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Now we started with the program I created some time ago. I use this program ( and used its predecessors for MS-DOS, Win 3.x ), to speed up my work with Graphical User Interface ( GUI ) design.
How this program appeared? Many years ago my friend demonstrated me the shell he created for his Turbo-Pascal program. He used for this the "Turbo Professional 5.0" system, which allowed user to create nice-looking user-friendly interface in minutes, without tedious work ( compile, run, correct, compile etc. ) with intermediate variants. User simply drew necessary windows and menus, using mouse only - most complex tool for this work. As a result of this work, user had the sources of the program without necessity of deep knowledge of generated sources. User needed only to insert his own ( numerical or other ) blocks into this program. Good approach, either?
In former times of PC XT/AT, FORTRAN programmers had
Microsoft FORTRAN 5.0 for MS-DOS, which worked in "classic regime" - black
screen and file-oriented input and output. Also, there were some packages
from various firms for graphical analysis of numerical data stored in
files.
But, it appeared, that Microsoft provided convenient
scheme for mixing-languages programming for this first FORTRAN compiler
for PC. User could write and use modules written in Microsoft
MacroAssembler, to receive the access to system functions of PC. And,
after deep studying of methods for direct access to videomemory, I created
my first program "Program Interface Generator" for MS-DOS FORTRAN at
1989.
It allowed me to speed up dramatically the work with interface design - my
FORTRAN programs had menus, windows with input/output fields for data used
in programs.
In process of time, we received new processors from
Intel and found, that using of 486-processors allows us to work with
operating system based on Graphical Interface - Microsoft Windows. And,
again, at the moment of Windows 95 appearance, Microsoft Visual C++ ( and
analogous compilers from other firms ) received "build-in" features of
visual programming - applications wizards. And, again, FORTRAN users had
only technology of mixing-languages programming with trivial/old Resource
Editor and with some set of interfaces to Win32 API functions. Working as
beta-tester for Microsoft, I decided to continue my investigations, but
now under new graphical environment. And next version of my "Program GUI
Generator" for Microsoft FORTRAN PowerStation 4.0 appeared at the
beginning of 1997. Time goes, and Microsoft disappeared as FORTRAN
compiler developer.
It should seem, that DEC appeared as serious developer
of FORTRAN compiler under Windows 9x/2000, but some times later, we see
now new stage of "post-Microsoft" FORTRAN compiler for Windows - CVF 6.x.
Actually, we have now the tool, which demonstrates now
stable and accurate work under Windows 9x/2000/XP - long story of numerous
upgrades, service packs realized in reasonable version 6.1A. After
this version appearance, at the end of January 2002, I decided to rewrite completely my old wizard,
taking into account new improvements in FORTRAN made by Compaq and new
Windows features came with Windows 2000/XP. My wizard allows me to develop
acceptable GUI in 15-20 times faster, in comparison with standard
technique of direct Win32 API function calls coding. Also, wizard supports
“what you see is what you get” (WYSIWYG), and it allows me to avoid
numerous experiments with images/controls alignments etc. But, most
interesting and useful feature ( from my side of view, of course ) of the
wizard consists in the fact, that generated programs are open for user's
experiments with other GUI components, which can absent in current version
of the program. My friends with minimal background in Win32
API had no problems in understanding
and in using this wizard. |