Hi,
It's been a while since my attempt at a Creative Basic user guide was posted, and it may have slid so far down the posts as to have got lost to all but determined searchers .. ::)
So for any newish users here's it's location. When I add the next episode, that's where it will be .. ;D
http://www.ionicwind.com/forums/index.php?topic=3519.0 (http://www.ionicwind.com/forums/index.php?topic=3519.0)
Creative is still a highly useable tool, and works fine in Win 7. Give it a try.
best wishes, :)
Graham
Graham,
I put a sticky on your topic to push it to the top
LarryMc
Thanks Larry .. ;D
Graham
Part 8 of the User Guide is progressing. It deals with Input / Output, and is a huge subject.
I've almost done the Input side - just got direct input from the keyboard, mouse and joystick to finish - and of course I shall need some nice example programs to demonstrate it all .. :o
Then there's the little matter of output - phew ! ::)
I'm up to nearly 30 pages already, and I haven't started on Output yet.
I'm wondering if I should split it into Part 8 for Input, and Part 9 for Output.
That way I might avoid my pdf program blowing up .. ::)
all the best, :)
Graham
Hi folks,
Here's the 8th section of my user guide - Input/Output - Part 1.
I've had to split the I/O subject 'cos it's so large. Part 2 will deal with file I/O. ::)
I've also had to separate the InOut_Part1.pdf document, from some of the example programs, because the examples require graphics and sound files to function properly.
There is a limit on uploadable file sizes, so I'm also having to post the pdf document as a separate .zip.
The program examples are in a separate .zip file InOut_Examples.zip.
Each of the examples can be unzipped into their own folders, and should then work OK.
best wishes, :)
Graham
.. and here are the InOut Example programs .. :)
Graham
Graham this just keeps gettin' gooder and gooder ... thanks for all the work, it's a really neat product.
Tom
Quote from: tbohon on June 20, 2012, 06:24:33 PM
Graham this just keeps gettin' gooder and gooder ... thanks for all the work, it's a really neat product.
Tom
I totally agree!
Thanks guys .. glad you like it. :)
I try to incorporate all the large number of contributions made by many folk over the years - many thanks to them.
Even for me, it makes a useful reference to techniques I tend to forget these days - my memory is not what it was. ::)
The next part - reading and writing data to files - will stretch me a bit. I haven't used those facilities for a while, so I've got some catching up to do.
all the best, :)
Graham
Found a page layout error on Page 30 - fixed in re-posted InOut_Pdf.zip above ..
Sorry about that. :)
Graham
Hi folks,
Here's the second section of Part 8 (Input/Output).
This one deals with directories and files - because the first section got too big .. ::)
It's getting a bit complicated 'cos this section and the first section of Part 8 are now separate from Parts 1 to 7, which are in the sticky Creative User Guide area. Maybe Larry could move them all under the same banner .. :)
This second part deals with writing and reading files of one kind or another to hard disk.
It's not a subject I find wonderfully exciting - but when you need to do it, I hope these notes may help. :)
Anyway, the .zip file is attached ..
best wishes, :)
Graham
QuoteMaybe Larry could move them all under the same banner ..
Where you want me to move it to?
To the tail end of the Creative User Guide thread?
Graham,
I sure am glad you have start again on the guide. It sure does look great!!!
I'm running on a Win 7 64-bit HP laptop. No problems, yet.
BTW, how many more sections do you plan??
Bill
Hi folks,
Larry .. Yep, the two Input/Output sections probably fit best there - I think that was the sticky thread .. :)
My fault not being tidy where I post ::)
Bill .. Well if I use Alyce's Liberty Basic Companion as a guide (wow - and what a lot of work went into that :)) .. there are still lots of things to talk about ..
GUI Programming
Graphics
2D and Sprites
Games programming
3D (almost too difficult to contemplate ::))
Windows Controls
Using DLLs and APIs (I'm not an expert on this subject)
Menus and Icons
Modifying Windows and Controls (Sizing, regions, transparency)
GDI programming
Multimedia (phew that's a hard one)
Maths and Simulation techniques (another huge area)
Internet programming (not very confident about this either)
Goodies and Oldies (some contributions from users in the past)
Applications Reviews - a showcase.
Basic is a great language - you can do so much with it.
There's enough there to keep me going for quite a while.
I find it sort of therapeutic doing something creative - been a bit down since my wife had to go into a nursing home. Depression is a terrible thing. :(
Anyway, I'll press on - have to get going with a small task Larry's given me ;D
all the best, :)
Graham
QuoteGoodies and Oldies (some contributions from users in the past)
Applications Reviews - a showcase.
I am interested for this stuff and i think that many visitors will be to..
Hi Aurel .. thanks, I hope folk will find it interesting. :)
It takes me a while to do though.
One thing I also find interesting, is that discussions on other forums are still talking about installing Creative in Win7 and 8 .. ;D Nice to think the old program still has some attractions. And why not?
best wishes, :)
Graham
The other evening I put together a little browser based app in Creative, just to display all of your PDF files Graham. In fact, I was planning on embedding them as resource files to make a complete e-book. All went well and it was working perfectly up until I allowed Adobe to do an upgrade to the Reader application and from that point on, it would no longer read or display the embedded PDF files. :(
I know that they were being embedded properly because the file size of the executable grew larger and larger... I also know that my code was correct because it was working before the Adobe upgrade. Rather than making it "pretty" and adding a few extra features, I finally got ticked out and tossed the source file.
Oh well, I tried... and appreciate your work on the programming guide, Graham.
-Doc-
Ooh! that's a brave approach Doc .. :) I can't imagine how you did that via a program.
Did you read in each .pdf file Parts 1 to 8 in some way ?
I did notice that the latest version of the program I use to create the .pdfs (PagePlus 6) now has an e-book output facility. I'll have to read how to use it .. ;D
best wishes, :)
Graham
Graham
If you would like I could use the program I use to create IWBasic's and my other help files to publish your efforts if you supplied me with the text to your pdfs.
The program I use creates chm, pdf, e-book, and web based files from the same source.
Might take me a little while to get it done though. ;)
Quote from: GWS on January 25, 2013, 10:09:17 AM
Ooh! that's a brave approach Doc .. :) I can't imagine how you did that via a program.
Did you read in each .pdf file Parts 1 to 8 in some way ?
I did notice that the latest version of the program I use to create the .pdfs (PagePlus 6) now has an e-book output facility. I'll have to read how to use it .. ;D
best wishes, :)
Graham
Yes sir... I embedded them as resource files, then based on a button click event, pointed the browser to the proper embedded PDF file. I'll try to put together a simple sample for you. (We need that as a resource here at the forums anyway, just in case someone else wants to build something like this)
-Doc-
Thanks for these additional guides and examples... extremely useful and helpful. Thanks for all your hard work on this.
:)
I've attached a really simple example of how to use embedded resource files. Particularly for HTML and/or PDF files.
As mentioned above, using the PDF's were working just fine (and always have) up until I did the latest update of Adobe Reader. You might go ahead and attempt swapping the PDF file instead of the HTML version I've used, just to see if it will work on your end.
As it stands, the exe file included in the zip file should work from any place on your computer... just so you can see that the html is really embedded. I've forgotten just how to include HTML files that point to images that are also embedded, but will see if I can locate one of my old projects that use that feature.
Holler if you need help.
-Doc-
Larry,
Thanks for the offer, but I think it might prove a bit difficult. :)
The PagePlus program 'source' files are .ppp (proprietary), and include all the pictures, tables and code panels internally.
Just finding the pictures I used would take ages to track down.
It also auto-generates the pdf indexes - very clever for a $50 program.
I'll press on just creating the pdfs initially, but I will investigate the e-book facility ..
Doc, .. great, I'd be interested how you do these things .. :)
Adrian, .. glad you like them. It's a lovely language and I wanted a suitably pretty guide for users.
You never know, more folk might be tempted to try it .. :)
best wishes, :)
Graham
Thanks Doc .. you just beat me to the post ;D
I'll take a look.
Graham
Hmmm
Doc ...
Do you can cheat Adobe by binding PDF files to exe instead adding is as embeded resource.
Did you try something like this?
Hey Aurel!
...no sir, I had (have) no idea that anything such can be done. Do you have a link that explains the feature?
Since the way back days of this language, I've used embedded resources like this, without any problems... well, until the latest Adobe update that is. ;)
-Doc-
Doc
You say that you can embed as resource PDF file ,right?
But in your example i see only html file added as resource ,right?
I mean bind pdf file on the end of exe like binary file.
Similar thing i do when i add source code to Aurel Basic runtime exe...
Okay, I've attached another zip file that contains source file and executable's for an embedded HTML file as well as an embedded PDF file. The HTML version runs just fine, but the PDF version does not. Maybe someone can try them out to see what happens on a different machine.
I really do believe that the issue is with Adobe, possibly some kind of security changes that they made in the last update... it was working prior to that.
-Doc-
Doc
Something is strange and it looks that is not only problem in Adobe because
i use Foxit pdf reader and he also complain about security warning on my xp machine.
Also xp say that your PDFexe is not valid win32 aplication...
Anyway i am not sure how you mean to open pdf file in browser window ,right? ???
Hi,
This works in IWB. Click in the window after it has loaded, and make sure you have
a look at the PDF's Properties and Unblock it (if it is blocked, of course)
Brian
Thanks Brian!
I had to make a small adjustment on my end to get your IWB code to compile, embedding the PDF sample:
BROWSECMD wb,@NAVIGATE,"res://"+GETSTARTPATH+"EmbeddedPDF.exe/SimpleSample.pdf"
...made no difference on the end results though. I still have troubles on this end using either XP or Windows 8, even using the IWB version. See the attached image.
-Doc-
Out of curiosity Brian, when was the last time you updated the Adobe Reader application... and what version of Windows are you using?
-Doc-
win7 x64 machine
cbasic
html one works
pdf one gets error message saying not connected to internet blah, blah. or name wrong but everything looks right
Quote from: LarryMc on January 26, 2013, 03:01:29 PM
win7 x64 machine
cbasic
html one works
pdf one gets error message saying not connected to internet blah, blah. or name wrong but everything looks right
That is too strange, LarryMc...
Three evenings ago when I first started working on it, things were working just fine on the Windows XP box I was using at the time. It just stopped working altogether, even on this Win 8 box (that I finally got working). Exactly the same problem on both systems now, plus your Win 7 machine.
<scratching head> I'm stumped </scratching head >
-Doc-
Doc,
I'm on Win XP SP3, and I use the Foxit Reader, not the bloated Adobe Reader!
Brian
Doc,
This one works even better. Don't know where the original code came from, but only
needed minor adjustments for IWB. And it displays the Foxit window inside the IWB
frame for me - don't know about Adobe, though
Brian
Quote from: Brian Pugh on January 27, 2013, 06:13:45 AM
Doc,
This one works even better. Don't know where the original code came from, but only
needed minor adjustments for IWB. And it displays the Foxit window inside the IWB
frame for me - don't know about Adobe, though
Brian
Hey Brian,
Just to clarify and make sure we are on the same page after looking at your code, displaying the PDF file from within the browser window, when pointed to a file on the hard drive, hasn't been the problem for me. That works well.
The problem I'm having is when trying to display the same file once it has been embedded directly into the executable. You're saying that you are able to make the second scenario work?
Edit to add: I used to use FoxIt all the time and actually prefer it, so I went ahead and got rid of the Adobe beast and put it on this Windows 8 machine. Still does not make a difference in my results, so maybe the problem is cause by an update to my security software.
-Doc-
Doc,
Do you mean to embed a pdf/html as a resource? If so, I'll have a go...
Brian
Yes Sir... that's what is causing the troubles.
Was working, is not now.
Of course this is really not a big deal... I don't have an actual need for it at present. I was just gonna build a decent interface and wrap up all of Graham's PDF's into a single file. That's what started this whole conversation and exercise I think.
-Doc-