Creating A D DLL For Use By VB

[starkweatherr at mchsi.com]

>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. 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.

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.