PowerBASIC Page

PowerBASIC Page Back to Home Page The programs on this page has been developed for both the PowerBASIC PBDLL50 compiler and the PowerBASIC CONSOLE compiler. Code specific to either will be commented as such.
Dbldr.exe
Dialog Builder 1.2 is a small code generator that uses the standard PBDLL60 files to build working EXE files in minutes. It is based on the Microsoft Dialog Editor that comes with PowerBASIC. It is easy to install and easy to use and it builds files that start at about 7.5k in size. It builds one of the simplest API styles of code available which is easy to modify and extend yet it pays no price in terms of performance.
This second version will generate additional code for text and checkbox processing and will generate subclass functions for list and combo boxes if needed.

Prostart 1.1
This is a port of the older version of Prostart.Exe into PBDLL60. It has had the code design changed to suit the later PB compiler and it delivers the same size code as the original version. It writes operating system based API style code with the option of adding a toolbar, status bar and an editable menu. It comes with an accessory to generate subclass functions for windows controls.

l2pb.exe
This is a specialised utility written in PBCC version 2. It is designed to create PowerBASIC compatible include files from the Microsoft import libraries included in the platformsdk. Run in a directory by itself it will produce an exhaustive set of function declarations in the form of one file for each Microsoft library, KERNEL32.INC, USER32.INC etc... The current size set of include files created this way is about 940k.
It auto generates the parameters in each function declaration as "ByVal p# as LONG" where p# is the number of the parameter.

The only problem in running them so far is that some API functions have the same name as PowerBASIC key words, SLEEP & BEEP and the API name need to be changed or deleted so that they will run properly.

Using a generic data type allows the programmer to approach function call parameters as either VALUES or ADDRESSES obtained by either VarPtr or StrPtr as in the following example,

DECLARE FUNCTION lstrlen LIB "KERNEL32.DLL" ALIAS "lstrlenA"(BYVAL p1 as LONG) as LONG
DECLARE FUNCTION lstrcat LIB "KERNEL32.DLL" ALIAS "lstrcatA"(BYVAL p1 as LONG,BYVAL p2 as LONG) as LONG

'#########################################################################

FUNCTION PbMain()

    LOCAL buffer1 as ASCIIZ * 128
    LOCAL buffer2 as ASCIIZ * 128
    LOCAL sl      as LONG

    buffer1 = "This is a test of the API lstrcat"+chr$(13,10)
    buffer2 = "and the API lstrlen. Str len => "

    lstrcat VarPtr(buffer1),VarPtr(Buffer2)
    sl = lstrlen(VarPtr(buffer1))

    StdOut buffer1 + str$(sl)

    FUNCTION = 0

END FUNCTION

' #########################################################################

prostart.zip Version 1.0 NEW VERSION
PROSTART.EXE is a project starting code generator for the PBDLL50 compiler. It writes SDK style code for window applications rather than dialog box style applications. It is a code style suited to programmers who are familiar with API programming. It has name replacement options for function and other related code components, options for properties and optional status bar and toolbar code.

It is easy to set up and fires the FIRST time with standard PowerBASIC supplied files. It will generate at the minimum, a functional window at 8192 bytes. It comes with another utility for generating control subclass functions called SUBCLASS.EXE You can compile the project directly from PROSTART.EXE, from a batch file "makepb.bat" or from the supplied IDE.

file2asm.exe convert a binary file into a complete working PowerBASIC function for imbedding binary files into code. Call this function in your code and you will have a string returned that is the exact size of the original binary file that can then be written to disk. The generated function is written in inline assembler for speed.

generic.zip is a commented working template for PowerBASIC programmers who have written software in DOS but run into the differences when programming in Windows. It assumes programming experience at low level in DOS basic compilers and it is aimed as a roadmap for basic programmers who are migrating to 32 bit windows.

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