"Add Object" grayed out

[Jess]

I just installed 6.0. This is my first experience with
Basic4PPC ( I have lots of experience with eVB, VB5&6, NSBasic and Hand Held Basic++).

The TOOLS ADDOBJECT is grayed out no matter what I do.

I created a new empty project, saved it, did TOOLS COMPONENTS and added several DLLs from the library(including my DLL), The save box is checked.

Under TOOLS, ADD OBJECT (also REMOVE OBJECT) is always grayed out. Whats wrong.

Any good documentation(books,etc) available?

Jesse

 

[klaus]

Hello,
When you launch B4PPC, you must
- first save your project
- add the dll's in Tools/Componants...
- select the dll
- press OK
Then Add Object is no more greyed.
Remove remains greyed as long as there is no object added.

What dll's did you add ?
Did you add those on both, desktop and device ?
Some dll's are different for the desktop and for the device, in that case you must add indiviually the desktop dll, wich has 'desktop' in it's name, and the device dll.
After clicking OK you should get a MessageBox with 'File was copied to the application directory'.

I hope this will help you.

Klaus
Switzerland

 

[Jess]

Klaus,
That is EXACTLY what I did. I got the message that it was copied.

I added serial2.dll and decimal.dll.

I read somewhere on the forum that you have to add BOTH the device version and the desktop version. My dll is an old one compiled with eVC 3.0 and I do not have a desktop version. I get an error message if I try to add it to the desktop. Something about cannot load it because it is the wrong format and maybe I should install .net 2.0(which is already loaded)

I loaded Crypto.dll in both Desktop & device and the ADD OBJECT was available, but my choices were
crypto and WINAPI (which I did not add) nothing for Serial2.dll or Decimal.dll was there, nor for my DLL.

The more I try, the more involved it gets. I hope this is not as bad as eVB.

Jess

 

[Erel]

Native dll files are not supported by Basic4ppc.
You will need to create a .Net library which P/Invokes the native dll.

See this thread for more information about Basic4ppc libraries: http://www.b4x.com/forum/showthread.php?t=35

 

[klaus]

Hello Jess
I did the same on my computer, add serial2.dll, decimal.dll, cryptodevice.dll and cryptodesktop.dll.
The objects of all three dlls are availalable:
Serial for serial2
DecOperators, DecNumber for decimal
Crypto, WINAPI for crypto

For your dll written in eVC, I don't know if it is a Framework dll.
For this subject probably Erel or agraham could give you more information.

Klaus
Switzerland

 

[agraham]

I hope this is not as bad as eVB.

No, it's nothing like as bad. With your past experience you will soon be flying. Just remember that B4PPC is entirely .NET code. One of its' greatest strengths is the ease with which additional functionality can be added by external libraries - but they must be .NET assemblies.

Any good documentation(books,etc) available?

No books but the help is relatively complete although somewhat terse - and there is always this forum to search. There are various useful libraries in the "Additional libraries" sub-forum (some of which I contributed - he said modestly )

If you want to try your hand at your own libraries several people here are using SharpDevelop which is a free .NET development system
supporting both C# and VB for both desktop and device. I use Visual Studio 2005 but that is rather expensive. The free Express editions of Visual Studio can be used to build desktop dlls but they cannot target a device.