What do we want? What do we have?

[Elias Montoya]

We have many options for this project. One of them would be a command line ee that would convert the forms and code to PowerBASIC source code... and thats it.

The other option is to have a complete converter with visual designer included, (besides command line support of course).

We need a complete list of VB keywords for starters, Anyone has it?

[Rodney Hicks]

The best listing I've found for VB keywords is at
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/08xt8fdy.aspx

It's not in one simple document but it's there.
With luck, now that we can post here someone will provide a single document listing.
Rod

[Chris Holbrook]

With luck

from the source you quoted:

Alias,AddHandler,Ansi,As,Assembly,Auto,
Binary,ByRef,ByVal
Case,Catch,Class,Custom
Default,DirectCast
Each,Else,ElseIf,End,Error,
False,Finally,For,Friend,
Global,
Handles,
Implements,In,Into,Is,
Key,
Lib,Loop,
Me,Module,MustInherit,MustOverride,MyBase,MyClass,
Narrowing,New,Next,Nothing,NotInheritable,,NotOverridable,
Of,Off,On,Option,Optional,Overloads,Overridable,,Overrides,
ParamArray,Partial,Preserve,Private,Protected,Public,
RaiseEvent,ReadOnly,RemoveHandler,Resume,
Shadows,Shared,
Static,Step,Structure,
Text,Then,To,True,TryCast,
Unicode,Until,
When,While,Widening,WithEvents,WriteOnly,

Now the single-line comment character(s) and word delimiting characters will also be required, e.g.
REM
(),./*+-=<> etc - including space.

I don't use VB6 - any offers?

[Rodney Hicks]

Aye.

I was thinking of a list with all the reference info attached to each keyword.

Rod

[Chris Holbrook]

Aye.

And I was thinking of an editor. Just shows you the dangers of thought.

[StanHelton]

...
We need a complete list of VB keywords for starters, Anyone has it?

I've been pulling a list from the MSDN site for my proof-of-concept app. So far this is what I've got... down to the Cs from the Objects list.

---------------------
object.AddIn

Remarks
An AddIn object is created for every add-in that appears in the Vbaddin.ini file.
--------------
AddIns Collection
See Also Example Properties Methods Events


Returns a collection of add-ins listed in the Vbaddin.ini file.

Syntax
object.AddIns

Remarks
The AddIns collection is accessed through the VBE object. Every add-in listed in the Add-In Manager in an instance of Visual Basic has an object in the AddIns collection.

This collection replaces the ExternalObjects collection used in Visual Basic version 4.0.
--------------------
AmbientProperties Object

See Also Example Properties Methods Events

An AmbientProperties object holds ambient information from a container to suggest behavior to controls contained within the container.

Remarks

Containers provide ambient properties in order to suggest behavior to controls. As an example, BackColor is one of the standard ambient properties; the container is suggesting what the well-behaved control should set its BackColor property to.

The AmbientProperties objects properties are the ambient properties of the container. These properties are read-only.

Some ambient properties are standard, while others are specific to certain containers. A control may access non-standard ambient properties, but this will make the control container-specific. The control should handle the case where an ambient property is not present in the current container.

When the control is compiled, Visual Basic has no way of knowing what container-specific ambient properties may be available when the control is run; therefore references to container-specific ambient properties will always be late bound.

The AmbientProperties object is not available when the Initialize event is raised; but is available when the InitProperties event or ReadProperties event is raised.

The AmbientProperties object has several standard properties:

* The BackColor property, a Color that contains the suggested interior color of the contained control. The Visual Basic supplied default if the container does not support this property is 0x80000005: the system color for a window background.

* The DisplayAsDefault property, a Boolean that specifies if the control is the default control. The Visual Basic supplied default if the container does not support this property is False.

* The DisplayName property, a String containing the name that the control should display for itself. The Visual Basic supplied default if the container does not support this property is an empty string: "".

* The Font property, a Font object that contains the suggested font information of the contained control. The Visual Basic supplied default if the container does not support this property is MS Sans Serif 8.

* The ForeColor property, a Color that contains the suggested foreground color of the contained control. The Visual Basic supplied default if the container does not support this property is 0x80000008: the system color for window text.

* The LocaleID property, a Long that specifies the language and country of the user. The Visual Basic supplied default if the container does not support this property is the current system locale ID.

* The MessageReflect property, a Boolean that specifies if the container supports message reflection. The Visual Basic supplied default if the container does not support this property is False.

* The Palette property, a Picture object whose palette specifies the suggested palette for the contained control.

* The RightToLeft property, a Boolean that indicates the text display direction and control visual appearance on a bidirectional system. The Visual Basic supplied default if the container does not support this property is False.

* The ScaleUnits property, a String containing the name of the coordinate units being used by the container. The Visual Basic supplied default if the container does not support this property is an empty string: "".

* The ShowGrabHandles property, a Boolean that specifies if the container handles the showing of grab handles. The Visual Basic supplied default if the container does not support this property is True.

* The ShowHatching property, a Boolean that specifies if the container handles the showing of hatching. The Visual Basic supplied default if the container does not support this property is True.

* The SupportsMnemonics property, a Boolean that specifies if the container handles access keys for the control. The Visual Basic supplied default if the container does not support this property is False.

* The TextAlign property, an enumeration that specifies how text is to be aligned. The Visual Basic supplied default if the container does not support this property is 0 - General Align.

* The UserMode property, a Boolean that specifies if the environment is in design mode or end user mode. The Visual Basic supplied default if the container does not support this property is True.

* The UIDead property, a Boolean that specifies if the User Interface is unresponsive. The Visual Basic supplied default if the container does not support this property is False.

Note When you access the Font property of the AmbientProperties object, you do not get a reference to the container's font. Rather, you get a copy (clone) of the font.

The reason for this is that AmbientProperties.Font is commonly used to initialize a control's font whenever an instance of the control is added to a container. If a reference to the font itself were supplied, then changing the control's font would change the container's font as well.

If for some reason your control requires a reference to the container's font, you can obtain it by accessing the container through the Parent property of the UserControl object.
----------------
ADO Data Control

See Also Example Properties Methods Events

The ADO Data Control is similar to the intrinsic Data control and the Remote Data Control (RDC). The ADO Data Control allows you to quickly create a connection to a database using Microsoft ActiveX Data Objects (ADO).

Remarks

At design time, you can create a connection by setting the ConnectionString property to a valid connection string, then set the RecordSource property to a statement appropriate to the database manager. You can also set the ConnectionString property to the name of a file that defines a connection; the file is generated by a Data Link dialog box, which appears when you click ConnectionString on the Properties window and then select or create a Data Link file.

Connect the ADO Data Control to a data-bound control such as the DataGrid, DataCombo, or DataList control by setting the DataSource property to the ADO Data Control.

At run time, you can dynamically set the ConnectionString and RecordSource properties to change the database. Alternatively, you can set the Recordset property directly to a previously-opened recordset.
-----------------
Animation Control

See Also Example Properties Methods Events

The Animation control allows you to create buttons which display animations, such as .avi files, when clicked. The control can play only AVI files that have no sound. In addition, the Animation control can display only uncompressed .avi files or .avi files that have been compressed using Run-Length Encoding (RLE).

Remarks

If you attempt to load an .avi file that includes sound data or that is in a format not supported by the control, an error (error 35752) is returned.

An example of this control is the file copy progress bar in Windows 95/98, which uses an Animation control. Pieces of paper "fly" from one folder to another while the copy operation executes.
-----------------
App Object

See Also Example Properties Methods Events

The App object is a global object accessed with the App keyword. It determines or specifies information about the application's title, version information, the path and name of its executable file and Help files, and whether or not a previous instance of the application is running.

Syntax

App
------------------
AsyncProperty Object

See Also Example Properties Methods Events

The AsyncProperty object is passed in to the AsyncReadComplete event and contains the results of the AsyncRead method.
----------------
Axis Object

See Also Example Properties Methods Events

Represents an axis on a chart.

Syntax

Axis

Remarks

Three axes are available: x, y, and z. The z axis is visible only when the chart is a 3D chart.
-------------------
AxisGrid Object

See Also Example Properties Methods Events

Represents the planar area surrounding a chart axis.

Syntax

AxisGrid
---------------
AxisScale Object

See Also Example Properties Methods Events

Controls how chart values are plotted on an axis.

Syntax

AxisScale
----------------
AxisTitle Object

See Also Example Properties Methods Events

Represents an axis title on a chart.

Syntax

AxisTitle
-------------------
Backdrop Object

See Also Example Properties Methods Events

Represents a shadow or pattern behind a chart element.

Syntax

Backdrop

Remarks

For the Plot object's Backdrop object, set the Style property to VtFillStyleBrush to see the effects.
-----------------------------
Band Object

See Also Example Properties Methods Events

A Band object represents an individual band in the Bands collection of the CoolBar control.

Remarks

A band is a region within a CoolBar control which can contain a single child control, caption, and image. Each Band may be moved and resized independently by the user at run time.

At design time, use the Insert Band and Remove Band buttons on the Bands tab in the Properties Page of the CoolBar control to insert and remove Band objects from the Bands collection. At run time, you can add and remove Band objects by using the Add and Remove methods of the Bands collection.
----------------------------
Bands Collection

See Also Example Properties Methods Events

A collection whose elements represent the bands on a CoolBar control. The Bands collection has a Count property which specifies the number of Band objects in the collection.

Syntax

object.Bands.Count

object.Bands(index)

The Bands collection syntax has these parts:
Part Description
object An object expression that evaluates to a CoolBar control.
index An integer with a range from 1 to Bands.Count.

Remarks

The Bands collection enumerates the bands on a CoolBar control. For example, you might use it to change the BackColor property of all the bands on a control.

Note The Bands collection is not a member of the Visual Basic Collection class; you cannot create instances of it.
----------------------------
Binding Object

See Also Example Properties Methods Events

Represents the run time binding of a specific data consumer property to a data field of a data source.

Syntax

Binding

Remarks

Each Binding object in the Binding collection represents the combination of a data consumer (such as a control) and a single property of the consumer (such as the Text property), bound to a specific data source field.
--------------------------
BindingCollection Object

See Also Example Properties Methods Events

A collection of Binding objects.

Syntax

BindingCollection

Remarks

The BindingCollection object allows you to bind any data provider to any data consumer. To bind a consumer to data provider, use the Add method to add a Binding object to the collection. Each Binding object represents the binding of a specific consumer to the DataSource supplied by the BindingCollection object.

Data sources that have no design time interface, such as a Class configured as a data source (by setting its DataSourceBehavior property to VbDataSource) or an ADO Recordset can be bound at run time using the BindingObject collection.

Use standard collection syntax to return or set properties of the members of the collection.
---------------------------
Brush Object

See Also Example Properties Methods Events

The fill type used to display a chart element.

Syntax

Brush
----------------
Button Object

See Also Example Properties Methods Events

A Button object represents an individual button in the Buttons collection of a Toolbar control.

Remarks

For each Button object, you can add text or a bitmap image, or both, from an ImageList control, and set properties to change its state and style.

At design time, use the Insert Button and Remove Button buttons on the Buttons tab in the Properties Page of the Toolbar control to insert and remove Button objects from the Buttons collection. At run time, you can also add Button objects by using the Add method of the Buttons collection.

At design time and run time, you can set the Caption, Image, Value, MixedState, and ToolTipText properties to change the appearance of each Button object.

Whenever a button is clicked on the Toolbar control, the ButtonClick event is called with the selected Button object passed in as a parameter. To cause some action to occur when a button is clicked, use the Index or Key properties in a Select Case statement as in the following code:

Select Case Button.Key
Case Is = "open" ' Open file.
' Add code to Open a file here
Case Is = "save" ' Save file.
' Add code to Save a file here
Case Else
' If any other button is pressed
End Select
-------------------------------
ButtonMenu Object

See Also Example Properties Methods Events

The ButtonMenu object represents a menu that drops down from the Toolbar control's Button object.

Syntax

ButtonMenu

Remarks

Button menus only appear when the Button object's Style property is set to tbrDropdown.
-------------------------
ButtonMenus Collection

See Also Example Properties Methods Events

A collection of ButtonMenu objects.

Syntax

ButtonMenus

Remarks

Use the ButtonMenus property to return a reference to the collection.
-----------------------
Buttons Collection

See Also Example Properties Methods Events

A Buttons collection is a collection of Button objects for a Toolbar control.

Syntax

toolbar.Buttons(index)

toolbar.Buttons.Item(index)

The Buttons collection syntax has these parts:
Part Description
toolbar An object expression that evaluates to a Toolbar control.
index An integer or string that uniquely identifies the object in the collection. The integer is the value of the Index property; the string is the value of the Key property.

Remarks

The Buttons collection is a 1-based collection, which means the collection's Index property begins with the number 1 (versus 0 in a 0-based collection).

Each item in the collection can be accessed by its index or unique key. For example, to get a reference to the third Button object in a collection, use the following syntax:

Dim btnX As Button
' Reference by index number.
Set btnX = Toolbar1.Buttons(3)
' Or reference by unique key.
Set btnX = Toolbar1.Buttons("third") ' Assuming Key is "third."
' Or use Item method.
Set btnX = Toolbar1.Buttons.Item(3)
--------------------------------
Start with Objects letter C
--------------------------------

[Fred Harris]

My recomendation is to open VB6, and use the listboxes at the top of the code editor to come up with methods, properties, and event names.

[John Spikowski]

Maybe it would be a good idea to start posting this to the www.vb2pb.org forum so everyone interested can follow along and contribute.

I think this forum should only be used as an interface to PowerBASIC staff and working out issues that effect the project at the language level.

John

[Rodney Hicks]

This forum was set up for each of us to garner information and to pass information on. There is nothing wrong with anyone posting their ideas here if they feel like it.

Rod

[John Spikowski]

PB2VB Wiki

I have setup a wiki on the www.vb2pb.org site. This is the same wiki software the Wikipedia uses. You must create a wiki account to edit the wiki.

John

P.S.

Posting here only reaches a small percent of the interested forum members.

[StanHelton]

To John and Rod:

Maybe it would be a good idea to start posting this to the www.vb2pb.org forum so everyone interested can follow along and contribute.

I think this forum should only be used as an interface to PowerBASIC staff and working out issues that effect the project at the language level.

John

John, my plan is to post organized updates to the .org site and to use the new dotProject software (as soon as I get a handle on it) to maintain the public version of the production task list. Started to set that up yesterday, but now I'm working on getting a handle on the dotProject app.

This forum was set up for each of us to garner information and to pass information on. There is nothing wrong with anyone posting their ideas here if they feel like it.

Rod

Rod, you are absolutely correct here. We have already received a lot of good input from Contributors (as opposed to Project Members) and we cannot afford to weaken our affiliation with PB. Without PB the project doesn't exist!

I have setup a wiki on the www.vb2pb.org site. This is the same wiki software the Wikipedia uses. You must create a wiki account to edit the wiki.

John

I think that is an excellent addition to the .org site.

P.S.

Posting here only reaches a small percent of the interested forum members.

Thank you for making that point, John. I think it touches on the main primary difference in viewpoints between you and Rod. I also think it's time to discuss this over the phone.

John and Rod,
I need to speak with both of you on this issue. Please let me know by PM what would be a good time (& #) to call. I'm free most of the weekend.

Thanks,
Stan

[John Spikowski]

The DotProject software looks like a good fit. After I realized that all tasks are entered through the project tab and not the task tab, it all fell into place.

I started moving your VB structure post to the wiki and will try to finish that up today.

I think we have the basic tools in place on the www.vb2pb.org site to kick this off. I still think this forum should consist of project/team leaders that interface with PowerBASIC staff about issues that doesn't need to be made public. This project is made up of volunteers and any structure that fragments this loose relationship of friends, will delay it's completion. IMHO

John