


        Moving to Windows            (c) 1995 by Peter Neuendorffer


 DoTheNewMachine

 It all began when my friends told me I had to write Windows software. I
 was sure the windows boom was a conspiracy to keep DOS writers down and
 out. Besides, where would I get the money for a 486 machine?  When I
 applied for a grant, it was turned down. They told me that my work had
 to appeal to a certain group of users, to fit a specified criteria -
 and it didn't. So I pestered my local bank, and after some credit
 shuffling,  I got a loan.

 Almost immediately my three computer-literati friends started giving me
 advice: Do not buy the machine from a store. So I bought a machine from
 VTECH. They said I had to have 8 megs, and large hard drive, a .28
 monitor -the works! So I sacrificed the multimedia and the printer
 because at last I would be making bundles of money- writing Windows
 programs.

 When the new machine arrived and I unpacked it , I sat there using the
 box as a footstool, stupified, as I did when I got my brand new 286
 several years before. The next couple of weeks were a haze of buying,
 selling and trading components. The Intel 14.4 modem that I bought, a
 great modem I'm sure, refused to work with ProComm Plus, so I got a
 Zoom. My ancient printer would not work under Windows, until the local
 Radio Shack guy let me know I needed a new cord. In fact, when I
 finally reached Tech Support , they told me the old cord might fry my
 mother board. I got Visual Basic and was off to the races.

 The first thing I discovered is that it was fun to click windows on and
 off, push them around poking around a system that seemed bottomless. My
 very own DOS applications looked really dismal by comparison with their
 black screens. DOS became an orphan until I discovered that I didn't
 like File Manager at all. Give me the old DOS directory and file
 commands any day. After playing Solitaire, dumping the Windows
 tutorial, and adding some notes to Notepad, I started in with Visual
 Basic. I should also say that I had obtained an Internet account
 through Channel 1 in Cambridge, MA., expecting to go surfing any day.

 DoTheOldLanguageTheNewLanguage

 For me, working in Turbo Pascal had been like working for an old
 friend. This DOS based language was dependable giving me control of just
 about anything. If the language didn't do it, I could make a request of
 DOS with a pseudo interrupt. I could put a character wherever I wanted
 it on the screen, and copy or paste portions of the screen with the
 greatest of ease. Instead, I had to do everything myself. Lists had to
 be sorted (Bubble, bubble), menus created (workhorse), a string input
 handler created (this thing I used like sourbread, and changed it for
 each new application).Putting nice and colorful text on the screen was a
 general pain:

    1. Type in arcane incantations like gotoxy(x,y) ;
    2. compile the program;
    3. run the program.... oops wrong! Do 1,2,3 until drop dead from
       exhaustion.

 If I wanted to fix a file, format a file, do anything with a file,
 Turbo Pascal was great. Some of the things I did: boolean text parser-
 search for and, or, not; numeric expression parser x*2/3+b; directions
 finder for Boston Transit;personal information manager; idea program;
 search for text on system. This last I turned into a chat program where
 you chat with your hard drive. Certainly screwy!

 DoVisual Basic

 Okay, so I'm a Windows beginner. Have pity on my incorrect information
 and approach. I have already seen a lot of Windows beginners
 programming on the Internet in the comp.lang.basic.visual.misc
 conference. These people, unlike me, the "expert", have never written a
 line of computer code in their life. They have the laudable "telephone"
 or "vcr" approach. I push this button, and it should do that. That is
 all very well if the state of the art of computer programming was up to
 this. Computer programming is not a trip to the ATM machine, although
 it should be.

 Visual Basic is event driven. The analogy is that in the old procedural
 language, first you do this, then that, and then maybe the other thing.
 Its like a list of tasks that is sometimes logically complex and
 twisted. But the event driven language uses pretty graphical objects
 like a List Box or a Text Box (for user data entry.) When the user
 clicks on the object, the object's code is triggered by this event.
 That means that all I have to do is fill in the blanks, and I have a
 program.

 Hold it. Not so fast.  All the actions of the program have to
 coordinate. You get what I call the oops! effect in Visual Basic very
 fast if two events conflict, or a message doesn't make it from one area
 or "scope" to another. But this type of setup is great for fast
 development, and features like automatic sorting of List Boxes, and
 drawing your screens as you see them, without compiling the program,
 are wonderful tools.

 So far I have written a dictionary program for Windows. It doesn't seem
 like it does all that much, but actually it does a lot very well. Now
 if I could just get the thing to make products without me having to sit
 there and click the mouse!

 DoComments

 The old DOS computer language: -
 The good; Challenging and learn real programming the hard way.
 The bad:  slow, cumbersome, aggravating, keyboard tendonitus

 The new Windows computer language: -
 The good: Fast, click the mouse, Windows services, see it now
 The bad: Fast, get into trouble very fast, Create big horrible programs
              fast, mouse complacency, let's not work too hard now.

 Yesterday, I managed to blow away a computer reviewer's Internet
 mailbox when I sent him a file attached to a message. Now why didn't
 someone tell me? And then one of my DOS programs doesn't do too well
 when installed with a Windows icon. Why didn't someone tell me? But,
 all in all, Windows is better.

 I can highly recommend two books on Visual Basic, which I am dutifully
 studying. Also the Internet conference comp.lang.basic.visual.misc.

 Visual Basic 3 by Example, by D.F. Scott
 Prentice Hall/Que, 1994, ISBN: 1-56529-724-5

 Visual Basic SuperBible Second Edition, by Bill Potter
 Waite Groupe Press, 1993, ISBN: 1-878739-50-6

 Although a new Windows programmer, Peter Neuendorffer is an experienced
 DOS programmer.  .  His best known work finds routes on the Boston
 Transit System. He is a regular WindoWatch contributor.

                              ww
