Announcement

**Chris Boss** · 27 Mar 2009, 10:40 PM

EZGUI 4.0 Pro is worth the $249 price it normally sells for.
I recognize that times are tough and people are counting every penny, so the recession sale is back.

**Chris Boss** · 28 Mar 2009, 06:33 PM

Do you prefer hand coding, rather than using a Visual Designer ?

Are you a DOS Basic programmer looking for a way to move to Windows ?

Do you prefer to hand code, rather than use a Visual Designer ?

Then seriously consider EZGUI 4.0 Professional !

I recently had a chance to visit with a customer, who on a long road trip stopped by to visit me. I was amazed at his coding style when using EZGUI.

He is a 100% hand code programmer.

No Visual Designer or front end for him.

Just give him a good code editor and he wrote code amazingly fast.

He is building quality Windows applications for his business and the GUI's are just amazing.

DOS basic programmers who need to move to Windows have been some of my best and most productive customers.
For some reason EZGUI appeals to DOS basic programmers. It is real Windows programming, but in a style reminicent of DOS basic. EZGUI even uses a character based coordinate system.

So how do you define accurate coordinates down to the pixel level using character coordinates ?

EZGUI's character coordinate system uses floating point numbers, so you can define a position like :

10.75 character units

EZGUI uses the System Font (fixed width) as the basis of the character unit and it is scaled based on the end users system wide front setting (Small Fonts or Large Fonts).

The EZGUI command set is also very easy to use and the parameters are very simple and easy to remember. You don't have to use a lot of API constants to define parameters (which gets tiresome).

For example, lets define a font using EZGUI:

Code:

 
EZ_DefineFont 1, "Arial", 12, "BUIV"

This defines font number 1 (EZGUI tracks fonts by an index number) as:

Arial
12 point
Bold Face (B), Underlined (U), Italic (I), Variable width (V)

The use of strings to pass properties using single characters for each property, makes typing commands faster and it is easier to remember the properties.

By using the first letter of the property as the property character (ie. B for Bold Face) it is easy to remember.

DOS programmers find it easy to remember the syntax of many commands and they can code faster.

Now of course, if you want to use the Visual Designer, so much the better, but if you prefer to hand code, EZGUI is the way to go.

**Chris Boss** · 28 Mar 2009, 07:18 PM

Something you won't see in any Designer tool for PB

Here is something you are not going to see in any other Designer tool for Powerbasic:

Visual Design Engine

When I built the Visual Designer for EZGUI, I used EZGUI to write it, so I added all the Visual Design features to the EZGUI GUI engine.

Let's look at a few of Visual Designer commands:

EZ_SubClass

This command subclasses the next control created and then impliments the visual design engine for the control (drag and drop, size, move).

You can use this engine for the control itself or you can subclass a Drag handle control and use it for the drag and drop features.

EZGUI has its own drag handle control and it can do all the drag and drop stuff and even rubberbanding (when sizing).

EZ_SetCapture

This command sets the mouse capture state for a Form to impliment rubberbanding (ie. drawing a rectangle to define where a control or object will be placed).

EZ_SetDragRectAttributes

This command defines the rubberbanding mode for the drag rectangle when drawing. You can rubberband a rectangle, an ellipse, an ellipse in a rectangle, a circle, a circle in a rectangle and a line .

EZ_SetFGrid

This command defines the snap to grid for Forms exterior when resized.

EZ_SetFGridHOffset

Sets an offset to the Forms exterior snap to grid.

EZ_SetGrid

This command defines the snap to grid for a Forms interior for objects (ie. controls) on the form.

EZ_SetGridCharSize

This command defines the snap to grid based on a Character size.

EZ_SetGridColor

This command defines the snap to grids colors and the grids visual style (ie. XOR or solid, blocks or lines, etc.)

EZ_SnapControl

This commands forces a control to be snapped to the snap to grid.

EZ_SetAutoRedrawState

This sets the Auto Redraw sate for a snap to grid form.

EZ_SetGridDisplay

Turns visible snap to grid on and off

EZ_SetGridPosByChar

This command determines how controls are snapped by the current snap to grid.

EZ_SetWDragMode

This command sets the system wide window drag mode (show window as it is dragged).

Also part of the Visual Design engine is the Drag Handle control. The following commands are for the drag handle control:

EZ_HandleCtrl

Creates the Drag Handle control.

EZ_SetHCtrlBuddy

Defines the current Buddy control for the drag handle control. When the drag handle control is sized or moved, so is its buddy.

EZ_SetHCtrlColor

Sets the color for the drag handles of the drag handle control.

EZ_SetHCtrlSize

Sets the size (in pixels) for the drag handles and also whether they are displayed inside or outside of the buddy control.

The Visual Design engine also generates Events such as:

%EZ_Drag
%EZ_Drop
%EZ_Dropping
%EZ_Size
%EZ_Sizing
%EZ_Move
%EZ_NoDrag
%EZ_LButtonDown
%EZ_NoLeftSize
%EZ_NoRightSize
%EZ_NoBottomSize
%EZ_NoTopSize

Now what tool does all this to help you build WYSIWYG style applications.

Thats the EZGUI difference !

**Chris Boss** · 28 Mar 2009, 07:23 PM

Tired of using others Visual Designers and not getting what you want ? Build your own

Are you tired of not getting what you want in a Visual Designer ?

Maybe nobody has what you need.

Maybe what you want is not a normal Visual Designer, but a Designer like front end for say a custom code generator of your own design.

EZGUI 4.0 Professional can be used to build your own inhouse Visual Designer. Notice all the Visual Design features noted in the previous post.

While you can not use EZGUI to build a competitor to EZGUI itself, you can though use it to build all the inhouse visual design tools you like. Build your own code generator and use EZGUI to write the WYSIWYG front end.

No other tool for Powerbasic gives you this capability!

Note: This post was edited because there was an error in the statement:
"While you can use EZGUI to build a competitor to EZGUI itself"
which should have been:
"While you can not use EZGUI to build a competitor to EZGUI itself"

**Chris Boss** · 28 Mar 2009, 11:22 PM

Another unique feature of EZGUI 4.0 Pro - Simplified OwnerDraw

Here is another feature unique to EZGUI 4.0 Professional:

The OwnerDraw Simplified Command Set:

Notice the following ownerdraw controls (ListBox and ComboBox):

(1)

(2)

(3)

(4)

Now here is the source code which actually draws the controls above:

(1)

Code:

          CASE %EZ_OwnerSize
               EZ_SizeComboBox CVal&, 4
          CASE %EZ_OwnerDraw
               EZ_DrawComboBox "TBAR2", MyID&, CVal&, 4, 0, "F"

(2)

Code:

          CASE %EZ_OwnerSize
              EZ_SizeListBox CVal&, 4
          CASE %EZ_OwnerDraw
              EZ_DrawListBox "Form1", MyID&, CVal&, 4, 1, "BW4X+-"

(3)

Code:

          CASE %EZ_OwnerSize
              EZ_SizeComboBox CVal&, 4
          CASE %EZ_OwnerDraw
              EZ_DrawComboBox "Form1", MyID&, CVal&, 4, 1, "GW3F+"

(4)

Code:

          CASE %EZ_OwnerDraw
               EZ_DrawComboBox "TBAR2", MyID&, CVal&, 4, 0, "C"
          CASE %EZ_OwnerSize
               EZ_SizeComboBox CVal&, 4

What other design tool for PB does this ?

**Paul Squires** · 29 Mar 2009, 01:06 AM

Originally posted by Chris Boss View Post

What other design tool for PB does this ?
Tired of using others Visual Designers and not getting what you want ?

Chris, do you really want to get into yet another product comparison war with FireFly, Phoenix, PwrDev and PBForms? There is nothing in this thread that those visual designers can not handle as well.

Also, you seem to have your product on sale just about every other week. If the market is not buying your product at your high price then maybe you should consider permanently lowering your price to a more realistic level. I wasn't going to post in your thread and wait until March 31 to see if your sale would be extended. It always is.

While you can not use EZGUI to build a competitor to EZGUI itself

So when did you add this limitation? I had a similar limitation in the FireFly Visual Designer End User Agreement back in 2004 and removed it after you made public comments in your forum as follows:

Originally posted by Chris Boss View Post

The software license is far too strict for
my tastes and there is at least one
restriction that would make a Third Party
developer who makes any software even
similiar to FireFly very wary.

I couldn't in good conscience click on the
"accept this license" button so didn't
install.
...
The license attempts to dictate "motive" rather than to just limit use.
The vagueness of the wording makes it very dangerous. It would be very easy to say "you used FireFly and you made a product that benefited from the knowledge of FireFly and your product may take away from FireFly some potential customers so I can sue you".

I should have corrected you back in 2004 and suggested that you stick to software development rather than being a intellectual property lawyer. Your attempt to spread fear, uncertainty and doubt to my potential customers with your illogical reading of a very clear end user agreement was not appreciated and not forgotten either.

So now it looks like I can't in good conscience click on your install button either (if there actually was a demo to install) because I don't want to get sued for making a visual designer with your product. :irked:

Oh, and by the way, FireFly 3 is 100% written using FireFly so other visual designers do have a lot of power and abilities as will be witnessed when FireFly is released.

**Chris Boss** · 29 Mar 2009, 04:56 PM

The EZGUI license is quite reasonable.

You can build nearly any WYSIWYG style application you like with it, including inhouse visual designers for programming. The only exception is building a visual designer which directly competes with EZGUI itself to generate code for Powerbasic and which is sold to other parties.

Now any other WYSIWYG style application is totally acceptable, such as Report Writers, Database engine front ends (say your own DBase like application), Graphic editors, etc.

Now of course one could use any other Designer to build a Visual Design application, but it would require a very extensive knowledge of the Windows API to accomplish many of the tasks built into the EZGUI engine.

EZGUI makes drag and drop easy by providing you with high level tools to build drag and drop apps.

AFAIK there is no other tool for PB which has a built in Visual Design engine like EZGUI does.

As far as the price of EZGUI and the sales goes, EZGUI is worth the $249 price I charge for it and a good number of customers have paid the full price for it. Sales are simply a fact of life when the economy is poor and people are counting every penny. I need to make a living so if I see fit to offer a sale, then that is my business.

In this thread I have been trying to point of the features of EZGUI which are quite different than what is found in most Designers for PB. This is not to put the other tools in a bad light, but to simply demonstrate what features may be useful to potential customers who may not find such features in other tools.

EZGUI is not a mass market product and more of a niche product. By pointing out the unique features, I am trying to find potential customers who fit into that niche, rather than take away customers from the other designer markets.

FireFly is an excellent Visual Designer (possibly the best) for those who prefer the SDK style of coding and don't want a runtime.

PwrDev is also a great product and it has many features not found in any of the other designers, including EZGUI.

My knowledge of Phoenix is quite limited so I can't comment on it, but it appears to also be of high quality.

EZGUI is a totally different product than any of these designers. The concept behind it is different as well (ie. a runtime, rather than pure source code). EZGUI is most appreciated by those who take advantage of a large portion of its many features.

I am trying to point of the differences of EZGUI for the benefit of that niche market of which EZGUI better serves their needs. This doesn't make EZGUI better (or worse) than any other designer, just simply different. If that difference is what a customer wants then they benefit from getting it.

IMO, there are three basic markets for Visual Designers for PB:

(1) DDT, of which PB Forms is leader. DDT users will most likely prefer PB Forms. EZGUI won't appeal directly to this group.

(2) SDK style Designers such as FireFly, PwrDev, Phoenix, etc. EZGUI won't appeal directly to this group.

(3) EZGUI, which is totally different. It is the only one that uses a runtime. The command set follows a totally different style than source code style Designers. The use of a runtime allows for built in Engines of a more complex nature. It is its own style of coding. It appeals to those who disilke the API. It appeals to those who need the high level engines built in (ie. ownerdraw, graphics, print, visual design, sprites). It appeals to those who want a more graphic oriented GUI (ie. Sprites are not your normal GUI feature found in other designers). It appeals to DOS programmers making the move to Windows and also hand coders (don't need a designer). The market for EZGUI is going to be more limited since it does not follow the "standard" styles found in other Designers.

It should also be noted that a portion of EZGUI users, also own a number of the other Designers, including PB Forms, FireFly, PwrDev and Phoenix.

**Paul Squires** · 29 Mar 2009, 05:13 PM

Thanks Chris - I'll stay out of your sales posts. You are right. Sales are your business, not mine. Somewhat sorry for that.

**Chris Boss** · 29 Mar 2009, 05:14 PM

My comments about your software license were only my personal opinion of which I never posted such on the PB forums or other forums, but only on "my own" forums of which I think I have the right to make my own personal comments. They are my forums so I feel free to make more open comments about different software.

The EZGUI software license has never caused a problem for any of my customers AFAIK (no complaints anyway) because it is clear cut and you can read it before buying.

While EZGUI can't be used to build either a GUI engine or Designer which "directly" competes with it, there is no reason it could not be used to build a Designer for languages other than Powerbasic, for script engines, etc. You just can't use the GUI engine as the core of your own programming language.

**Paul Squires** · 29 Mar 2009, 06:08 PM

My license stated the exact same thing about using FireFly to create a competing visual designer. Once you made your comments in your forum about that part of the license I removed it. Granted, you were the only person to ever have a problem with that section of the license and felt the need to publically say so.... but, yet, you have done the same thing with your product. Can you see the irony in that? I can.

...only on "my own" forums of which I think I have the right to make my own personal comments. They are my forums so I feel free to make more open comments about different software.

It doesn't matter where you said it.... you said it. It seems that you have different standards whenever it suits your purpose.

**Chris Boss** · 29 Mar 2009, 07:48 PM

Paul,

My issue was not with FireFly's license saying you can not use it to create a competing product. I don't have a copy of that older license, so I can't post the exact text. My issue was with the wording used. It was too vague and it was not clear exactly what would be a violation of the license.

I was interested in FireFly, not so I could examine it and copy from it, but because I wanted to write some custom controls for FireFly, which would have benefited FireFly users. Since I already had a number of custom controls, it would have been relatively easy to convert them over for use with FireFly. The problem is that I also market a Visual Designer as well and I was concerned about not doing anything with FireFly that could be construed as using it to compete with it. I just felt the wording made it unclear how I could use FireFly and not somehow end up going against its licence. I decided not to use Firefly and to build custom controls for it, because of the license. I lost the potential for more income from not trying to tap into the FireFly custom control market, because I didn't want to accidently breach your licence and put EZGUI at risk in any way.

You have to remember, that a software license is not a matter of what you intend, but the impression it makes on the customer. Maybe I am more careful about software licenses than most, but it was my choice to come to that conclusion. I was looking forward to supporting FireFly by building custom controls for it, but the license shyed me away from it, since I am careful not to put EZGUI as risk accidently by using someone elses software with a license that could cause me problems.

I had a free copy of FireFly 2.0 because I won the naming contest (ironic, I came up with the name) so I had the full right to use a legal copy of it, but I didn't because of the software license. While 99.9% of FireFly users would never even have to be concerned about that aspect of the license, I was the .1% who was a Designer developer and I had to consider the ramifications.

The one thing I do remember was that the wording had something to the effect that if one just "benefited" in a way which could hurt the FireFly market, this would be considered a violation of the license and I got the "impression" I could be sued if that were the case from the wording.

It is common for software developers to use software and see a single feature they like and then say, "I'll use that in my app too". Just look at the emulation of Visual basic that many developers to do.
The problem is that even the "look and feel" of an app can be protected at times (that has to be copyrighted too, not just the source code) and some companies have won lawsuites on that.
I just am very, very careful.

This is one reason I stopped using Visual Basic. MS had a web page that basically said, that you could be sued by Unisys if you used the Picture control to display GIF images. MS basically said you were at your own risk when using the Picture control and that they were not giving you a license to use GIF support in your apps. Most likely ignored this one, but it is one reason I also never attempted to add IPIcture support to EZGUI, because of possible legal issues. Even JPEG came into question later on, with patent issues. I can't afford to even come close to any legal impropriety with EZGUI for the sake of my customers.

Juist to be fair, if one reads the actual post where I discussed my concerns about your software license I said the following in the same thread:

Well, if any of you purchase FireFly (and I
encourage it, even if it is just to support
Third Party development), please tell me
what you think of it.

Those are not the words of a competitor trying to trash your product trying to ruin its market.

**Paul Squires** · 29 Mar 2009, 08:49 PM

<deleted>

Edit:
I am tired of arguing.... I have better things to do. Good luck with your EZGUI.

**Chris Boss** · 29 Mar 2009, 09:05 PM

Paul, I chose not to create controls for FireFly for the exact reason I stated above.

While I don't remember the emails you note, I'll take your word for it.

EZGUI controls use the WM_CTLCOLOR messages just like native Windows controls (ie. Static, text) so I don't see why that would have been a problem, unless FireFly handles them differently than the API normally does.

I am telling you the truth about why I chose not to develop custom controls for FireFly. That is the primary reason. Now I may have said I can not guarantee support for FireFly or something in those emails (I don't remember), if it does not handle the color messages like normal, so I won't say that I didn't say anything negative about FireFly support in private emails, but don't assume anything I said was the "real" reason I never developed custom controls for FireFly. I had more to lose, than gain, from not supporting FireFly by developing custom controls.

**Chris Boss** · 29 Mar 2009, 09:13 PM

I would like to state for the record for any who browse the forums:

I have nothing against Paul or FireFly. My posts about EZGUI are simply to inform about its features, not to downgrade any other Designer, especially FireFly. I am just trying to highlight its unique features for those who may benefit from them.

FireFly is an amazing product with a strong customer base and excellent tech support forums.

Please visit Pauls web site and check out FireFly today.
Especially if you come from a Visual Basic background, you will likely enjoy FireFly a great.

I would be amiss not to mention here that also check out Edwins PwrDev. PwrDev doesn't get as much exposure as does FireFly on the forums, but it too is worth of praise. I am very impressed with what Edwin has done with PwrDev.

**Paul Squires** · 29 Mar 2009, 09:41 PM

Yes, Chris, let's put this behind us. We have more important things to do then squabble with each other. It only makes us both look bad. We're both good guys and we should treat each other that way.

**Chris Boss** · 30 Mar 2009, 01:03 PM

I agree Paul.

Now back to the reason for this thread in the beginning.

EZGUI 4.0 Pro is on Sale and here are some good reasons why one should take advantage of this great sale.

The key here is that EZGUI has native support for the features I mention here. EZGUI provides builtin support for many graphic oriented features, not easily done using the API.

A number of the features in EZGUI 4.0 Pro are proprietary components I have designed from scratch and are quite complex.

Let's look at a few:

Canvas control

The Canvas control is more than a glorified Picture control. It is a custom control I wrote from scratch. It supports DDB's (device dependent bitmaps) or DIB's (16, 24 or 32 bit DIB's). It supports double buffers and has a complete graphic command set to support. You can access pixel data direct via the DIB's as well for advance graphic manipulation.

Sprite Engine

This is not something you are going to find in Windows via the API, especially something that will work on Windows 95 to Vista. This is a complex proprietary sprite engine, which can move/show/hide/flip sprites. It can also anti-alias and alphablend the sprites as without any special hardware. You are not going to find this feature in any of the Visual Designers for PB.

OwnerDraw Simplified Command Set

Yes, you can do ownerdraw via the API but it requires a good working knowledge of the GDI and OwnerDraw and it is definitely complex. EZGUI provides not only a low level version of Ownerdraw, but it also provides a simplified command set which with just a couple lines of code you can impliment complex ownerdraw. This is definitely not currently found in any other design tool for PB.

EZGUI also comes with a number of custom controls, which again are not native to Windows. These controls make a number of tasks much easier to do and with less hassle. For example:

- Files Listbox control
- Property Listbox control
- MCI control
- Masked Edit control
- Turtle Graphic control
- Shape/Hot Spot control
- Drag handle control

There is no Drag Handle control in Windows and many applications impliment drag handles by drawing directly on the windows DC. EZGUI provides a real control to do this, so it couldn't be easier.

While MCI is usable from the API directly, EZGUI goes a step further. It is a real control, which provides the window for video playing. It also has its own Easy MCI command set, which makes MCI much easier. EZGUI takes care of stuff like alias names, etc for you. It can handle MCI notification events as well. If you want easy MCI, then EZGUI is the way to go.

There is no Turtle Graphic control in Windows. Again this is a proprietary control which has its own sophisticated vector based macro language (called Turtle Graphics).

There is no Property Listbox control in Windows either. Again, this is a proprietary custom control built into EZGUI. Property Listboxes give your GUI's that advanced and current look and feel.
The point is that EZGUI fills a niche for those who don't want to "reinvent the wheel", as they say, to get features not directly found in the Windows.

**Erich Schulman** · 30 Mar 2009, 04:09 PM

As the owners of your respective products, you have the right to offer alternate licenses. MySQL and other products have multiple license options. Spell out what of *a may be incorporated into *b and used by the users of *b, and then what of *b may be incorporated into *a and used by the users of *a. Your lawyers might want you to pay each other $1 to establish "consideration", and then clear boundaries for supporting each other's products can be in place. But anyone else wanting to join in the fray will have to abide by the regular license(s) or negotiate for him/herself.

**Chris Boss** · 31 Mar 2009, 11:46 AM

I still have an interest in supporting FireFly with custom controls. If the license has changed I may look into it.

**Chris Boss** · 31 Mar 2009, 12:15 PM

A number of the features discussed in this thread are unique to EZGUI 4.0 pro. Not that it ultimately could not be done with the Windows API, but EZGUI provides high level commands which simplify the task and make it easier.

The ownerdraw engine is quite unique, in particular the Simplified OwnerDraw Command set. Imagine doing ownerdraw with just a couple lines of code (actually only one to do the actual drawing).

The Sprite engine is not something you will be able to just throw together using the Windows API either. This is another unique feature of EZGUI 4.0.

Only the more experienced (advanced) API programmers write their own custom controls. The average PB user isn't likely to be writing their own custom controls, so the EZGUI custom controls offer some exciting features far beyond the basic Windows controls.

The Canvas control with its Sprite engine is a powerful tool in the right hands and you can create all sorts of animated GUI's using it.

The property listbox control is also another very advanced control which can really spice up your applications.

If you are finding that you are always at a loss in finding ways to spice up your applications (meaning you know what you want, but can't figure out how to do it) then check EZGUI out.

Announcement

EZGUI 4.0 Pro Super Sale is back ! Save $150, act quick

EZGUI 4.0 Pro Super Sale is back ! Save $150, act quick

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