From: andras@infolog.se (Andras Lengyel)
Subject: Re: VB Dev Kits
Organization: Infologics
Date: Thu, 27 Aug 1992 16:43:15 GMT

In article <BtMpsr.8no@news.cso.uiuc.edu>, skhg0983@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Steve Holzgraefe) writes:
> Does anyone have have any yays/nays about either the Professional Toolkit
> from Microsoft or VBTools from Microhelp? I'm interested in any pointers,
> criticisms, experiences, comparisons, etc.  Also, any info on VB v2 and
> any new tools it might contain would be great.
> 
Hi,

I have worked with these VB tools and some others. Generally I think the Prof
Toolkit from Microsoft is better and more stable that VBTools.

VBTools 2.0 includes many nice custom controls and new fuctionality, but there are
quite a few shortcomings and cosmetic details that are irritating if you work 
professionally with VB. The Prof Toolkit have fewer custom controls but are more 
robust and the functionality that is implemented works as you would expect. 
Very few bugs are found in Prof Toolkit.

This is not a complete comparison, but I try to highlight some of the differences
and problems I have experienced:

* MDI child windows. The Prof Toolkit have a separate MDI control and other types of
controls can be put in these. MDI control cannot be loaded at runtime. Arraging, tiling
and cascading works ok. Captions can be combined with the main window (form) then the MDI
is maximized. Several of the VBTools controls have MDI capabilities, such as plain
MDI windows, listboxes, grids and toolboxes. Activation and deactivation of MDI
child windows does not work as expected. Sometimes the main window (form) loses focus when
MDIs are activated. Arraging, tiling and cascading does not work as expected. For
example, arraging icons can only be used on MDI controls inside MDI controls(!), top
level MDIs in a form cannot be arranged, tiled or cascaded. Combining titles
with the form is not implemented.

* Listboxes. VBTools has listboxes where pictures can be placed and tab stops can be
set. One problem with the listboxes is that if you click inside a listbox below the
last item (if there is space there), the last item will be highlighted but no
click event fired. The Prof toolkit have no listboxes where pictures can be placed,
but the work as expected.

* The Prof Toolkit have controls for accessing Windows common dialogs and the MM
extensions (MCI), which VBTools lacks.

* Bitmap buttons. The Prof Tookit have several types of button controls where pictures
can be placed, like "normal" buttons, animated buttons and "toolbar" group buttons.
The toolbar buttons have the only bug we found in Prof Toolkit: sometimes they
"freeze" and get no further click events, they just die. VBTools also have several 
button controls that can include pictures, but have annoying rubberbands around 
the bitmap and the caption in a button. The idea of separate positioning is ok, 
but they stretch when the entire button is resized. This will distort the 
bitmap(!) and often completely destroys your carefully designed button interior.

One shortcoming of all bitmap buttons (and this is quite serious), except for the
Prof Toolkit toolbar buttons, is that there is no support for a disabled version
of the bitmap, hence the buttons give no feedback when enabled or disabled. This
functionality has to be programmed with copying of bitmaps from other "buffer"
picture controls.

* VBTools has a picture control that supports 256-color bitmaps. But this is not an
extension of the built-in picture control. The 256-color picture control have no
functionality for drawing and displaying text on the surface, as has the built-in
control. You have to access the Windows API directly to be able to draw on this control.

* Examples of code. VBTools have many small examples, the Prof Tookit has few examples,
but are more complex and most are actually usable applications


(My) conclusion: If you work professionally with VB - the Prof Toolkit is a better
choice, otherwise you can opt for VBTools.

Andras



Newsgroups: comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.tools