|
| |||||||||
Tips & Linksto help Newbies get over the PBWin hump. | |||||||||
|
Note - these links are in no particular order.
IOW, the top ones are not necessarily where a Newby should start and work down. You'll just have to pick and choose. | |||||||||
|
Note - A comment received via the form below:
PB Newby Tips ,Good Comments-,Pretty damn good really, having been a PB user for over 14 years and always trying to code the hard way I forget there are easier ways. Your tips and links are perfect for new PB programmers. | |||||||||
|
| |||||||||
| Tip | With the cursor on a keyword F1 pops up the PB Manual open to the keyword. (An outstandingly handy feature of PB.) | ||||||||
| Tip | It may help to consider Dialogs as individual independent Windows within the program and Controls as dependent "children" or small windows within a Dialog. | ||||||||
| Tip | ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS use "#Dim All" at the top of your code | ||||||||
| Tip | Learn to use MACROs | ||||||||
| Tip | ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS use LBOUND and UBOUND when referencing Array ends. (see Trace Instructions below) | ||||||||
| Jelly Fish | Highly recommend to get a dedicated PB editor.
The editor that comes with PB is fine but JellyFish has some indispensible features once gotten used to. Tip - JF has options to color different function/keywords. For example, I find it very helpful to use a Yellow background for remarks, blue text for keywords, green bg for strings. | ||||||||
| Bare Bones | A well commented program containing only the absolute barest minimum of code to create a GUI and access a Callback. (You could do worse than starting here.) | ||||||||
| SubClassing Explanation | A Good explanation and guide to Subclassing.
Note the Subclassing example that comes with: PowerBasic8/Samples/SubClass/SubClass.bas is fairly easy to Cut&Paste into existing code. A great place to start. | ||||||||
| Trace Instructions | Got mysterious GPF's? Or other errors? Here's how to find them easily and quickly. Tip - You'll have a lot fewer if you religiously use BOUNDS on your arrays. | ||||||||
| Spinner example | A Bare Bones example to set up a Spinner using the Arrow Keys. | ||||||||
| Sudoku Puzzle | A neat little Sudoku "scratchsheet". I wrote it as an exercise using EZGUI 3.0.
(Includes source code.)
| ||||||||
| Simple Database | My personal DOS database program I converted to PB.
It's the first practical application I did in PB (2002).
Not sophisticated but super handy (for me anyway). (Includes source code.)
| ||||||||
| POFFS | POFFS is a downloadable searchable database by Borje Hagstrom of PB Forums (as of Aug 2005).
(Site maintained by Don Ewald) | ||||||||
| Windows Messaging | A good explanation of messaging by Chris Boss | ||||||||
| Tool Tips | Tool Tip balloons are a neat and handy addition to any program.
ToolTips2.Inc (It has a Remove function.) |
||||||||
| EZ Post (exe 128k) (Quickies) |
(Note - to get all the extra features (Taglines, Sayings, Jumble Word Solver, etc), you'll have to use the Zip file version below.) | ||||||||
| EZ Post (zip file 700k) (Quickies) |
|||||||||
| EZGUI | A free "screen builder" and other stuff. Very good to get started with. | ||||||||
| Message Pump" | Gazette article explaing how/why/what a "Message Pump "is. | ||||||||
| Fred's Shack | Lots of good info and reccos for an "advanced" beginner. | ||||||||
| PB Gazettes | All PB Gazette articles. (Good stuff) | ||||||||
| Callback Messages | A tidbit on CallBack Messages and which belong to which type controls. | ||||||||
| Program Bundler | Useful to put ALL the program files (source, includes, resources, etc.) in one folder for Zipping up. | ||||||||
| Virtual List Boxes | More advanced than beginner but Wow! are they neat (and fast). I have one application where over 20,000 items are displayed and scrolled in real time. | ||||||||
| Newby Conversations | A really good read for Newbies. | ||||||||
| Making Bar Menus | A demo of using arrays for Bar Menus | ||||||||