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Content-type: text/plain
> -----Original Message-----
> From: blackbox{([at]})nowhere.xy> Behalf Of Martin, Marc
> Sent: Wednesday, 20 September 2006 3:27 AM
> To: BlackBox Mailing List
> Subject: [BlackBox] - BlackBox community
>
> > After that I tried everything: Plug-In Oberon for Windows, Blue
> > Bottle, POW!, xds, BlackBox.
>
> There is also Garden's Point Component Pascal, which is also
> open source. This uses either Microsoft's .NET framework, or
> the Java Virtual Machine:
>
> http://cfbsoftware.com/gpcp/
>
> I mention this because this may not be so limiting with the
> user interface -- for example, you can easily make an "single
> window" interface, while Blackbox only seems to support
> multiple windows.
>
> Marc
>
That is true - GPCP has few restrictions, if any, on the type of GUI that
you can develop. However, what I am constantly finding is that I want the
best of all worlds:
* the language features, stability and reliability of Component Pascal
* the lightweight nature, source navigation and auxiliary development tools
of BlackBox
* tabbed multiple document interface for editing source
* the forms designers of Delphi and VS C#
* the extensiveness and ease of use of the .NET framework
* an interactive GUI debugger
etc. etc.
I think that the biggest disincentive to new users of Garden's Point
Component Pascal would be the fact that it is supplied as a command-line
compiler. There is a version that integrates into Microsoft Visual Studio
but I have found that to be very unstable to date - though I have a hunch
that might change soon. However, if you din't already have a copy of Visual
Studio, you would need to purchase it. Another disadvantage of Visual Studio
is that it is a bloated complex monster - the sort of thing that results
when you let programmers run away with their imagination.
Consequently, I made my own primitive, but very useable *lightweight* IDE,
by exploiting the advanced configuration capabilities of the powerful text
editor, TextPad. It is a 95% solution for 5% of the effort.
However, I still missed some of the things I like about developing CP code
using BlackBox e.g.
* semi-automatic capitalisation of keywords
* ability to quickly open the source / interface of a referenced module
* having a table of procedures in a Module to quickly navigate to
etc. etc.
Consequently, last weekend, I started to write (in Component Pascal
naturally!) my own simple IDE on similar lines to POW! or Zonnon Builder.
The .NET libraries are so extensive that it has literally taken less than a
dozen hours to get a working prototype up and running.
I much prefer the *tabbed* multiple document interface used in many modern
tools (e.g. TextPad, Delphi, Visual Studio, Internet Explorer 7.0 etc. etc)
to the overlapping windows of BlackBox so that is what I am implementing. If
anybody knows how to get BlackBox itself to have a tabbed document interface
I'd be very interested to hear about it.
Chris Burrows
CFB Software
http://www.cfbsoftware.com/gpcp
--- BlackBox
--- send subject HELP or UNSUBSCRIBE to blackbox{([at]})nowhere.xy
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Received on Wed Sep 20 2006 - 02:47:32 UTC