posted 02-08-2001 05:37 PM         

The answer is simpler than you may think.

In some instances the freeware Visual Designer whould be better, if you can handle DDT and API code (to send messages to controls to do things). It gives you a smaller footprint as well, since no runtime is needed.

Yet, all in all, EZGUI is the better solution and here is why:

(1) If you are building very large apps, EZGUI will produce smaller executables, since you are reusing runtime code for many actions.

(2) For large apps, your code will be more readable since you are using EZGUI syntax, rather than DDT or API calls.

(3) EZGUI is more than a GUI builder. It is an Engine, with nearly 150 unique functions that handle nearly all the things you need. For example, the EZGUI Visual Designer is itself an EZGUI app (no DDT or API) and I'd like to see the average PB programmer create a Visual Designer using DDT or the API.

(4) EZGUI handles many complex event handling, such as scrollbars, tooltips, Tab control events, etc. that are a real pain to do with DDT or API.

(5) EZGUI has a powerful subclassing engine that eliminates the most common errors in writing subclass code.

(6) Many of EZGUIs functions are much simpler to use than either DDT or API code, such as the common dialogs, creating fonts, accessing the registry, etc.

(7) EZGUI cleans house for you ! EZGUI tracks all the resources loaded into an app, such as Images, brushes, Fonts, icons, etc. and makes sure all the resources are destroyed, before your app terminates.

(8) EZGUI does a significant amount of error checking. Almost every function has error testing code to make sure everything is OK before executing its functionality. A huge number of GPFs are caused by improperly using API calls or by using the wrong data types for an API call or even with sendmessage. EZGUI protects you from making these errors.

To some it up :

EZGUI not only makes life easier for the programmer, and makes them more productive, it also makes your software less buggy because it protects you from the most common errors when using the API.

Unless an app is a very small utility program, where you might want to use the Freeware Visual Designer, I strongly believe that EZGUI is the best and most productive way to go.

Wait until you see EZGUI 2.0 !

There are a whole bunch of new features, that you definitely wouldn't want to write DDT or API yourself to do yourself !