thinBasic Visual Designer Code Generator

[kcvinu]

I think VD needs some improvements also. Assume that you have create a simple gui today and get the code. You, then added some more functionalities to that gui and thus made an application with that code and bundled it and sent to your friend. Next day he calls you and told that he needs some extra features in that app. Some trivial changes. You agreed and changed the work you have done in VD. VD then creates the code again but how would you include in your app ? You need to manually search for changes in new code( which VD creates now) copy the newly created lines only to your existing code. Is this a problem. So i think VD can read existing thinbasic code and it shouldn't change the existing code you have added.

Note: Support for unicode in VD is another feature.

[primo]

in the old time in the days of visual basic 6 it has the best VD and the easiest . it was a usual practice for me when needing to solve simple tasks , to draw a button quickly and a small text box, then double clicking on the button and add as an example:
for i=1 to 1000
t=t+i
next i
Text1.text = t

and run it without saving it to get 500500 in the text box
now i have noticed that Rapid-Q (like vb6) is a compiler, (i though before it is like VB6 (not a real compiler) it has a VD, there is a new version here http://rapidq.phatcode.net/download/ last update 9/27/2016)
since its size is 25 MB then certainly it has something . i will try it later

EDIT: they say: The program is made up of byte-code with its own interpreter attached. so why they say in another page it is compiler !!

[kcvinu]

Hi primo,
Rapidq is a nice tool. Actually, i am searching for some good visual designers to club in my favorite scripting languages i.e AutoIt and thinBasic.
What i am planning is to make a translator program which translates the code from visual designer into my favorite scripting languages.
I have experimented with ResEdit. But it is not supporting unicode. Except that, it is a nice VD to work with. you can easily translate the code to your desired languages. Do you know anything like ResEdit ? If so, please suggest.

[primo]

kcvinu, there was something here http://www.thinbasic.com/community/s...-thinBASIC-IUP
but it was deleted.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IUP_(software)

Eros refered to The Phoenix Visual Form Designer http://www.thinbasic.com/community/s...35-IDE-Phoenix
albeit it is commercial but they have a demo version for powerbasic .

i don't know about ResEdit, they said it is for apple mac https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ResEdit

[Petr Schreiber]

Hi,

in my opinion, the direction which could avoid the issue that was mentioned - regenerating code affects changes already made - would be saving the dialog in some data file, totally separate from code.

This way, you could:
- re edit the layout anytime
- in script, you would just use something like DIALOG NEW FROMFILE "Dialog.xml"

What do you think about it?


Petr

[primo]

Hi Petr,
DIALOG NEW FROMFILE "Dialog.xml" will be a great idea, i don't see FROMFILE keyword but in the LL_FROMFILE only
so this is like loading GUI_EmptyScript.xml template
but isn't this like #INCLUDE "Dialog.tbasic" what is the benifits of using xml files , i never used xml files in any project, will read something about it.

[Petr Schreiber]

Primo,

mentioning XML was just example - it does not have to be XML, could be JSON or other general purpose structured storage format.

The benefit would be separation of GUI design from code which controls it.

There is no FROMFILE option for DIALOG NEW now, but I thought it could be good for future development.


Petr

[DirectuX]

The benefit would be separation of GUI design from code which controls it.

There is no FROMFILE option for DIALOG NEW now, but I thought it could be good for future development.

I share these ideas, currently I've put all GUI related code in an include. Callback functions contain just calls to other functions.

mentioning XML was just example - it does not have to be XML, could be JSON or other general purpose structured storage format.

XML is great for machines, thinBasic code is human-readable. How do you conceive the usage flexibility that exist currently with thinbasic ?