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- Pretty Printer for Visual Basic
- Copyright 1993-1995
- All rights reserved.
-
- ***SUPPORT***
-
- CompuServe: GO AARDVARK, 24 Hours-A-Day
- E-mail: 73173.1137@compuserve.com, 24 Hours-A-Day
- Fax: 1-201-833-1216, 24 Hours-A-Day
- Voice: 1-610-524-2589, M-F, 9 AM - 6 PM ET
-
- ***File Contents***
-
- Overview
- System Requirements
- Installation
- Getting Started
- New Features
- Upgrading
- Compatibility Issues
- Frequently Asked Questions
- File Distribution
-
-
- ***Pretty Printer for Visual Basic Overview***
-
- Thank you for your interest in Pretty Printer. Together,
- Pretty Printer and You - the Visual Basic programmer, have
- the capability to produce the most professional listings in
- the business.
-
- Pretty Printer is 100% Visual Basic(R) code, and
- demonstrates the enormous power Visual Basic brings to the
- Windows(tm) developer. At the same time, this new version
- of Pretty Printer expands and strengthens Visual Basic's
- code printing capabilities with a host of new features.
-
- Pretty Printer's black and white output is crisp,
- neat, and very readable. Selected code components can be
- highlighted using the program's "grayscale like" background
- feature. Whether you use a laser, ink jet or dot matrix,
- Pretty Printer will produce a listing you will be proud to
- display.
-
- Pretty Printer gives you a wide choice of fonts,
- styles and formats to further professionalize your output.
- You may arrange the page layout to fit your needs,
- including setting margins, indentations, number of columns,
- page headings, and page breaks. Connectors may be inserted
- to bracket your loop and logic code statements, making it
- easier to find errors or to mark reusable code. Pretty
- Printer is what you have needed to catch that hard to track
- down bug, or to impress that very important client.
-
- Using a color capable printer, you can produce code
- listings that highlight Visual Basic's keywords, user
- variables, comments, literals, and page headings - each in
- a different color.
-
- While Pretty Printer was designed for use with Visual
- Basic 3.0, it will produce enhanced listings for other
- versions of Visual Basic - and other Basic dialects. Pretty
- Printer is compatible with all printers supported by Windows.
-
- ***System Requirements***
-
- Required: MSDOS 3.3 or later version.
- Windows 3.1x, Windows for Workgroups
- or Windows NT and compatibles.
-
-
- ***Installation***
-
- Insert the disk in a floppy drive. If you have not already
- done so, start Microsoft Windows. Choose "Run" from the
- Program Manager File menu. At the command line type A:\Setup
- (If "A" is not your floppy drive letter, substitute the
- appropriate letter). Follow the setup instructions on the
- screen.
-
- If you are upgrading an earlier version of Pretty
- Printer, follow the same instructions - the older files
- will be over-written.
-
- Upgrade Note: In Pretty Printer version 2.1 VBPP.KEY was
- replaced by BASICLAN.KEY. Upon installation VBPP.KEY will
- not be overwritten. You may delete the file to save disk
- space, however, its presence will have no effect on running
- the current version of Pretty Printer.
-
- If you have problems with the installation, check the
- "Compatibility Issues" select below. Also check to see if
- your device drivers and *.DLL files are current. Updating
- drivers and *.DLL files to the latest versions has fixed
- all sorts of odd problems. If you can not resolve your
- installation problems, contact AARDVARK Software for
- assistance.
-
- ***Getting Started***
-
- To print a chosen project or file, open Pretty
- Printer. After the "About Notice" has cleared the screen,
- an Open File Common Dialog Box will appear. Select the
- project or file you wish to open, then click the "OK" button.
- To print immediately using Pretty Printer's default
- settings, and Windows default printer, click on the File
- Menu and select Print. A print option box will appear,
- make your selection and click "OK". That's all there is to
- it!
-
- Pretty Printer prints ASCII text files. The Visual
- Basic Programmer's Guide outlines the very real advantages
- of saving your files in text format, and is worth reading.
- To get your code into text format do one of the following:
-
- (1) For a new project, go to the Visual Basic
- Options Menu - Environment Dialog Box. Select
- the option to save all of your project's code in
- text format.
- (2) To convert existing code files saved in binary
- format, go to the Visual Basic File Menu, and
- select the Save File As entry. When the dialog
- box appears, check the Save as Text box, then
- save the file using standard Windows conventions.
-
- To refine the printed output, click on the Color, Font
- or Format items from Pretty Printer's Option Menu; or
- select Page Layout from the File Menu. To get a better
- understanding of these, and other features supported by
- Pretty Printer, use the Help Search Utility, the Help
- Contents screen , or press F1 for context-sensitive
- help.
-
-
- ***New Features***
-
- New features in 2.1a (6/95)
- Time required to load / read (parsing) code file(s) reduced by 40%
- Splash screen implemented
- System Info option added to About dialog
-
- New features in 2.1 (2/95)
- Code line continuations
- Multi-column printing
- User heading
- Connectors without Auto-Indent option
- Upgraded Help File
- CompuServe Forum Support
- Bugs resolved
-
- New features in 2.0 (6/94)
- Connectors (For/Next, Do/Loop, If/ElseIf/End If)
- Project File handling
- On-line help
- Orphan handling
- User Interface improvements
- International - Metric margin settings
- Option for bold proc separator
- Bugs resolved
-
- New features in 1.2 (2/94)
- Ability to specify contents of page headings
- Long tokens are wrapped instead of truncated
- Prints table of contents as an option
- User interface changed (improved)
- Paint and setfocus eliminated where not needed
-
- New Features in 1.1 (1/94)
- Procedure selection (Sub/Function)
- Margin selection
- Option sets saved for each printer
- Automatic indentation option
- Option to suppress form description printing.
- Easier setting of all options
-
- ***Important Upgrading Information***
-
- All upgraders to 2.1 (from 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, 2.0)
- VBPP 2.1 VBPP.INI file switches are coded to "yes/no."
- In previous versions, VBPP.INI switches were coded to -1/0.
- VBPP 2.1 will read either designation. Earlier versions
- equate both "yes" and "no" as false. If, after installing and
- running version 2.1, you return to an earlier version of Pretty
- Printer, you will lose your switch options. This may lead to
- confusion as no default values will be set either. If you
- anticipate running earlier versions of Pretty Printer it may be
- desirable to copy the current VBPP.INI file before installing
- Pretty Printer 2.1.
- If you modified VBPP.KEY, you must make similar
- modifications in the new BASICLAN.KEY. The old VBPP.KEY file
- will not work.
-
- ***Pretty Printer for Visual Basic Compatibility Issues***
-
- 1 - On the Ultra Script postscript software emulator from
- QMS by PM Ware V3.01, a few characters are lost at the
- beginning of each line. This appears to be their problem.
-
- 2 - Under HP dashboard + a network, one user has
- experienced system hangs and file/path not found. Runs OK
- from an icon.
-
- 3 - ATI VESA local video cards with the Mach 32 chip.
- With some driver versions, the print on a color printer may
- become garbled. Specifically, on an HP Deskjet 500C, parts
- of letters will not print. Solution, install the latest
- ATI driver.
-
- 4 - When installing VBPP you can get Warning- Cannot copy
- file A:\DDEML.DL_ since the destination file is already in
- use. Ignore the message - hit OK.
-
- 5 - A "Memory overflow" message on the hardware control
- panel of an HP LJ III with 1 Meg of memory can occur. The
- standard Windows 3.1 HP LJ III driver uses 1.5 MB blocks
- which can cause memory overflow on certain types of print
- jobs. The bypass is to define the printer as an HP LJ
- Series II printer and setting it to use 512k byte blocks or
- to upgrade the printer to 1.5MB.
-
- 6 - Table of Contents out of sequence. By default Visual
- Basic sequences module procedures in alphanumeric order
- until the module reaches some indeterminate size. At that
- point Visual Basic adds new module procedures to the top
- of the list. VBPP prints code and Table of Contents in
- the order encountered.
-
- 7 - A user reported a GPF using IBM Lexmark printer with
- certain settings. This is a probable problem in VB or the
- printer driver.
-
- 8 - Using the Print Setup causes a blank page to be printed
- and the selected printer to become the system default
- printer. This is a 'feature' of VB's printer interface.
-
- 9 - System hangs after print requested, noticed when TEMP
- set to a Ram drive. This can be due to insufficient space
- for printer TEMP files. To bypass, increase the size of the
- RAM drive, or point the TEMP directory to a hard drive with
- more space. You can also decrease the size of the print
- file by using printer fonts (rather than true-type), and
- remove background colors.
-
- 10 - Multiple statements per line can cause indent or
- connector problems. If problems are encountered, split the
- lines.
-
- 11 - Very large tokens and programs can abort processing.
- The maximum token size is 4K, with a limit of 32K tokens
- per program.
-
- ***Frequently Asked Questions***
-
- Q: Do I need a color printer to run VBPP?
-
- A: No, VBPP will make your listings look better whether
- you have a black & white or a color printer. Even on black
- & white printers, you can use bolding, italics, different
- fonts, and different sizes to make your listings more
- readable. On color printers, the results are outrageous.
-
- Q: What printers does VBPP support?
-
- A: VBPP should work with any printer that Windows
- supports. It has been used with impact printers, laser
- printers, ink jets, and even fax modems.
-
- Q: Does VBPP require Windows?
-
- A: Yes. It has been tested on Windows 3.1, Windows for
- Workgroups, Windows NT 3.5, OS/2 2.1 and beta versions
- of Windows 95. It should work on other versions of Windows.
-
- Q: Does VBPP require Visual Basic 3.0?
-
- A: VBPP does not require any version of Visual Basic to be
- installed, it is self-contained and only requires Windows.
-
- Q: What dialects of BASIC does VBPP handle?
-
- A: VBPP is primarily designed for Visual Basic for
- Windows 3.0, and its keyword lists are set to that dialect.
- It performs well with Visual Basic for Windows 1.0 and 2.0;
- Visual Basic for DOS, Quick BASIC, QBasic, and even
- GWBASIC code. It has some knowledge of Visual Basic for
- Applications, Word Basic and Access Basic.
-
- Q: Is the product guaranteed?
-
- A: Yes, if you are not satisfied, you may return it within
- 90 days for a full refund.
-
- Q: Is Pretty Printer integrated into Visual Basic? How do
- I print with Pretty Printer.
-
- A: Pretty Printer is a separate application from Visual
- Basic and runs in a separate window. Once you have started
- Visual Basic and Pretty Printer, you can switch to between
- them by using standard Windows commands such as ALT+TAB.
- This separation precludes problems in one product from
- causing problems in the other.
-
- Q: Does Pretty Printer produce an index or a cross-
- reference.
-
- A: Pretty Printer produces a Table of Contents which lists
- the procedures (Subs and Functions) in a module in the
- order they appear. (It is not an index because an index is
- alphabetized. A variable cross-referencer is another type
- of product - Pretty Printer is not a cross-referencer.)
-
- Q: Does Pretty Printer work on binary files?
-
- A: Pretty Printer uses text files. That means that you
- should set your Options/Environment/Save As Default Format
- to Text. Existing projects can be quickly converted by
- using File/Save As/ and checking the "Save as Text" box.
- Whether you use Pretty Printer or not, Microsoft advises
- that you use text rather than binary format. If the binary
- format is corrupted, it is unrecoverable, while the text
- format can often be repaired with a text editor.
-
- Q: Can the demo version be enabled as production? Can you
- electronically ship the production version to me?
-
- A: While the demo version cannot be changed to production,
- we can e-mail the production version of the product to you
- via CompuServe for an additional $10.00. We need your
- CompuServe address. Sorry, we cannot ship to Internet,
- Prodigy, America OnLine or other services. We still ship
- the regular version to you.
-
-
- ***File Distribution***
-
- Pretty Printer for Visual Basic SETUP installs files on your
- hard disk as follows:
-
- VBPP directory:
- README.TXT This file.
- TEST1.BAS Example for, and to test VBPP.
- TEST2.FRM Example for, and to test VBPP.
- VBPP.HLP Help file.
- VBPP.EXE Executable file.
- BASICLAN.KEY Keyword file.
- WINSIZE.DLL Help support file.
-
- Windows\System directory
- ANIBUTION.VBX
- CMDIALOG.VBX
- COMMDLG.DLL
- VBRUN300.DLL
-
- These files are used by the setup processor and are
- normally present in the Windows\System directory:
-
- DDEML.DLL
- VER.DLL
-
- Please send us your comments, suggestions and bug reports.
- If you like what we do, please tell your friends. If you
- don't like what we do, please tell us.
-
- ***************************************************
- * Pretty Printer for Visual Basic *
- * Copyright 1993-1995 *
- * AARDVARK Software, Inc. *
- * 972 Sheffield Road *
- * Teaneck, NJ 07666 *
- * Voice: 1-201-833-4355 *
- * Fax: 1-201-833-1216 *
- * CIS: GO AARDVARK *
- * E-mail: 70544.1372@compuserve.com *
- * All rights reserved. *
- ****************************************************
-
-