Control Spy - useful MS tool (control design and callback events)

[Gary Beene]

Pardon me if I get excited over something more experienced PB programmers may already use, but as a PB newbie I'm enjoying the more "hands-on" approach PB requires (except when I'm being frustrated because it takes more hands-on than I want!). I figure the other PB newbies will be as thrilled as I am when a free tool is mentioned that is useful and helps better understand the innards of PB.

Folks here directed me to the Common Controls section of MSDN, where I ran across the Control Spy 2 utility.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb773165(VS.85).aspx

It displays all the common controls, lets you change their style or extstyle, and presents all of the messages and notifications received. It's basically a workshop for exploring common control options.

Unfortunately it's not one-to-one with PB controls, since some PB controls are custom controls - not 100% unmodified Windows common controls. Still, it's a very interesting tool and puts a lot of information at your fingertips.

[Paul Squires]

Hi Gary,

I just checked out your website. Very nice - looks like you have put a lot of work into it

One thing that I noticed is that you have priced the FireFly Visual Designer incorrectly. I am referring to: http://www.garybeene.com/power/pb-ide.htm
The correct price for FireFly is $97.

(...and I'm pretty sure that RadDeveloper is not being developed, sold, or supported anymore).

Have fun with your retirement!

[Gary Beene]

Hi Paul,

Thanks for the feedback. I enjoy creating new sections to the site, but I must admit this one took several months of my free time - more than I had wanted to spend. The good news is taht some of what I learned should carry over into future site sections.

I made the corrections you noted. Also, the link to RadDeveloper is still good, but I'll send an email to them to look deeper.