Visual languages

Post by **GORDON** » Wed Jun 14, 2006 7:17 pm

I've never used visual basic/visual c++ etc.

How do they work?

If I have a program with a shitty dos prompt interface, can visual basic put a nice interface over it?

Post by **TPRJones** » Wed Jun 14, 2006 8:01 pm

Yes, but I don't know how to do it.

Post by **Cakedaddy** » Wed Jun 14, 2006 8:58 pm

Yes you can, it's not hard. I'd describe it as assigning all the parts of your program to buttons or gui fields on the form you create. So, pushing button A executes code chunk A, etc. My first app was just a console app, so it appeared as a dos type game. My next one was all gui and stuff. Was a very easy transition. Now, there were no directx graphics and stuff like that. It was just buttons and fields. But, it was not hard to figure out at all. Obviously, it was C++. Visual and C# work the same. What ever your dos app is written in, use the visual version of that language and you'll find it an easy transition, I'm sure.

Post by **GORDON** » Wed Jun 14, 2006 9:00 pm

I had a project in mind about gui'ing the serious sam 2 server.

If we could figure out all the dos commands, we could gui it up so I could run an honest-to-god password protected server.

Post by **Cakedaddy** » Wed Jun 14, 2006 9:45 pm

Except that the game is buggy as hell and damn near unplayable in multi player mode. . .

But, other than that, it sounds like a good idea!! Are you modifying an .ini file, or are they command line parms?

If it's a dos looking app that you are typing things into to change settings once the server is up, then it's beyond the scope of what I've done. But if it's creating/modifying an .ini file by clicking on buttons or selecting check boxes, it would be easy.

Post by **GORDON** » Wed Jun 14, 2006 10:26 pm

Not 100% sure, but I think there's a bunch of DOS commands. I figure learning them once and putting them into a VBasic interface would be the best way to go instead of trying to remember 10 commands each time the game launched.

And there was another SS2 patch a couple weeks ago, and there's not been a lot of whining about it... though it is entirely possible that's because people have given up on it and moved on.

Post by **TPRJones** » Wed Jun 14, 2006 11:47 pm

I don't know how to make buttons and stuff outside Excel, but I do know there are commands in Visual Basic that will call up other programs just like you would from a command prompt. If you need help, I can dig up what those commands are, and Cake could tell you how to tie them to buttons. Piece of cake.

Post by **Vince** » Thu Jun 15, 2006 1:51 am

Probably easier to use Visual Basic for something that straight forward.

DoctorChaos · Post by **DoctorChaos** » Thu Jun 15, 2006 9:07 am

I've always liked using CGI's to put an interface on something. That way you could run it from a remote machine using any operating system with a browser. And html is a simple gui language without a pack command. Personal problem there.

Malcolm · Post by **Malcolm** » Thu Jun 15, 2006 10:40 am

Yea, usually, I'd err on the side of trying HTML/cgi first. VB sucks.

Post by **GORDON** » Thu Jun 15, 2006 11:48 am

But it wouldn't need to be anything robust. Just some radio buttons and check boxes and a "Launch" button.

Malcolm · Post by **Malcolm** » Thu Jun 15, 2006 1:14 pm

But it wouldn't need to be anything robust. Just some radio buttons and check boxes and a "Launch" button.

Connect a simple html form to a simple-ass python or perl script.

Post by **TheCatt** » Thu Jun 15, 2006 1:37 pm

or, use ASP or VB.Net behind an ASPX page.