Using Projects: Greyed out Insert File into Project

[EvangelMike]

Greetings! This is my first post. I am following the "Using Projects" section of the User's Guide. Under the heading "Adding source files", step 2,  it says:
"Add the file to the project by right clicking in the source window and selecting Insert File into Project. Alternately you can select the Project menu in the IDE and choose Insert File into Project".
Unfortunately, "Insert File into Project" is greyed out. How should I proceed?
I should mention that at Step 2 under the heading "Creating a new project" I had selected Windows. Also I did not check the Debug Build checkbox. Thanks in advance for your help. May you have a blessed day.

Sincerely,

Michael D Fitzpatrick

[Ionic Wind Support Team]

Michael,
Either the file is already part of the project, or you don't have a project opened, or you don't have a source file opened and visible in the IDE.  You have to create your source files, save them, and then add them to the project to be compiled. 

1) In the "File View" pane, lower right, it will list the name of the open project, and any files that are already part of that project. 

2) If you don't have a project opened then the file view pane will be blank with the heading "Project Not Open"

3) If you have a source window open, simply save it before trying to add it to a project.

Thanks,
Paul Turley
Ionic Wind Software

[EvangelMike]

Greetings! Thanks for your kind help.
New Problem: After reading "An Introductory Guide to Emergence Basic", I carefully followed the instructions found on pages 1 - 4 and then I tried to build and execute the "First Window Program" found on pages 5 and 6. I got the following output:

Compiling...
WinEx1.eba
File: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\Emergence BASIC\projects\EBWin1\WinEx1.eba (1) invalid character '0xffffff91'
- â€ËÅ"
File: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\Emergence BASIC\projects\EBWin1\WinEx1.eba (1) unknown type - Window
File: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\Emergence BASIC\projects\EBWin1\WinEx1.eba (1) syntax error - Window
File: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\Emergence BASIC\projects\EBWin1\WinEx1.eba (2) invalid character '0xffffff91'
- â€ËÅ"
Error(s) in compiling "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\Emergence BASIC\projects\EBWin1\WinEx1.eba"

Is there an updated version of the "An Introductory Guide to Emergence Basic" I should be using. Thanks in advance for your kind help.

Sincerely,

Michael Fitzpatrick

[Ionic Wind Support Team]

If you are referring to Graham Sutton's (GWS) guide that is downloadable from the site then you need to watch out for the single quotes at the beginning of a line, somewhere along the conversion to PDF the single quotes were changed to a different character, just delete them and type REM.

To get started you should first look at the dozens of example programs that come with Emergence BASIC.  The are in your shared documents folder:

Vista (Public Documents): C:\Users\Public\Documents\EmergenceBASIC\Projects
XP (Shared Documents): C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\EmergenceBASIC\Projects

They are all single file compilable, meaning you don't need a project.  Make sure you have any project closed, open an example, and click the "compile and execute" button.  Chose a proper target (windows or console) as indicated in the comments.

Also be sure to read through the actual users guide, it does show how to create most programs, for example this is from the "windows programming, opening a window" section.

Code Select Expand


REM define a window variable
DEF w1 as WINDOW
REM open the window
OPENWINDOW w1,0,0,350,350,@MINBOX|@MAXBOX|@SIZE,NULL,"Simple Window",&main
REM print a message
PRINT w1,"Hello World"
REM when w1 = 0 the window has been closed
WAITUNTIL w1 = 0
END

REM every time there is a message for our window
REM the operating system will GOSUB here
SUB main
    IF @MESSAGE = @IDCLOSEWINDOW
        REM closes the window and sets w1 = 0
        CLOSEWINDOW w1
    ENDIF
RETURN
ENDSUB


And if you are an absolute beginner, you should consider investing the the Emergence Visual Designer.  It is in beta right now, and there is still a lot of work to be done with it, but it will allow you to quickly create a window or dialog, position controls, add handlers, and compile and run the project with just two clicks. 

Paul.