EZGUI DDT Designers coming soon! (about 250 KB in images)

[Chris Boss]

Two new EZGUI DDT Dialog Designers are coming soon!

A Professional version is in development and looking very good.
There is also a "Utility" version, specifically designed for building small apps using the Standard controls.

I will be offering the Utility version first, since it will be lightweight and produce very small apps. So far the runtime code (100% source) provided by the library code adds only about 32 KB to the size of the EXE. The PRO library code will add significantly more to an EXE, since it will provide common control support and some other advanced stuff.

Both Designers will look similiar and they will use the same file format for forms.

One nice thing about the Utility Designer is that it will support the custom control feature (just like the PRO version) , so you can embed third party controls in your Forms, like EGrid, SIGrid or GDImage. You can also use the custom control to add common controls if you want (getting around its limitation of only supporting the standard controls).

I haven't decided on a price for the PRO version yet, but the Utility version should sell for no more than $29 (US).

Want a sneek peek at the Utility Designer ?

Here are some screenshots:

[Chris Boss]

The new DDT Dialog Designers use the same "Smart Parser" technology as does the EZGUI 4.0 Pro Designer does. This allows you to use your favorite code editor, rather than a builtin one.

The coding style is slightly hybrid, in that an Event engine is provided which converts common events into EZGUI style events, rather than processing API notification events.

For example, all controls which support a mouse click, will get an event:

IF CMsg& = %EZ_Click THEN

rather than a unique notification event for each control class.

[Chris Boss]

The Utility Dialog Designer is coming alone quite well (actually both Designers use the same code, but the differences are controlled using compiler directives).

This will be the first DDT commercial Designer to be released.

I am working on making the code generation and library code as efficient and small as possible.

So far, the controls supported are:

Button
Picture Button
Icon Button
CheckBox
Radio
Textbox
Listbox
Combobox
VScrollBar
HScrollBar
Frame
Label
Picture
Icon
PB Graphic
Custom

This designer is for building "lean and mean" apps which only need the Standard controls. Custom controls (ie. EGrid, SIGrid, GDImage) are also supported and you will be able to add common controls through the custom control if you need them.

I have the image loading working well, as well as fonts, colors and scrollbars events. There is a Menu Editor and you can design menus up to 3 levels (Main menu bar, drop down menus and sub menus).

The PRO version will go far beyond the Utility version. It will support everything in Utility version as well as most of the common controls (including events), such as Toolbar, StatusBar, ProgressBar, UpDown, Tab control, Trackbar, Listview, Treeview, DateTime, Calendar, Pager and Rebar. It will be easier to create the controls (don't need to use custom control like Utility designer) and there will be support library code for each.

The PRO version will also support Layers and will have a Toolbar builder dialog (for laying out the Toolbar).

Both Designers support Code Plugins.

[Chris Boss]

I like how things are coming with the DDT Designers.

I am adding conditional compiling of the library code to allow you to keep the apps size down to a minimum.

For example, you can design the project (the forms) using fonts and colors and then by turning off a few properties in the project, the Designer can turn off all color or font use. The forms will look different in the designer (but still retain their original settings of colors and fonts) and the generated code will remove font and color references, as well as conditionally remove library code associated with colors and fonts.

You can turn the color and font project properties back on and everything is back to normal and so is generated code.

By using conditional compiling, one can force the app to use the minimal amount of code necessary so the final EXE is as small as possible.

I am working on more confitional compiling stuff, but so far you have control of:

- Font Library code (6 KB of compiled code)
- Color Library code (3 KB of compiled code)

I have gotten the runtime library code (when not using certain parts) down to 30 KB, but it may get smaller (more stuff you can turn On or Off).

[Edwin Knoppert]

Why stick to DDT?

There is no (simplified) tool for plain SDK..

[Chris Boss]

Edwin,

I prefer to support DDT, since it is likely the most popular coding style for PB'ers. Also the DDT command set is getting better in each new version of the compiler. PB 8.0's Graphic command set is one example and worth supporting.

Of course some aspects of the code generation will use API code, since it may not be supported in DDT yet. The core code though will be DDT and any API used will be code that works in harmony with DDT.

I am actually getting to like DDT. It is a clean command set which is easier to pick up than pure API code.

There isn't much one can't do with DDT.

Of course for those who want even more, there is my EZGUI GUI engine which does many things even many experienced API programmers may find hard to using the API.

DDT is my choice for 100% source code generation.

For those who need more, then EZGUI Pro is the way to go (as far as using EZGUI products). API code can be interfaced with EZGUI quite easily, since it provides a number of mechanisms for extending it (ie. hooks into core routines).

[Chris Boss]

The conditional compiling is working quite well.

So far, the utility version has the following sections of library code which can be turned on and off:

- Font code
- Color code
- Region code
- WM_NOTIFY event code
- scrollbar event code
- %EZ_Loading event code
- Dialog size adjust code

I didn't take into consideration the compiled runtime code of DDT itself, when I was testing to see how much the Utility Designers library code adds to a program. Here are more accurate stats:

- Maximum size of compiled Library runtime code adds 26 KB to app
- Minimum size of compiled Library runtime code adds 11 KB to app

Now the designer generated code is a little larger than hand written code, since it adds some extra layers so it can accomplish a number of things (ie. Events, rather than callbacks), but I think the improved coding style makes up for that.

The Utility version will be released first. It will take a little while to finish the pro version (called EZGUI Dialog Studio).

The pro version will have support for the common controls, plus Layers.
There will be a lot more library code particularly for handling events for the common controls.

Stay tuned for more info on the EZGUI Utility Dialog Designer!

[Gary Stout]

Chris,

It is looking great! Do you have a rough "guestimate" of when you will be releasing the Pro version? I think that is the version that I am most interested in. I may end up going with this utility version just to get familar with things. Will there be any upgrade pricing from the utility version to the advanced version?

I am not looking for exact dates....just a rough idea.

Thanks,
Gary

[Chris Boss]

Gary,

I want to release the Utility version first, since this will give me some valuable feedback from users which will impact development on the pro version.

The Designers use a hybrid coding style which may be new to some, so I need feedback to determine the best way to handle stuff in the Pro version (called Dialog Studio).

The Hybrid code style is an Event based engine, similiar to EZGUI 4.0 pro.

ie.

Rather than get a different notification event message for each window class, even though the event is the same, this designer generates universal events to event subroutines for the same event type. For example the controls all get the same %EZ_Click event for a mouse click (if the control responds to clicks). This makes code more readable and easier for new users.

Don't under estimate the power of the utlity designer !

It handles all the standard controls and supports custom controls. Through the custom control object you can impliment the common controls if you really need them. The event engine supports the %EZ_Notify event (similiar to WM_NOTIFY) which makes it easier to handle custom controls as well as common controls.

It also handles control Fonts, colors, styles (called properties in designer). It has an event engine for the scrollbars so they get a simple %EZ_Change event with the current position passed as a parameter. It also supports simple regions (ellipse and rounded rectangle) for the Picture, Icon, Graphic and label controls.

It also supports Resource files or loading images from disk files. It can auto compile the resource file of a project before displaying your code editor.

It also supports the same Smart Parser as does EZGUI 4.0 Pro!
This means you can use your favorite external code editor for editing code (no builtin code editor needed since only external code editors used by designer).

It also uses the same form files (.FMZ) as EZGUI 4.0 Pro and the Utility Designer and Pro designer share file formats.

Its a great tool for those who do a lot with the PB Graphic control.

The Designer also supports code templates to add supporting code (you can write your own templates in notepad) and code plugins (write your own plugin to modify code generated by designer).

The feedback I get from the Utility version will be invaluable in making the PRO version a high end tool. I am not sure how long before the Pro version is released (depends upon feedback), but it could be a month or two or more. Once the Utility version is released I will be working hard on finishing up the pro version.

Likely their will be an upgrade path from the utility version to the pro version.

The nice thing about the Utility version will be its price. It will be affordable by all.

I am seriously considering selling it for only $29 (US). Thats cheaper than most other tools available. Even hobby programmers will be able to afford that.

Also users will benefit from the tech support of the Computer Workshop (EZGUI) forums. I will open a new forum spcifically for DDT/API coding. With my experience as a GUI developer, I think I will be able to supply a vast knowledge of programming in Windows to my customers.

[Chris Boss]

The Utility Dialog Designer should be available very, very soon !

[Gary Stout]

Don't under estimate the power of the utlity designer !

It handles all the standard controls and supports custom controls.

Will the Listview be one of the standard controls? If that is supported, I think I could do everything I currently do in EZGUI. I understand third party custom control grids are supported, but wasn't sure about the Listview.

Thanks,
Gary

[Chris Boss]

The utility Designer does not support the Listview control directly, but you can add one using the custom control object.

The pro version (studio) will support a number of common controls, as well as providing library code.

[Chris Boss]

Having some fun with color palettes!

I just added the ability to dynamically create thousands of color palettes in the Designer (you only use one per project).

The project properties dialog now allows you to select from 4 different main palette groups. The palette then can be tweaked by adding or subtracting offsets to the color range, as well as adding or subtracting from the brightness. This gives over 9000 different palettes to choose from.

On top of that, 4 system colors can be selected to the palette, 8 custom colors and you get 32 default colors (16 DOS colors and 16 palette versions of them).

[Chris Boss]

I should point out that I made a number of changes to the product the last few days, so there will be some small differences between the screen shots here and the final release version.

One difference you should note, is I changed the version number to just 4.01 for the release version (this will allow lots of room for minor version updates if needed).