Questions & comments from a newbie

[Richard]

Hi Folks,

Being new to PPL, (but knowing VB and windows calls quite well I thought I'd try PPL before purchasing. I liked what I saw, so
will be purchasing in a day or two's time. (when I get home)

However, I do have a few comments / questions for you.

1. For my first attempt, I started PPL and then opened a new
form. Created the code and it worked fine.

I then tried to add a project to this - wrong. It appeared
to work, but any changes I made were ignored. Eventually I
started from scratch and had no problems.

2. I managed to delete the code for the Menu Exit key.
No problem I thought. Started a new project, copied the
code, pasted it into my program, but nothing.
I have checked that the menu number matches, tried
creating the code from scratch using the menu window,
all to no avail. Help!

3. Your manual has one gigantic omission:
The graphic window designer!
I saw one post for someone wanting to know how the
TABCONTROL works.
Now I want to know for myself, but can I find the post?
No! (And of course it's not in the manual...)

My only other comment is to say that you seem to be focused
on GAMES, GAMES and more GAMES. (Hence the "Games Only" post earlier.) There are other types of programs you know!

Yes, I realise that games will help to sell your product, but
please don't exclude the guys like myself who write utlities!
(A good example being your contest!)

Thanks.

[kornalius]

Hi Richard,

Thank you for your interest in PPL.

1. When you say add to a project. Can you be more specific. Did you create a new blank project, added the file to it? When you say, changes were ignored, I'd like to know more to fix the problem if there is one.

2. Please describe the steps you took. Maybe it is related to issue in #1 where it doesn't save your changes.

3. The TABCONTROL can be manipulated very easily with the SWAPI.PPL library file. There are tons of functions to use with the tabcontrol. If you have any specific questions please ask us.

PPL can do a lot more than just games. We market it at first as a game language but it does everything any profesional language would do. The PocketPC interface has all been programmed in PPL.

You are far from being excluded. I didn't see many questions regarding games lately. They are all concerning the PIDE, Visual Form Builder and Editor. Don't worry we don't concentrate on games exclusively.

[Richard]

Hello Kornalius,

Thanks for the speedy reply!

1. As to my first problem, sorry I can't remember - it was over two days ago! (and I'm over 60), I've learnt a lot since then... But I'll see if I can recreate it and let you know.

2. The Exit bug I have tried to repeat but without sucess. So I am sending you my complete project so far. It works well, but there is still a lot to do, as you will see.

I don't think it's related to the "not saving" problem as the changes I make are saved - they just don't work.

If you can see why the it fails, great! I've tried many times with no luck.

It could easily be one of those input sequence errors, I learnt the hard way that a sub routine must preceed the calling code!

Thanks again, Richard.[br]1159987530_82_FT564_richard.zip

[kornalius]

Hi,

I found the problem. You will need to change the proc Menu5001_OnClick to a func Menu5001_OnClick. It's a problem that we forgot to fix in the menu editor. It is now fixed and you won't have this problem anymore with 1.04.

Sorry about the inconveniences.

You should also remove the .ppl file from your project list. It's not really needed, just the form is good enough. The .ppl file is re-generated everytime you run your form. Make you form the default starting code.

Btw, nice interface you've got going. This program will be very cool.

Btw, we will be holding another contest after the game demo one, it will be for general windows applications.

[MagNet]

Nice converter there, keep it up.

[Richard]

Thank you!

I should have seen that one (return on a proc?), but I didn't.

Eventually found the TAB post on the PocketMatrix forum...
and the comment about it being not very useful!

It's the same in VB, but they also have an addon (SStab) that is far better and works in design mode as well as run time. One trick they use is to shift everything not required on the visible tab way over to the left so they are not shown.
This means you can just reset the"left" and show it on multiple tabs. Just thought you'd like to know... or not.

I look forward to the next contest! Not too soon though, I still have a lot to do!

TTFN

Richard.

[PointOfLight]

I'm working on a program that among other things uses the tab control (it's the SQLite / ADOCE browser you might have seen mentioned by me in other posts). Once that is ready for prime time (not necessarily finished, mind you) I will post it along with source code. Of course, I realize it's hard to learn about a specific topic amongst a lot of code, but I'll be available to answer questions about it. I had hoped to have it accessible already, but after I got it compiling with the latest version of PPL (it had been over a year since I'd worked on it), I realized it only supported ADOCE when I last programmed anything on it. I just haven't had the time to clean it up and add SQLite support yet. Hopefully pretty soon here.

[kornalius]

Richard: You should also be able to see how Tab control works in the Main_Form.ppl code. It's not easy to look at since there are a lot of code but by looking at the form Main_Form.frm it should be pretty easy. Check the form code for details.

[bmanske]

Kornalius is stealing my thunder. I was going to say that you could check out how the TAB it is used in the PPC programs. I have used it on the main form, in the control properties dialog. It really isn't that easy, but we'll probably make it easier as time goes on. Go ahead and ask questions here.

You said one other thing that caught my attention. That you learned the hard way that a subroutine must proceed the calling code. Check out the "Forward" statement. It allows you to tell the compiler about the subroutines before they are used. That way order isn't so important.

One more word of advise, I wouldn't say anything to Kornalius about being too focused on games... I opened my mouth and said something and now he has me working for him! ;-) Be careful!

Brad

[kornalius]

:)

PPL is far from being just a gaming tool, you can be sure of that. We will support everyone at the same level for games or for anything else.

In fact, our list for upcoming tutorials has more non-gaming topics.

[Richard]

Hi Brad,

If Kornalius is daft enough to want a 62 year old ex IBM programmer residing in the UK working for him why should I complain? Being retired money is always useful!

That apart, I have just purchased PPL Pro as promised and I'm looking forward to my two weeks holiday when I can get to know it better. No internet, so no more posts from me for a while.

Thanks to everyone who replied to my posts, I really appreciate all your help.

Richard.