Creating A D DLL For Use By VB

[James Dunne]

starkweatherr at mchsi.com wrote:
>>The ZIP is accessible, just not through the crappy web interface 
>>provided at digitalmars.com.  Read with a real newsgroup reader, like 
>>Thunderbird and you should be fine.  I'll attach the extracted code here.
>>
>>Derek Parnell's response's code is extremely similar to mine.  Both 
>>approaches seem to work.
>>
>>BTW, what is PSC?  ... and why are you using that abortion of a language 
>>called VB? =P
> 
> 
> I use Mozilla, but I gave up on NewsGroups after trying to get some information
> on Sun Sparcstations and ending up with weather reports from Britain.
> 
> PSC is Planet Source Code. One of the users there saw the work I had done on
> using DLLs created by Borland C++ Builder 5.5 and MS VC++ 6 and asked me to take
> a look at DMC. While looking at DMC I noticed 'D'. The first time I had ever
> heard of it.
> 
> VB really is a bad language, but the goal is to use it only for the user
> interface, which it does reasonably well, and do all of the actual work with
> DLLs. For the type of application I write (latest was for calculating filled
> volume of horizontal cylindrical tanks with hemispherical end caps) it seems to
> make sense. 

The last real work I did with VB6 involved calculating the filled volume 
of _vertical_ cylindrical tanks with 2:1 elliptical heads on either end.

> That application has two buttons, two text boxes and two labels.
> Everything else is under the hood. Since my template even has one of the
> buttons, it took about five minutes to build the screen. The application before
> that was to convert any positive integer less than 2,000,000 in any number base
> between 2 and 36 to any other number base between 2 and 36. I think you can see
> why I don't want to waste time on building forms.

I completely understand its use in GUIs, and I've been there myself.

I found D's DUI library to be intuitive and easy to use.  I wrote a nice 
little "Project Timer" application when I was back in college under an 
independent study course.  I wrote it to log the hours I was working on 
for the *real* project.

> 
> D, however, may not be the ultimate. Have you ever taken a look at Oberon-3,
> Wirth's latest? If he didn't insist on using that silly interface and flat file
> system, I would say that is about the best programming language available.
> 
> 

I haven't yet, but I'll give it a look.  I don't know who Wirth is, but 
I recognize the name.

-- 
-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
Version: 3.1
GCS/MU/S d-pu s:+ a-->? C++++$ UL+++ P--- L+++ !E W-- N++ o? K? w--- O 
M--@ V? PS PE Y+ PGP- t+ 5 X+ !R tv-->!tv b- DI++(+) D++ G e++>e 
h>--->++ r+++ y+++
------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------

James Dunne