I am new to FireFly and I'm already getting a little upset with this editor.. The editor is much slower than VB, but that was to be expected.. I was attempting to get comfortable with the layout/use of this GUI builder and spent an hour trying to recreate a VB form. I have a shareware product that uses fairly complex VB forms to collect data for a game engine.
(https://www.planetsquires.com/protect/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.explore-rpg.com%2FforumImages%2FTuts%2FObj%2FtutObj1.png&hash=145b82843452f5c3d50ba30bec0a22e372dd6b6d)
Above is a screenshot of the form I was attempting to rebuild. I was NOT attempting the MDI form, just a simple form for data collection. The form has multiple TABS but I was attempting to create FF form without tab controls. Simply create labels and Text boxes for collecting information. FireFly began to flicker and I lost all of my work. The project file has no forms attached and the .frm file I see is corrupted. :( (I'm running Win2K Professional SP4)
Here are the specifics of what I did to create this mess..
1. Create a Label Control
- Edit Name to "lblName"
2. Create a Text box
- Edit Name to "dbName"
First Suggestion: Allow the editor to default edit Text/Name fields in the Control property window. If you press a key "Auto Edit" which ever field is selected. - Like VB.. It saves ALOT of time..
3. Copied the Pair of controls.. Pasted to the Form.
Error: The Controls don't justify/paste to the form correctly. Textboxes appear anywhere on the form.. Labels aren't positioned properly like in VB.
4. Proceeded to edit names etc..
5. Repeated steps but noticed the controls didn't copy properly. Because they were highlighted, I figured I delete the group and re-paste them. When I pressed delete, editor began to flicker and all of the controls didn't remove properly.
6. The editor continued to flicker so I figured I save what I could and restart. Save corrupted the form.. I lost everything..
A few suggestions..
The handles/controls form is going to be an integral part for coding in PB. When you double click on the HWND / IDC label to insert into your code, DON'T make the form disappear. It forces an extra step (F4) when setting control properties.
Possibly allow multiple control edits..
I guess thats it.. I'm going to try to rebuild this form again, but I leery to invest too much time if this editor still has these types of issues.. My project is huge, so I've got alot of work if I'm going to convert this to PB/FF.
Anyone else having trouble? If FF really ready for *intense* complicated form creation?
Tye
The problems you are reporting are definately not representative of the stability of the designer or editor. There must be an underlying cause that is contributing to the "flicker" and losing work. Flicker may indicate a memory corruption problem. I use FireFly for extremely large applications and I know of a couple of users who use FireFly for an enormous pharmacy application.
I would first suggest that you uninstall FireFly from your computer and then download the latest version from the PlanetSquires website. After that, install the latest version then retry creating your form.
Maybe the problem can be traced to the copy and paste? Try creating your controls without using copy and paste and see if you experience the problem. If we isolate it to the copy/paste operation then I will ensure that it gets fixed as soon as possible. I apologize for your rough start with FireFly. :oops:
You are correct about the positioning of the controls after the paste - that is a problem. I usually don't paste multiple controls so I guess that I never really noticed that behaviour before. Thanks.
QuoteThe handles/controls form is going to be an integral part for coding in PB. When you double click on the HWND / IDC label to insert into your code, DON'T make the form disappear. It forces an extra step (F4) when setting control properties.
There is an option under the "General" tree branch in "Environment Options" that handles this behaviour.
QuotePossibly allow multiple control edits..
That has been suggested before and is on the FireFly 3 list.
I used to use VB - A LOT :) I know exactly your points and suggestions - thanks.
QuoteI guess thats it.. I'm going to try to rebuild this form again, but I leery to invest too much time if this editor still has these types of issues..
Those issues are out of the ordinary. Any data corruption certainly points to a more sinister underlying problem with the installation or some combination of commands that are conflicting with some internal memory structure (maybe the copy/paste???).
Hang in there Tye, I appreciate your FireFly purchase and I will make sure that you don't regret it. :)
:) Thank you for the quick reply.. I'm tough, so these lettle "set-backs" haven't discouraged me from FF. I can see this project become *very* important to developers in the years to come. MS has really screwed over alot of its developers.. FF offers a better core compiler (PB) and with a little work, a powerful GUI designer.
Thanks for the help with the Environment setup. Is there a thread with a running list of "wish-list" features? I didn't see one, and don't want to repeat any existing ideas.
I realize how important it is to relay step by step bugs.. (I'm a Lead Programmer.) And since you are dedicated to this project, I'll promise to be dedicated to debugging, and offering ideas.. Also, I have a great little .DLL that could be a great data-plugin for FF.
I call it my CSVDB.. It basically uses a standard ADO command syntax to manipulate, ADD/EDIT/DELETE .CSV files.. It could be a nice simple DATA support addin.. who knows..
welp.. I'm just babbling.. Thanks again..
Tye
No worries, Tye. :) There usually isn't a problem with FireFly that myself and the user can't tackle. The program has stabilized a lot over the last couple of years so usually any trouble encountered can be traced to obscure bugs or things that I have fouled up internally.
The roadmap for FireFly 3 is contained in this link: http://www.planetsquires.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1833
I have a fair amount of FireFly 3 written and it is much more efficient than FireFly 2 (as it should be). I have yet to write the code generation modules - that is the next big job. Progress on FireFly 3 has been slow lately but hopefully that will change.
One problem with moving to FireFly from Visual Basic is that some habits need to be modified. You have already stumbled on some things that you take for granted in VB but are a little more of a hassle in FireFly (or any PB designer for that matter). Things like working with Tab Controls and ActiveX/OCX controls are different.
I can appreciate your view of Microsoft's decision to abandon Visual Basic. I loved Visual Basic except of the huge hassle of dealing with installations and versioning problems (and because it was sooooo sloooowwww and bloated and lacked many of the cool features that lower level programming takes for granted, ie. pointers, manually memory allocation, easy subclassing/superclassing, blah blah blah )