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It is good to see PowerBasic finally has a new home. While we wait for the next generation compilers, third party addons may be the solution for many developers who need more.
Having been a long time Powerbasic user myself, I have followed the development of Powerbasic over the years and early on came to an important conclusion. Bob Zale concentrated on the core compiler itself and its raw power and performance. The core compiler couldn't get much better IMO (except of course 64 bit). It is feature rich. But it was weaker in the GUI area and that would be my primary area for development.
Powerbasic was originally marketed as an addon to classic Visual Basic, but when Visual Basic ended, Bob had little choice but to develop GUI features in the compiler. When that happened, I was already developing EZGUI 1.0 and when DDT came out, EZGUI was already ahead of the compiler when it comes to GUI features.
When PB 6.0 was introduced DDT only supported (directly) the following controls:
Button
Icon Button
Bitmap Button
Combobox
Frame
Image (icon or bitmap)
Label
Line
Listbox
Option (radio button)
Scrollbar
Edit (textbox)
About the same time, EZGUI 1.0 supported the basic controls above (except line) along with:
Tab control
Progressbar
UpDown control
Toolbar control
Tooltips control
as well as its own first custom control the Masked Edit control
EZGUI 1.0 had its own Event engine which eliminated the need to process window messages for common tasks and had a layer engine which made working with the tab control easy. It even has its first generation (rudimentary) Visual Designer Drag and Drop engine in it.
Since then, EZGUI has stayed far head of the compiler when it comes to GUI features.
While EZGUI directly supports most of the controls in PowerBasic 10, it goes far beyond that with the following controls:
UpDown control
RichEdit control
Trackbar control
Animation control
DateTime control
Calendar control
Rebar control
Pager control
MDI Client control
While PB 10 has its own Graphic control (static ownerdraw), EZGUI 5.0 has its own Canvas control with features not found in Powerbasic and not directly supported in the GDI such as:
2D Sprite engine
22 image filters
Effects engine
360 degree bitmap rotation, scale and transparency in just one command
EZGUI 5.0 goes further with its own proprietary 3D Graphic control which does everything its 2D Canvas control can do with a 3D scripting language built in, based on OpenGL. It supports the STL (3D model) format as well.
EZGUI 5.0 has a number of custom controls not found in the Windows API or in PB 10 such as:
Drag Handle control (for building visual designers)
Masked Edit control
Turtle Graphics control
File Listbox control
Property Listbox control
MCI control
Shape/Hotspot/Splitterbar control
Because of its ownerdraw engine built in, it also has its own 3D colored button controls.
But EZGUI goes further.
It supports Ownerdraw and Customdraw and it has an easy to use version of each.
It supports multiple monitors.
Supports drawing using Themes.
Layer engine.
AutoSize engine.
Drag and Drop engine for building visual designers including drag handle, snap to grid, etc.
Print controls or form to printer
EZGUI 5.0 is also very low level with hundreds of commands for customizing an application at a low level.
EZGUI is here now and allows one to build the next generation of apps with advanced GUI features.
EZGUI 5.0 normally sells for $249, but is currently on sale for only $49.
For more information or to purchase visit my website here: http://cwsof.com/softdev/index.html
Having been a long time Powerbasic user myself, I have followed the development of Powerbasic over the years and early on came to an important conclusion. Bob Zale concentrated on the core compiler itself and its raw power and performance. The core compiler couldn't get much better IMO (except of course 64 bit). It is feature rich. But it was weaker in the GUI area and that would be my primary area for development.
Powerbasic was originally marketed as an addon to classic Visual Basic, but when Visual Basic ended, Bob had little choice but to develop GUI features in the compiler. When that happened, I was already developing EZGUI 1.0 and when DDT came out, EZGUI was already ahead of the compiler when it comes to GUI features.
When PB 6.0 was introduced DDT only supported (directly) the following controls:
Button
Icon Button
Bitmap Button
Combobox
Frame
Image (icon or bitmap)
Label
Line
Listbox
Option (radio button)
Scrollbar
Edit (textbox)
About the same time, EZGUI 1.0 supported the basic controls above (except line) along with:
Tab control
Progressbar
UpDown control
Toolbar control
Tooltips control
as well as its own first custom control the Masked Edit control
EZGUI 1.0 had its own Event engine which eliminated the need to process window messages for common tasks and had a layer engine which made working with the tab control easy. It even has its first generation (rudimentary) Visual Designer Drag and Drop engine in it.
Since then, EZGUI has stayed far head of the compiler when it comes to GUI features.
While EZGUI directly supports most of the controls in PowerBasic 10, it goes far beyond that with the following controls:
UpDown control
RichEdit control
Trackbar control
Animation control
DateTime control
Calendar control
Rebar control
Pager control
MDI Client control
While PB 10 has its own Graphic control (static ownerdraw), EZGUI 5.0 has its own Canvas control with features not found in Powerbasic and not directly supported in the GDI such as:
2D Sprite engine
22 image filters
Effects engine
360 degree bitmap rotation, scale and transparency in just one command
EZGUI 5.0 goes further with its own proprietary 3D Graphic control which does everything its 2D Canvas control can do with a 3D scripting language built in, based on OpenGL. It supports the STL (3D model) format as well.
EZGUI 5.0 has a number of custom controls not found in the Windows API or in PB 10 such as:
Drag Handle control (for building visual designers)
Masked Edit control
Turtle Graphics control
File Listbox control
Property Listbox control
MCI control
Shape/Hotspot/Splitterbar control
Because of its ownerdraw engine built in, it also has its own 3D colored button controls.
But EZGUI goes further.
It supports Ownerdraw and Customdraw and it has an easy to use version of each.
It supports multiple monitors.
Supports drawing using Themes.
Layer engine.
AutoSize engine.
Drag and Drop engine for building visual designers including drag handle, snap to grid, etc.
Print controls or form to printer
EZGUI 5.0 is also very low level with hundreds of commands for customizing an application at a low level.
EZGUI is here now and allows one to build the next generation of apps with advanced GUI features.
EZGUI 5.0 normally sells for $249, but is currently on sale for only $49.
For more information or to purchase visit my website here: http://cwsof.com/softdev/index.html
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