Reply to: Anyone used PowerBasic or QuickBasic for Windows dev?

[xoggoth]

Tend to use VB.net in VS, good dev system. Never realised how good until I started having to use Eclipse for Android stuff. Various freeware versions of VS although assume you need to have licenced version to release commercial progs.

PS Off topic but I still use VB6 for quickly knocking up little utils for my own use. It works fine on Windows 7 if you do run as administrator.

[Freamon]

You want a proper requirements visualisation / prototyping tool. Like:

Balsamiq Mockups | Balsamiq

Or:

http://www.axure.com/

Or:

iRise Home

[DimPrawn]

Visual Studio Express is the obvious choice, end of.

Drag 'n' Drop winforms, costs nothing, can put a bit of VB.NET or C# code behind events to give the prototype a bit of life.

Simples.

[Sysman]

Sas, does Delphi still exist? That would've been a good tool for this.

Yes and no. When I was using it, Delphi apps had a distinctive look and I could tell from just looking at a screen shot. The point of the exercise is not to have Bob try and recreate that.

[DimPrawn]

Ah.... IIRC the UI style of PowerBasic is a bit behind the times, and I think you have to buy an add-on to get a GUI screen builder. Read their website carefully...

EDIT: Actually, Visual Fox Pro has a good GUI builder

Visual Fox Poo

[Platypus]

No I just want a way of showing him what GUI I want.
My question is that feasible?

Ah.... IIRC the UI style of PowerBasic is a bit behind the times, and I think you have to buy an add-on to get a GUI screen builder. Read their website carefully...

EDIT: Actually, Visual Fox Pro has a good GUI builder

[d000hg]

Because he went for the obvious bob. Mind you a remember discussions on here recently that E Europe developers aren't cheap nowadays (and from my last conversation with them they're not).

Mine are cheap... at least by my standards. Under $20/hr isn't the $8/hr you get in India but still 1/3 the cost of a bog-standard UK contractor, and while not awesomely skilled they are better than 1/3 as good
Putting together a small team with myself as techy lead has worked well in the past as way to keep costs low and have a gatekeeper on quality.

[PAH]

VB is not a mockup tool. You still have to do programming.

Depends how much of a working model you want to build.

You can easily mock up a 'screen' or form by dragging/dropping a few items from the toolbox then entering dummy text and property values.

The major benefit being that the output is a true Windows form not some etch-a-sketch that looks like Windows but may not be 100% implementable in Windows. At which point you're at the mercy of the developer having some initiative. Something that Bob isn't well renowned for.

[eek]

However I do wonder why Sas doesn't just find a good overseas developer, they exist (I should know, I hire[d] a few C++ guys from E. Europe).

Because he went for the obvious bob. Mind you a remember discussions on here recently that E Europe developers aren't cheap nowadays (and from my last conversation with them they're not).

[d000hg]

Yep. Visual Basic.

Or VB.Net and WinForms if you want the modern equivalent.

For a real challenge try VB.Net and WPF.

You can see how M$ have moved the game on by just adding complexity over the years. Visual Basic is a simple drag/drop environment with a bit of event coding, similar to Delphi but without that dirty Pascal.

VB is not a mockup tool. You still have to do programming. I mean tools specifically written for GUI design... although for a communication-challenged developer maybe you need it to be real code.

However I do wonder why Sas doesn't just find a good overseas developer, they exist (I should know, I hire[d] a few C++ guys from E. Europe).

[eek]

There must be GUI mockup tools but I think this is a reasonable approach. AtW this is a professional section not general... also BASIC has formed the basis of many real apps over the decades, laughing at it before knowing the use-case makes you look like a programmer rather than a business owner.

Sas, does Delphi still exist? That would've been a good tool for this.

It does, Embarcadero Technologies owns it but

1) I think they've buggered it up over the last few years
2)I don't think its the correct tool here as I don't know what the development and target platforms are. If the target platform in Windows creating an interface in VS express that you developer can then attach his code to is going to be the best solution.

Although why the solution is being writing in C++ is an interesting question to ask SAS.

[PAH]

There must be GUI mockup tools

Yep. Visual Basic.

Or VB.Net and WinForms if you want the modern equivalent.

For a real challenge try VB.Net and WPF.

You can see how M$ have moved the game on by just adding complexity over the years. Visual Basic is a simple drag/drop environment with a bit of event coding, similar to Delphi but without that dirty Pascal.

[d000hg]

There must be GUI mockup tools but I think this is a reasonable approach. AtW this is a professional section not general... also BASIC has formed the basis of many real apps over the decades, laughing at it before knowing the use-case makes you look like a programmer rather than a business owner.

Sas, does Delphi still exist? That would've been a good tool for this.

[sasguru]

That and a few colour crayons to show off your painting skills?

Quite.

[AtW]

Quite. If Bob were physically here I'd use a sheet of A4

That and a few colour crayons to show off your painting skills?