"BobJ" <bob (AT) rjoslyn (DOT) com> wrote

In Java? You really, REALLY have to use OO concepts. No fooling.

Yeah. Is that a ToolKit or a Toolkit? A HashTable or a Hashtable? Bleech.
You eventually get past it, but it can take a couple of years.

That said, Java is an excellent tool, if you're prepared to make the time
investment.

Luke

I have an old AP-DOS system that I would like to re-write and distribute as
free windows executables. There is a lot of databasic but not much use of
the enquiry language ACCESS or whatever it's called. I came across
PowerBasic on the net and this seems a possibility although I would like to
keep the 3D file structure so may have some work to do to emulate this
structure in the file IO.

I'm after

1] No runtime licence costs required to run the application
2] Proper GUI interface rather than console or pseudo GUI
3] Easy download /install / run off you go.

I realise that users will not be able to develope / compile their own
programs etc.,

What I would like is some possible alternatives to PowerBasic , which I
haven't even tried yet.

Thanks Claude

I'm using Java for a similar project. The learning curve has been steep but
part of that may be OOP rather than Java. But you don't really need to use
OOP concepts. The MV file structure was surprisingly easy to mimic. The ad
hoc reporting language would be the most difficult but you are not using
that so you have a good place to start from. I created a very simple
dictionary structure for the MV files but I find that it is more for my
memory than for any real programming purpose. I have made no attempt to
create a data base per se. Just for the record, a VERY large part of my
early problems was caused by case sensitivity. This was followed closely by
misspelled words. JOptionsPane for example. The real word is JOptionPane
(note that option is not plural).
BobJ
"Claude" <leavego (AT) once (DOT) com> wrote

As anyone who's seen my posts will attest, I'm a Visual Basic guy myself.
You can attach an Access database and distribute your executables for free.
There's almost nothing you can do in PickBasic that you can't do in VB if
you're willing to do a little work. FIELD, CONVERT, EXTRACT and REPLACE and
multivalues can all be handled natively with a little extra code and the
proper attitue.

If I can be of any help, please let me know.

Mark Brown
Ex Pickie moving on


"Claude" <leavego (AT) once (DOT) com> wrote

Well I hope I have no trouble with 3D structures. I think your right. Even
in a relational table you can just have a single text key field plus one
text field for the record and write the ins,del,locate functions.

OOPS isn't such a problem as nearly all my 1980's pick was OOPS although not
GUI of course. OOPS was probably invented on PICK. Many people think PICKies
are all green screen proceduralists. I once had n IT dept., skills test and
when asked to provide an example of event driven v procedural I managed to
find the Window dialogue box as an example of procedural code demanding an
input and an even driven code from a PICK system where the code was written
behind events as subroutines. So the world isn't clearly divided between
1960's programmers and those who give up if you can't right click and change
it's colour. Lifes more complex than that.


"BobJ" <bob (AT) rjoslyn (DOT) com> wrote

Thanks for the offer Mark . I didn't know it was easy in VB to distribute
exe's Have you any VB tools for MV that you would be willing to share?

If you've ever loaded anything on your PC that used a Setup.Exe, it was
probably written in either VB or VC++. You can create a setup routine that
will intall everything your applications needs in the way of libraries and
data files.

I'm a full time employee right now, so I'm not at liberty to distribute
technology, but i can give advice to anyone (crazy enough) to take it.

Data can always be stored as strings. You can define a Microsoft Access
table with nothing in it but an id field and 1 "memo" data type. Those can
be up to a GigByte each. First you write a Read function like:

(General Declararions)
dim AA, VV, SS, rs as recordset

Function Read(itemID) as Boolean

set rs = db.OpenRecordSet("select dta from CustTable where id = '" & itemID
& "'",dbOpendynaSet)
Read = (rs.eof = false)
AA = vbNullString ' reset dynamic array
If Not Read then exit function
aa = split(rs.dta,chr$(254)) ' this create a VB dynamic array
End Function

Then you make properties like:

Public Property Get CustomerName() as string
CustomerName = AA(1)
End Property
Public Property Let CustomerName(sName as string)
AA(1) = sName
End Property

Public Sub Update()
dim sStr as string, iCx as integer
for iCx = 0 to Ubound(AA)
sstr = sstr & AA(iCx)
if iCx < Ubound(AA) then sStr = sStr & chr$(254)
next
rs.edit
rs.dta = sstr
rs.update
End Sub

Once the data is in the variant array, it can be bound to intelligent
controls like the Videosoft FlexGrid. Then you don't actually have to
populate the grid, just the array.

Mark Brown


"Claude" <leavego (AT) once (DOT) com> wrote

Claude,
You can indeed accomplish your goals using PowerBasic for Windows. I have
been doing so for years now. Most of the tools you need can be downloaded
for free from my 2 web sites ( http://home.san.rr.com and
http://www.m4ware.com ). These include a visual designer (written with PB),
and some 'Include' files which will allow you to use some of the old 'Pick'
standard basic statements (DCOUNT, INSERT, etc.). One of the nice things
about PowerBasic for Windows is that it lets you generate very small,
stand-alone executables and there are no monster run-time programs such as
is required by tools like Visual Basic. (I would never consider using
something like Visual Basic for creating commercial apps.)

Anyway, you can contact me through the e-mail addresses on the m4ware site
if you decide to go the PB direction and I can supply you with some free
dll's and other code (and/or advice) that will help you to speed up the
process.

Regards... Ed

"Claude" <leavego (AT) once (DOT) com> wrote

Sorry about that. The url for the first site is
http://home.san.rr.com/greatguru .

"Ed Turner" <edt (AT) pc (DOT) net> wrote

Open Insight - But it appears the developer costs money.

- Patrick

"Mark Brown" <mbrown (AT) drexelmgt (DOT) com> wrote