Not everyone is a professional programmer. But each of us has acquired knowledge in specific fields through study or job experience or just because we happened to be standing under the right tree when an apple fell.
If you have discovered a unique way to store, analyze or calculate information (or perhaps you have an idea for a world class game…) there is only one (good) way to share it: a Macintosh application. And until now, there was only one way to create it: spend years learning to program.
PG:PRO has changed all of that. Because now you don't have to be a professional programmer to create a professional FutureBASIC‚Ñ¢ program. Just let the PRO handle interface operations and spend your time working on the things that made you a professional to begin with.
Lots of folks are using the PRO. There are hobbyists, scientists, engineers, artists, gamers… PG:PRO has even cut new paths into the HyperCard dominated markets of higher education. We cover the U. S. from the University of Florida to Washington state's Tellabs. And we span the globe from Australia to Japan to France (and most points in between).
Somewhere on the globe, every minute of every day, the sun is shining on a PG:PROfessional.
When you visualize the perfect implementation of your dream project, you probably begin with a window nicely centered in the middle of your screen. But this basic building block becomes a major stumbling block when you consider the complexities of Macdom.
Will it be color or black and white? Is there more than one monitor connected to the system? What was the window type number for that new System 7 window, and what will happen if I try to use it in system 6? How do I control zooming if there are two monitors? How can I make the window reopen to the same size and position that it held when it was closed?
Don't worry. It's already done. With the PRO, window operations are not only automatic, they're transparent. Forget updates, zooms, closes, resizes, moves… The PRO passes a message to you before taking any action, then (unless you cancel the process) handles the task cleanly and efficiently with time tested, fully debugged routines.
There's more. PG:PRO provides special window objects that are specifically designed for text, pictures, or QuickTime movies. You can play a movie or open a mini-word processor with a single line of code. PG:PRO leaves you free to process ideas without getting bogged down in interface considerations.
Ideas Evolve
The final version of your application will probably differ radically from the initial layout. Items that were originally thought to be momentous may be removed and elements that once seemed trivial become important components of the interface. But the ultimate goal must be to unite user and information transparently.
So how do you coerce all of those complex Macintosh elements into an inviting interface? You organize and align and resize them with PG:PRO. It's as easy as click and drag. Edit fields, pictures, ICONs, buttons, and pop-up menus can be moved and modified as easily as any graphic object in a drawing program.
Ideas Flow
In many environments, modification of these elements can be a nightmare of trial and error work. Something as simple as moving a button to the top of a column of similar buttons may require several minutes (even hours) to accomplish. If nothing else, this interruption breaks your production cycle and brings the entire development to a halt while you manipulate numbers… that somehow represent data structures… that some piece of the machine will convert to pixel positions…
Ideas Cascade
Your ideas come together graphically — instantly. You can move or resize any object and see the results right away. Clean screen layouts will spew from the mouse pointer like magic and you'll find that you can concentrate on creating a pleasant display without worrying about what complexities must take place behind the scenes to bring the application to life.
Ideas Sell
You never get a second chance to make a first impression.
The next time someone looks at your newly created application, you could spend an hour or two explaining what it does and how it works… or you could build it with PG:PRO, then sit back and watch them enjoy it!
Buttons and edit fields are drawn like all other objects in PG:PRO. And, like other window elements, can be moved and resized with the mouse pointer. To change the name of a button, you can click it with the text tool and type in the new title. If you group radio buttons, PG:PRO automatically insures that only one item per set is selected at any time. Check boxes are automatically toggled on or off. A return key is interpreted as a click in a framed button and escape is channeled to the Cancel button.
Edit fields are powerful input boxes that Macintosh users have come to know and expect. But they come with a price. You must consider tabbing, shift-tabbing, arrow key actions, and Edit menu selections like Cut and Paste and Undo.
PG:PRO handles these operations transparently. It even provides full featured text editor windows with support and handling of the Font, Size and Style menus. It switches to an I-Beam cursor when the mouse pointer passes over an active edit field. Field filters are included also, so that input may be limited to things like currency or dates or integers. There's even a Save filter that automatically stores the contents of a window's edit fields so that they are still in place when the window is opened a few minutes (or years) later.
Graphics are a part of modern applications. They highlight and group elements of a window. They provide a pleasing interface that can comfort rather than alarm the user.
That's why PG:PRO provides a full set of graphic tools for filled or framed shapes. You can specify pen sizes and patterns. Full color is supported to the maximum depth of the current monitor and an eye-dropper helps you pick up foreground or background colors for perfect matching. All objects can be resized, grouped, arranged and aligned. The shift key constrains dragging so that objects move
in a perfect vertical or
horizontal line.
But the power of PG:PRO isn't found in its ability to provide a comfortable drawing environment. The real accomplishment is revealed later when you find that your application can sense the difference between color and black and white systems and when you see that PG:PRO handles all of the drawing involved in keeping your windows refreshed.
There's no flicker; no flash. There's not even any code to write. Just draw the elements into your windows and a FutureBASIC‚Ñ¢ application is created that knows how and when to refresh itself.
