posted 02-07-2001 09:38 PM         

I have had a hard time moving from Dos style programming to Windows programming. I have played with VB5 some but never mastered it by any means. My question is this... If I create a form with EZGUI with a label or text box and a button, what needs to be in the button click event to cause some text to appear in the label. I have looked through the samples and scanned through the Docs, but haven't found the answer yet.
I want to play around with some very simple examples to get the hang of it and thought this would help "re-program" my brain.

Thanks for your help.

posted 02-07-2001 10:09 PM         

You would use the EZ_SetText to put text in a label or textbox.

code:

  EZ_SetText "FormName",TextControlID&,"Button Clicked"

posted 02-07-2001 10:11 PM         

As an aside .. setting the ID to 0 will change the Window Title (for that form)

code:

EZ_SetText "FormName", 0&, "New Window Title"

Mike

posted 02-07-2001 10:16 PM         

I will play with that and give it a try. I didn't think it could be too hard and figured that I was probably making it much harder than need be. Hard to teach an old dos programmer new tricks <LOL>

posted 02-07-2001 10:23 PM         

Do you have EZGUI 1.0 or are you using my Freeware (DDT) Visual Designer ?

If you are using EZGUI 1.0, the help file lists all the available functions/commands !

posted 02-08-2001 01:51 AM         

Thanks for the reply..
Gary Stout

posted 02-08-2001 08:31 AM         

First thing to remember is that EZGUI is not VB and you will need to forget about using things like properties and methods (ie. MyControl.Caption).

All EZGUI commands are simply Function or Subroutine calls.

That said, the best way to get a feel for what functions EZGUI has, is to use the Index feature of the Help file. All the commands will be listed in the Index . All EZGUI commands start with the prefix EZ_ so it is easy to see what items are actually EZGUI commands.

Most of the functions that would do what VB properties do, start with either EZ_Set or EZ_Get (ie EZ_SetText, EZ_GetText).

Probably, I ought to add a VB to EZGUI conversion document in EZGUI 2.0 which would show you how to do something in EZGUI, that would be done in VB.

Gary, Are you an experienced VB programmer ?

posted 02-08-2001 11:00 AM         

I wouldn't say experienced VB programmer. <Big LOL> Only know enough to be dangerous!
I have take several VB programming classes but they only touched on creating forms and setting properties and very elementary file handling routines.

I tried Tom's example and still having a little bit of trouble. I created a form with only a label and a button. I am trying to click on the button and put some text in the label. When I use 0& for the ID, it does change the form title, but using a 1& doesn't change anything on the label. Basically, I need to read a little deeper into the docs. Still don't quite understand the ID&. Is that assigned by EZGUI or something that I assign?
Thanks for your help Chris and Tom!

posted 02-08-2001 01:19 PM         

Each Form has a Name to identify it !

Each Control has a unique ID number to indentify it !

When you use EZ_SetText (or any similiar type command), you must use the correct Form Name and the correct Control ID Number.

The ID Number for your label control will be the one used in the EZ_Label command which created the label control.

Many EZGUI functions and commands use the standard : FormName$, IDNum& format for parameters to select which Form and control on the Form is acted upon.

Just remember:

Forms have a Name (a string)

Controls use an ID number to indentify them (number)

posted 02-08-2001 01:23 PM         

You could use a control ID number either way:

ie.

code:

EZ_SetText "MYFORM", 100, "Here is some text"

or
code:

' listed in beginning of program
%MYFORM_MyControlID     =    100
...
EZ_SetText "MYFORM", %MYFORM_MyControlID, "Here is some text"

posted 02-08-2001 02:01 PM         

It was that control ID# that was confusing me. Once I read through your last post, a light went off and cleared things up. I now see how to determine which control has which ID#.

I knew I was making it much harder than it need to be.

posted 02-08-2001 05:56 PM         

You and I are on the same track...you're just a couple of laps behind.

My background was DOS and quite frankly Windows programming was a total non-starter for me...until the advent of Chris and EZGUI! At first I experienced exactly what you're going through -- confusion. Then, I started building simple forms with EZGUI's Designer and experimenting with them. It didn't take long to figure out what works and what doesn't. Then, I moved up to multiple forms in the same app. The more you try (at your own pace), the better it gets.

Last night, I developed a simple "phone book" app that allows the user to add, edit and delete names and phone numbers from a list. From start to finish (form design, code, functional app) it took me 90 minutes. The finished exe is only 40k (plus the EZGUI dll). Try that with VB!

Don't be discouraged. Keep working with EZGUI to gradually build more complex apps. EZGUI is a RAD tool and a teaching tool in one. (As a beta-tester for 2.0, I can tell you the upcoming release is GREAT! And wait til you use the new List View and Rich Text controls! AWESOME!!)