at:

[email protected]

or

[email protected]

I can answer any questions you may have.