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1995-09-15
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VacNat Software Announces
PM Designer 2.0
A Visual GUI Development tool for PM applications.
Summary
-------
PM Designer(PMD) is an object-oriented GUI development tool designed to
allow the fast, easy design of PM applications. It supports the
creation of sophisticated applications with menus, multiple windows,
toolbars, tool palettes, status bars, and dialog boxes, and custom
controls. It's just as easy as using the other visual development
environments, except that with PMD, the language is compiled C++,
not an interpreted or translated language.
New Version
-----------
Version 2.0 is a complete rewrite of the original PMD, and now features
an architecture similar to Visual Basic, Delphi, and other popular RAD
tools. Version 2.0 supports custom controls and a variety of compilers
and GUI class libraries. A new Project manager window lets you organize
your project's files for easy access. A Toolbox of controls lets you
build forms quickly and easily using drag-and-drop techniques. You can
create your own custom controls for this toolbox.
Application design concepts
---------------------------
-Forms-
A PMD project is centered around the concept of the Form. A Form file
is a binary image that describes everything about the form, the controls
on it, and the code attached to it and it's controls. You create forms
and include them in the project, and at build time, a complete set of
resource files and source files is generated for each form. These
contain the resource statements for the controls on a form(for example,
if the form you create is a dialog box), and a class definition and
implementation for the form object as it will appear in the program.
(The class definition and implementation file are always generated for
the class library you've chosen to use, so you get total flexibility).
Forms can be used across projects, so you can quickly build up a library
of pre-fabricated components, thus simplifying your development efforts.
PMD features an integrated Form Designer which lets you build dialog boxes
and windows by dragging and dropping controls on a form. Once you've dropped
a control on a form, you can move it, size it, set it's style, color, text,
help text, and position, and attach code to any event the control supports.
-Code-
Where earlier versions of PMD let you select one of 5 types of "links" for
a button control or menu item, PMD 2.0 puts you into the source code for
the event you select, and lets you edit it on the fly. Where PMD 1.x only
let you link items to commands, PMD 2.0 lets you attach code to any event
generated by any object, such as an item in a container control being
selected, or the mouse pointer being moved over a form's surface.
Writing code attached to an object is easy with the integrated editor.
It can optionally insert code for common actions, such as opening a file,
etc. and at any time, you can add to the library of code that can be
inserted. Context sensitive API help is just a mouse-click away, and
navigating between sections of code is as easy as selecting an object or
procedure name from a list.
Custom Controls
---------------
PMD supports the creation and use of custom controls, contained in special
libraries(CTLs). These are similar in concept to VBXes supported by some
Windows programming environments, only better. For one thing, unlike a
VBX, custom methods are supported, as well as events, properties, and
control styles. Anything that can be expressed in C or C++ code and compiled
in a DLL can be made into a CTL file and dropped on a form, giving the
programmer total control over the object's behaviour and attributes.
Any number of custom controls can be contained in a CTL library. In the
application code, a control object is handled as a normal C++ object,
but the CTL file's internal implementation is compiler and class
library-independent, so you're not tied to our class library, or anyone
elses. At generation time, the code generator DLL you use to generate
code for your project queries the CTL for the required information, and
generates the appropriate C++ class definitions and implementation files
for it automatically. This allows you to create a CTL file and distribute
it for resale, without having to worry about supplying import libraries
for every C++ compiler supported by PMD.
PMD's controls don't even tie you to the PMD environment. The Professional
Edition of PMD comes with a control design toolkit. For a limited time,
this toolkit is free to registered users of the Base edition of PMD.
Redistribution of Control Libraries
-----------------------------------
A common problem with environments that support custom controls that exist
in separate files is that when it's time to distribute your application
to users that have newer or older versions of the controls already
on their systems, the application may fail with obscure error messages
such as "File Not Found", or may crash outright. Anyone who has tried to
distribute an application of this type in the Windows environment has
more than likely seen this. PMD applications offer several options for
avoiding this problem, such as requiring their controls to be in the
same directory as the executable, version checking, and, if the control
still fails to load properly, an informative error message is displayed,
and suggests actions you should take to rectify the problem.
Class Library
--------------
PMD includes the VacNat Interface Classes(VIC) library that
wraps the "gory details" of PM programming in a comprehensive set of
C++ classes that includes windowing APIs, controls, threads, the help
subsystem, Profile files, and more. This can, of course, be used
independently of PMD, and was used to write PMD itself. Smaller and
simpler than some other GUI class libraries, it places an emphasis
on performance, letting you write object-oriented applications
that are as fast as applications written to the "raw" API.
Source code is included(Professional Edition only), as well as makefiles
for all of the supported compilers and toolkits. A version of this library
that allows you to use a single source for OS/2, Win95, and Windows NT is
also under development, but will not be released until it works exactly as
advertised.
Code Generation
---------------
PMD supports an open architecture, letting you use it to design applications
based on any class library that a code generator exists for. A toolkit for
building your own generators is included in the Professional Edition, and,
like the Control Design toolkit, is free to registered users of PMD for a
limited time. Custom code generators, like custom controls, can be freely
distributed as the author sees fit.
The code generator that ships with PMD generates code for the VIC library,
and generates all source files, resource scripts, resource headers,
and makefiles required to build your application. It also includes a
hierarchial project window so you can view the generated source files
directly.
We are planning to release a number of additional code generators soon,
to support other available class libraries, and the PM API directly.
Features
--------
PMD, Standard Edition, includes the following:
. PMD Design environment with integrated Form and Menu Designers.
. VIC code generator module.
. VIC class library with support for the compilers and toolsets listed
below.
. Sample programs.
. Online documentation.
The Professional Edition includes all of the above, plus the following:
. Custom Control Design tools and documentation.
. Generator development toolkit and documentation.
. VIC library source code and makefiles.
. Icon library.
. Bitmap library.
. More controls.
System Requirements
-------------------
PM Designer, Professional Edition, requires approxmately 8 MB of disk
space for a full installation.
At least 8 MB of RAM is recommended. To generate OS/2 applications,
an OS/2-compatible compiler and toolkit are required, such as Borland C++
for OS/2, IBM C/Set++, MetaWare High C/C++, or Watcom C++ 10.0a or better.
A mouse or other pointing device is highly recommended.
Supported Systems
-----------------
IBM C/Set++ 2.0 and up
Borland C++ 1.5 and up
Watcom C/C++ 10.0a and up
MetaWare High C/C++ 3.x
Where to see a demo
-------------------
You can download a demo version of PMD from the OS/2 Shareware BBS at
703-385-4325. You can also obtain the demo from our web page at
http://www.tyrell.net/~jkelly.
Contacting VacNat
-----------------
We would like to hear any suggestions for improvements to PM Designer,
suggestions for custom controls, or code generators. You can
contact VacNat at any of the following locations:
Phone/FAX: (816)-380-2928
Internet: jkelly@tyrell.net
WWW: http://www.tyrell.net/~jkelly
CIS: 70572,1247
FidoNet: OS2Prog echo or NetMail
VacNat Software
1370 White Oak St.
Harrisonville, MO 64701