Posted-Date:  22 Aug 92 23:32 EDT
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.win3-l
Date:         Sat, 22 Aug 1992 23:30:00 EDT
From:         Vince Scarafino <Scarafino@MULTICS-A.PMS.FORD.COM>
Subject:      Re: Visual Basic as a serious :-) environment
X-To:         Microsoft Windows Version 3 Forum
              <WIN3-L%UICVM.BITNET@PUCC.PRINCETON.EDU>
              "Leandre_Racicot%CMR001.BITNET at PUCC.PRINCETON.EDU"

 >Date:  22 August 1992 21:45 edt
 >From:  Leandre_Racicot%CMR001.BITNET at PUCC.PRINCETON.EDU
 >Subject:  Visual Basic as a serious :-) environment

 >Hi, and thanks to Vince and Vance for your comments and recommendations!
 >I went to a friend who has VB and plays around with it. After a quick tour
 >of the interface, I came up with a few questions:
 >
 >-Access to sound, animation, CD-ROMs?
 >-Suppress annoying system messages such as "File I/O Error", in order to
 > replace them with more gracious burps?

The "On Error" statement allows Visual Basic to get control of run-time
errors to handle them as the application prefers.  This can include
taking specific actions to correct the error condition as well as a
chance to display the error in a custom manner.

 >-Access to all system resources, like a modem: we couldn't do it.

The Visual Basic documentation recommends handling COM ports through API
calls rather than Visual Basic statements.  It also states that the COM
keyword is not supported.

 >-What is the "Pro" part of VB Pro about? OLE?
 >-Database management? And I mean a fast and useable DB!

I'd like to see that for the Windows environment.  Any package that has
a subroutine interface defined can be utilized, either directly, or
through a C "wrapper" routine if necessary.  I'd also like to see a well
behaved and performant access method that would support keyed indexed
direct update files allowing large character strings as keys, secondary
indices, and self-maintaining index structures.  As the environment
matures, I hope we see such things develop.  I don't know of any good
packages that exist at this time, but I also must admit I haven't done a
thorough search.  I understand that Microsoft is working on a relation
data base package, but I don't know anything specific about it.  I hope
it supports a subroutine interface.

 >-Speedy loading and execution, seems it takes almost forever to initialize?
 >-Is there a way to get rid of that bulky VBRUN100.DLL?

Packaging DLLs with your applications isn't a big deal.  I think this
problem will get "worse" before it gets better, since DLLs are a great
way to package things.

 >-How much is it gonna cost me if I wanted all the extras needed to make
 > an app professional looking? There is a new DLL add-on every week...
 >-Can I only dream of develop-(one or two 'p' ? It's late.)-ing in
 > order to make at least a few parts of my project portable, say, to
 > the Mac... I guess that is impossible with VB. How about C or Pascal?

You would have to look at object oriented packages like Borland to see
if any of them will come out with objects that are defined in such a way
as to be the same for all "Window-like" environments.  I don't know of
any at this time, but it *could* be done.  It doesn't seem like
something that will show up soon.  These environments are still
evolving, making it difficult to produce a product that would provide
this capability in a timely manner with good performance
characteristics.

 >
 >I understand that both my friend and I are not familiar with VB, so the above
 >questions may be irrelevant. Any _constructive_ comments are welcome!
 >TIA
 >
 >BPROF02@CMR001.BITNET

I responded to the questions that I could off the top of my head.  They
may reflect some limited experience on my part in some areas.  Hopefully
others will respond to your questions, too, helping to give a more
balanced view.

Vince