Custom Button Library and Designer

[tbohon]

WOW!!!!!

Just ordered it via PayPal ... NEAT STUFF! 

Tom

[Bruce Peaslee]

Nice.

Not only is the product interesting, but I also like the idea of featuring them on this site.

[Ionic Wind Support Team]

Yes.  Larry did a great job in creating a new and useful tool for Emergence BASIC, and of course it was written in Emergence BASIC as well

[Ionic Wind Support Team]

New version 1.1 available.  Fixes a few problems using the buttons in a window, instead of a dialog.

Paul.

[Ficko]

I just did a clean install with the new Update and several changes had noticed with the designer .

1.) Now it takes much longer to start up (even have a blue strip asking me for patience, may this strip was there before but it started up so fast I didn't notice it)
2.) By exiting the program an access violation happens every time.

Some screen shots attached.

P.S.
The first version just run fine.

OS:VISTA-64

[hugh]

Hello Flicko,
I am running on Vista on a laptop, as well , and ,  on xp pro on other computer, Yes the startup screen is a bit on the slow side, Loading ALL those shapes.
But that does not bother me, as i think it is well worth the wait,  it is a classic Button Designer.
and i am more than pleased with what i have created.

As for you CRASH problems , i dont have any problems with exiting the program , and i cant think of any reason as to why you have that problem.

Maybe someone more experienced than me , can answer that for you.

Regards

Hugh

[LarryMc]

P.S.
The first version just run fine.

No it didn't, hence the new version

1.) Now it takes much longer to start up (even have a blue strip asking me for patience, may this strip was there before but it started up so fast I didn't notice it)

The bug in the original version was that the custom buttons would have "bleed-through" around the outside of the button mask when using the custom buttons with a parent window under certain conditions.  It didn't happen when the parent was a dialog.
To fix the problem I had to add one SetWindowRgn statement with an embedded CopyRgn command.
That line of code is what has increased the startup time from about 2 secs to around 10 secs to create the 1230 button shapes.
I added the blue line to show that the program was indeed doing something.

BTW, Hugh is the one who reported the bleed-through bug with his bingo program.

2.) By exiting the program an access violation happens every time.

I have never seen that and you are the only one who has reported that problem.
I know nothing about reading the debug dump so maybe Paul will help me out there.
You said you are using Vista 64 (meaning a 64 bit machine?)
I don't have a 64 bit machine to test it on.

I'll see if I can figure something out.

I hate that you are having any problem at all.

Larry

[Ficko]

Hugh,

The loading speed doesn’t bother me either.
I just put it there as a noticed difference between the first and the second version to give some hint for debugging for the crashing.

And Larry,

Yes I meant 64-bit OS (V. Ultimate) and this may be well the cause of the problem since Hugh doesn’t experience this crash on his vista.

With â€Ã...“the first version just ran fineâ€Ã, I want to say â€Ã...“the first designerâ€Ã, (since it doesn’t crash on me ) and want only point out that the bug
was introduced somehow since that.

Just don’t take it too personal if I report an observed outpoint.
It isn’t a critic or attack.

That’s the way I am, not go by anything I see and think isn’t right.
Keeping your personal integrity high is the only way thinks get better!

I do think Larry that your program is great!

Csaba

[hugh]

I a m running on 32 bit, vista
on a  acer laptop.
*********************************************************************
I removed computer details from this post, ie mpeg screen capture for personal reasons
*********************************************************************

the other machine is an old DELL optiplex gx100 running xp pro, its only got 512 meg memory.
but it runs fine., i use it to see the diference in colours on the old monitor, and compare it to this lcd one.
I used larry,s cbd.exe to create buttons on the main bingo display board to give a lighting effect when a number has been called.
then when the user clicks on the LINE CALLED/House Called  button, he/she, can see which numbers have been called.
i have attached a sample screen shot , it is after the user clicks, HOUSE CALLED button.
user selected 75 number U.S.A. bingo, only got two choices, 75 or 90 number bingo!
But i am still working on  the program.

I think you are correct in your assumption that it might be the 64bit problem


Hugh

[Ficko]

Yes it is a 64-bit problem.

I just installed it on a XP-64 and it crashing on "quit" -exit- same as by vista-64.

Csaba

[LarryMc]

Ficko
Wasn't taking it personal.
My only concren is that since I don't have a 64 bit machine there is no way I know how to fix it.
I'm just not that good.

I know that when Paul was checking my original code he found that his computer graphics card didn't like one of the api functions I was using.

And feel free to question any code I post on the forums.  We all learn from that.

Larry

[Ionic Wind Support Team]

It would help to know if it is just the designer crashing on 64 bit, or does a program using the button library also crash on 64 bit.  Which would narrow it down so I can help Larry debug the problem.

Paul.

[Ficko]

It is only the designer Paul.

And only shortly after pushing the (x) or (quit).

Csaba

Attached disass. dump.

[dossic]

Hi!

I have few questions on CBD.
1) Both with Win2000 and with Vista, an error message appears when CBD is closed. However, it doesn't appear to affect any functionality of then software.
2) Is there any way to add more buttons, e.g. a typical triangular shape?
3) In projects, may I use resources for BMP images?  I do not like distributing .BMP images in the software.
4) When I resize the window containing the buttons, I experienced a strange fact,  button colors tend to mix together, as they would interact during moving the window.

Thanks so much

Carlo

[Ionic Wind Support Team]

I've made a couple of changes to the current version.  Download and try it again.

I don't have a 64 bit OS to debug it on, but it doesn't crash on either my Vista or XP installations.

Paul.

[LarryMc]

2) Is there any way to add more buttons, e.g. a typical triangular shape?

Currently, no.  On my list of possible additional features on any future version of the CBD library is the ability for users to input a shape of their own at design time.  At present there is no timetable for a "next version".

3) In projects, may I use resources for BMP images?  I do not like distributing .BMP images in the software.

At present, CBD expects a filename for any bitmaps used as backgrounds for the buttons.  You can add the bitmap to the resources in your application and then extract it to a file at runtime.

Larry

[dossic]

Thanks!

Just another help. Sorry for my ignorance, how will I extract a resource to a file at runtime?

Yours   Carlo

[LarryMc]

This is what I use:

Code Select Expand

sub extract_resource(id:INT, restype:INT, filename:STRING),INT
   BFILE f
   MEMORY m
   INT retc
    retc = 0
   if loadresource(id, restype, m)
      if openfile(f, filename, "w")=0
         retc = __write(f, m, LEN(m)-1)
         closefile f
      endif
      freemem m
   endif
   return retc
ENDSUB

Hope it helps.

Larry

[Ficko]

I just wanna acknowledge that the new version runs fine on VISTA-64!
No more crash!

Csaba

[barry]

I got the button designer today but there doesn't seem to be a help file or example code.  There is a help option in the menu but it doesn't seem to do anything.

I can't get it to save a bitmap and I don't know what to do with the code it seems to be generating.

Any suggestions?

Barry

[LarryMc]

Have to wait until Paul reads your post so he can check the download file.

Larry

[Ionic Wind Support Team]

Barry,
What OS are you using?

I've tested the install a couple of times on both XP and Vista.  The example program gets installed to :My Documents\Emergence BASIC\Projects
The help file gets installed in the same location as you choose for the designer.

If you are using Vista you have to install using the admin account.   Which is something I'll need to address.

Paul.

[barry]

I am using Vista and I am using an admin account.  UAC is turned off.

I found the help and the example where you said and that might be what I need to get started with it.  A read-me file pointing that out might be useful.  I know I probably should have thought to look there but I didn't.

Anyway it mostly seems to be working now.  I haven't read the help yet but I did find it.  It doesn't come up when I use the help menu but I can run it manually.

I'm not getting any colors in the button but it's working okay.  That's in my own program.  The colors are fine in the samples so it's probably something I'm doing.

One suggestion is to include 4 (or more) triangular buttons that can be arranged to make a directional button cluster.  I kind of had that in mind when I decided to buy this.  There are diamond shapes that will work for me but it would be nice to have triangles that I could put around a square button in the middle.  Just an idea.

This will probably be a good tool for me.  Thanks.

Barry

[LarryMc]

Barry
I think you'll find that if you read the help file you'll find the designer is very easy to use.

Larry