Article from Chris Boss and Börje Hagsten's files

[Vortex]

Hello,

An interesting article by Chris Boss :

http://cwsof.com/blog/extending-classic-6-0-visual-basic-part-1/

This article mentions about Börje Hagsten's freeware utility PB WinSpy :

http://cwsof.com/download/PBWinSpy.zip

This is a great utility for use with Powerbasic, but it is even useful for all programmers. It can “Spy” into any program and show you what Windows classes are used for the entire visible user interface and even generate WIN32 code to recreate the same user interface (compilable using Powerbasic).

Börje Hagsten's Files :

https://reonis.com/POFFS/index.htm

[frankie]

It seems probably a copy , translated in basic, of the glorious CATCH22 WinSpy++, written in C and easily compilable with PellesC.

[Vortex]

Hi frankie,

While there is a resemblance of names, the purpose of the two tools are absolutely different. The GitHub project named winspy is aimed to detect and catch the Windows messages. The other project, Hagsten's PB WinSpy is decoding a Window or a dialog emitting PowerBASIC code to recreate the same visual elements.

[Pelle]

As I understand it, the PowerBASIC tool creates the layout of a window in (BASIC) code.

A tool that creates a dialog template would be slightly more useful, but IMO creating the window layout isn't hard -- the real problem is the logic behind the window. A tool that creates VB-like event handlers for C might be slightly more useful, but would only take you a few more steps toward a finished program. Implementing such a tool, that is flexible enough, is surely more work than it's worth...

[Vortex]

Hi Pelle,

As I understand it, the PowerBASIC tool creates the layout of a window in (BASIC) code.

Exactly. Attached is a small demo. The original BCX code is translated to Pelles C. WinSpy++ creates the PowerBASIC code. The executable built with Pelles C reponds to the mouse clicks but obviously the PB executable cannot do it.  WinSpy's job is to create the skeleton code representing the GUI of an executable.