ddoc Print Preview update

[Don Dickinson]

I've released a bug fix/work around for ddoc Print and Preview. It resolves a very specific issue that I've been struggling with for some time.

If you are having trouble with the preview window coming up blank on some machines, but the screen displays ok when you click on it or minimize/maximize it, the latest ddoc will resolve your issue. This is a video-driver specific issue that happens frequently on windows vista and infrequently on windows xp.

You only need a new ddoc.exe (not ddoc32.dll). It can be downloaded directly from:

http://www.greatwebdivide.com/files/ddoc_exe_1-9i.zip

It is versioned as v1.9i. If you want the latest source, please email me http://www.greatwebdivide.com/emailme.htm and i'll send you off the zip.

Best Regards,
Don

[Pedro Ramirez]

Great!!, now I can postpone indefinitely the print & preview routines I was thinking on building because of this issue.

Ever since I bought your ddoc utility I never had to worry about building printing and preview routines of my own. Except for this issue that shows on most machines running my software on XP, I never had any complaints.

Thanks Don for this update.

[Michael Mattias]

Nice to see you are still amongst us, Don; it's been a while.

Does this fix simulataneously resolve the problem of the preview screen going blank or partly blank immediately after doing a "print?" That also restores itself by minimizing and then restoring, but I have not seen any "immediately" blank screens upon calling "preview"

MCM
(I suppose I could DL the EXE and try it, huh?).

[Pedro Ramirez]

Does this fix simulataneously resolve the problem of the preview screen going blank or partly blank immediately after doing a "print?"

I Just tried it out and it does solve the problem.

[Michael Mattias]

Well, OK, I guess that goes on the 'to do' list now, too.

Darned, I have a modified ddoc.exe, so I'll have to dig out PB/DLL 6.11 again to recompile it.

But I always knew something like this could happen if I modified it myself, so I can't really complain, can I?

[Gary Stout]

so I can't really complain, can I?

We wouldn't expect anything less

[Michael Mattias]

Yeah, but going back to 7x is hard enough. 6x I probably haven't touched in six or seven years. I just know I am going to do "something" to get me an "undeclared function" error!

[Don Dickinson]

here's the deal ...

1. i compiled it with the 7.x compiler, so you don't have to go back 6.x
2. the problem appears to be with the video driver (but perhaps still my bug). i watched the windows messages that go to the dlg and tried putting a "redrawPage" command in the last one the dlg receives before the user starts moving the mouse or whatever. None of this fixed the problem. My solution was to create a timer on a .5sec interval at the end of the WM_INIT function. in the WM_TIMER message, I redraw the page and then destroy the timer. The result is the page is redrawn right away.
3. I don't *think* this should fix the problem with the print dialog, though. It won't be hard to implement that fix, though. I can do the same thing .. create a timer after the print dialog disappears and redraw after .5 seconds. then destroy the timer.

best regards,
don

[Don Dickinson]

i should also add, that i'm in the process of cleaning up the ddoc code.

the first version off ddoc (actually called ddrv) was actually written in delphi v1 in 1995. Somewhere around that time, pb released pbdll v1.0 for windows 16-bit. i started a rewrite. later and before i finished a releasable version of ddoc, powerbasic put out their 32-bit compiler. Shortly after that I released the first true version of ddoc.

Anyway, point is that the ddoc code is more than 10 years old now. my goal is to get it clean and compilable with pbwin9.x before the end of the year.

Longer term, I am intending to build a report generator that can take input data (odbc, sqlite, mssql, and custom), marry that with a report definition (xml?) and spit out a report in msexcel, ddoc, or pdf format. The big unfinished part of this product is a visual designer for the report definitions. I'll post notice here when i have something usable.

best regards,
don

[John Reinking]

Longer term, I am intending to build a report generator ...

Now that would be worth some fresh cabbage to me, if I could at all urge you along that path!

[Joe Byrne]

... take input data (odbc, sqlite, mssql, and custom), marry that with a report definition (xml?) and spit out a report in msexcel, ddoc, or pdf format ...

You can count me in too. I'd gladly open the wallet for something like this!

[Paul Squires]

I agree. Count me in also for a sale. A report designer that handles various incoming formats and spits out various output formats is something that I am looking for now.

My solution was to create a timer on a .5sec interval at the end of the WM_INIT function. in the WM_TIMER message, I redraw the page and then destroy the timer.

Just a suggestion (maybe it will work for you also): I have had a few problems in the past where painting of a screen would not occur when I want it to. I found that by issuing a PostMessage using a user defined message and then handling the redraw in that user defined message's handler usually fixes the problem. I guess with the PostMessage, many of the "problem" messages that interfered with the painting are passed by the time the user defined message gets processed. Like I said, maybe it will work for you - it could save you the hassle of dealing with timers, etc.

[Don Dickinson]

thanks paul. i'd bet PostMessage would work ... i'll play with it.
-don

[jcfuller]

Add another sale here.
And I too used Postmessage to help with a paint update problem.

James

[Leong Alan]

Don.....
Please Count me in as well. So great to hear you again..

Thks for everything you've been done for us..:wavey:

[Gary Stout]

Count me in as well!

I sure have enjoyed using DDoc over the past several years.

[Bruce Brown]

Count me in also.

[Mike Doty]

Great stuff. Thanks for the update.
Let me know if you need any beta testing.
Print/preview and browsing made easy.

[Bruce Singleton]

New produce

Add me to the list for the new product.


Bruce

[Mike Doty]

Longer term, I am intending to build a report generator that can take input data (odbc, sqlite, mssql, and custom), marry that with a report definition (xml?) and spit out a report in msexcel, ddoc, or pdf format. The big unfinished part of this product is a visual designer for the report definitions. I'll post notice here when i have something usable.

Maybe you could get together with PowerBASIC and come up with an XPRINT file format. That way we could all take advantage of XPRINT, too.