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SECTION 1 Introduction
6620 Hand-Held Computer Technical Reference 1-17
Microsoft Visual Basic for Windows
Microsoft Visual Basic (VB) for Windows, is an easy-to-use
tool that lends itself to quick creation of prototype screens
for customer demonstrations and reviews. It includes
screen drawing plus an easy method for inserting code to
control the application. A few warnings, however, are in
order.
If frequently used forms are not preloaded, the screen draw-
ing may be slow. Also, the data-aware controls are very
nice, but supporting a database with these controls con-
sumes a lot of memory. VB can handle a large number of
databases, including dBase, Access, Paradox, and Foxpro.
It can also handle ASCII and text files.
When you encounter a Visual Basic program, you should be
aware of some common requirements.
" Files with the VBX and OCX extensions are Visual
Basic custom controls. These files support common
features (such as command buttons, list boxes, pen
edit boxes, data-aware controls, etc.) that are fre-
quently seen in Windows applications. They are typi-
cally distributed with the application requiring them.
" Programs written in Visual Basic V4.0 can be com-
piled for 16-bit or 32-bit mode, depending on installa-
tion. Visual Basic 5.0 is 32-bit mode only.
Microsoft Visual C++ or Borland C++ for
Windows
Microsoft Visual C++ or Borland C++ for Windows are tools
for experienced C Windows programmers. The foundation
class libraries or the object windows library can be used;
just make sure to watch for space limitations because they
are statically linked. Windows programs, in general, grow
to a large size quickly and can require a lot of extra DLLs,
OCXs, or VBXs.