BTW; Anyone having some experience with the competition — more than just "messing about and checking it out"?
Yes I have.
First of all, a little bit about myself, to give you an idea about how a "novice" or a "hobbist" or an "in transition" programmer might look at these tools.
I used to be a full time VB programmer long time ago in a galaxy far...far away, but I decided to "retire", I still right code, but not for a living, I don't consider myself an "expert" either, I discovered PB and fell in love (I have several DOS and Windows version of the compilers, except PBCC), however, the lack of a visual designer made my life a little difficult, so I started researching for a Visual Designer, then I found EZGUI (I own versions 1.0 thru 4.0) and now a proud owner of FireFly3 (I love having tools and stuff), so I can give my opinion about these 2 designers.
One of the strenghts in my opinion that EZGUI have is the set of functions available, you can find an EZ function for almost anything, from something basic such as loading a ComboBox to changing the Application icon, to changing the dialog background (color or graphic), all by just calling an EZ function, other designers let you to do most things via API or other means, so, a beginner or a "DOS" guy will find that very frustrating, the weakness of EZGUI is the lack of flexibility after creating your application, if you add code to the resulting source and you add/remove a control you basically end up with a clean slate, since the designer will regenerate the code, so you will have to copy/paste what you have done, of course, you get used to this, but if you have a large application, it gets a little bit out of hand, not a bad product, and the support is good, which is via a forum.
FireFly3 is more logical, you create a dialog, and you can add code to the controls, if you add or remove controls, no problem, just like VB, I'm not saying VB is "the way it should be" just making clear that the functionality and flexibility of FF is what, in my case, appreciate tremendously, however, beginners, or "rusty" programmers might find a little bit of difficulty when something is needed, which is not bad, since in my case is giving me the chance to dust off all those old books about WinAPI programming, in my opinion, a set of simple applications showing the use of the most basic controls might be helpful (I'm thinking on writing those examples and post them on the forums) as an introduction to PB, FF and WinAPI, regarding support, it's good, you find a lot of talented and experienced programmers in the forums.
Sorry about the long post, I hope you are still awake.
