Visual Programming: Visual Basic and Delphi News & Views Software Review

by Mike Hendry Senior Technical Writer Interdigital Communications Originally published in News & Views January, 1997 issue. Copyright 1997 STC-Philadelphia Metro Chapter. For permission to reprint this article, contact the Managing Editor.

If you are responsible for documenting the software your company produces, then visual programming should be an essential part of your toolkit. Best of all, it's easy to learn and fun to use. Why do we need to learn these tools? Because ultimately, we are responsible for the user interface that goes out to our customers. Using visual programming tools, you can easily put together a prototype that shows what the user interface should be. You have a better chance of success showing a solution that is well on its way to becoming a reality, rather than showing how much more money and time it will take to pull off. The basics All visual programming tools share a basic look and feel: a form, a toolbox of components, a property window, and a code window. The form is a blank window that will eventually be the user interface. A project may have many forms; they become the windows and dialog boxes of the application. The components (or controls) are the objects the user will interact with-buttons, lists of text, pictures, etc. The property window offers settings for how the form or component will look and act. The code window lets you write routines to respond to events-mouse clicks, keyboard input, etc. To program a user interface, drag components onto the form and arrange them to your liking. The many different components available allow for a lot of creativity in solving user interface problems. Depending on how much functionality you want, you can program the buttons to show and hide forms (simulating dialog boxes), read a database, play multimedia, or actually work. Two popular models Visual Basic from Microsoft is the granddaddy of the visual programming tools. The latest version (4.0) comes in three editions: Standard, Professional, and Enterprise, each of increasing functionality and price. Many of us will be drawn to the Enterprise edition; sadly, it has nothing to do with Star Trek (it's for large scale corporate development). The Standard edition is quite adequate for our purposes, although the Professional edition has more fun components and better database access. The main advantage of Visual Basic is that it is more likely that your company already has it. Third party developers support it en masse, supplying components and functionality that you can add on. Another big advantage is that Visual Basic interfaces with the Microsoft Office applications, which use a subset of Visual Basic for their macros. The disadvantages of Visual Basic are that it is not truly object oriented and it is not truly compiled to machine code (Whoa-real geek speak!). To a programmer this means slower execution and larger files to distribute. The latest version of Delphi (2.0) from Borland comes in two editions: Desktop and Client/Server. Client/Server is the equivalent of Visual Basic Enterprise edition. Delphi is object oriented, so learning it may help with other useful object oriented languages, such as Java. Delphi can compile Dynamic Link Libraries (DLLs). WinHelp can read macros in external DLLs, extending the functionality of help using relatively easy-to-learn software. I'm already having fun planning ways to annoy the programmers in our office. Finally The visual package you choose is a matter of convenience and preference. But if you are seeing software leave your company with poor usability, then these are excellent tools to use to get out there and make waves. Help! Tell me about your favorite software, especially if it adds value to your companies-even if it's off the technical communicator's beaten track. If you have something that fits this bill, email me (102701.1465@compuserve.com). Emailing does not necessarily commit you to writing a review, but I would like to hear what people are using.

Return to . . .

[News & Views] [STC-PMC Home] [STC Home Page]
Last updated: January 25, 1997 (rst)