Using Vruby instead of VB ?

[Shashank Date]

Inspired by Steve's presentation at RubyConf-2003, (
thanks to zenspider, see:

Steve Tuckner: Ruby World: (Not) Implemented
[url]www.zenspider.com[/url] /dl /rubyconf2003 /RubyNotImplemented.tar.gz
)

I am looking at the possibility of using Vruby/Swin instead of VisualBasic
to develop a small (commercial) application on Windows. This application has
to:

1. Have native (Windows) look and feel
2. Interface with MS Access (possibly with MS SQL Server2K in future)
3. Print reports in landscape and portrait mode
4. Run only on one machine (no networking etc)

With Steve Tuckner, Dan Berger, Park Heesob and many other Win / Ruby
experts on my side, I feel like taking the risk ;-)

What do Rubyists have to say ? Any gotchas I need to be aware of ?

-- shanko

[Berger, Daniel]

> -----Original Message-----

> From: Shashank Date [mailto:sdate@everestkc.net]
> Sent: Saturday, November 22, 2003 1:37 PM
> To: ruby-talk ML
> Subject: Using Vruby instead of VB ?
>
>
> Inspired by Steve's presentation at RubyConf-2003, (
> thanks to zenspider, see:
>
> Steve Tuckner: Ruby World: (Not) Implemented
> [url]www.zenspider.com[/url] /dl /rubyconf2003 /RubyNotImplemented.tar.gz
> )
>
> I am looking at the possibility of using Vruby/Swin instead
> of VisualBasic to develop a small (commercial) application on
> Windows. This application has
> to:
>
> 1. Have native (Windows) look and feel

I *think* Vruby/Swin will give you that from what I've read. I haven't
actually tried it. I'm a bit concerned that the author says his
development environment is Windows 98, but perhaps it's a non-issue.

> 2. Interface with MS Access (possibly with MS SQL Server2K in
> future)

I *thought* you could use ODBC to interface with MS Access, but I'm not
positive. Otherwise, it ought to be possible via OLE (right?). There's
no specific DBD for either Access or SQL Server that I know of.

>3. Print reports in landscape and portrait mode

Eek - now you're talking hardware interfaces - way out of my realm.

>4. Run only on one machine (no networking etc)

Simple enough - don't create any sockets or pipes that would allow
networking. :)

>
> With Steve Tuckner, Dan Berger, Park Heesob and many other
> Win / Ruby experts on my side, I feel like taking the risk ;-)
>
> What do Rubyists have to say ? Any gotchas I need to be aware of ?
>
> -- shanko

We'll help as we can, I'm sure. :)

Regards

Dan

[Chad Fowler]

On Sun, 23 Nov 2003, Berger, Daniel wrote:

# > -----Original Message-----
# > From: Shashank Date [mailto:sdate@everestkc.net]
# > Sent: Saturday, November 22, 2003 1:37 PM
# > To: ruby-talk ML
# > Subject: Using Vruby instead of VB ?
# >
#
# > 2. Interface with MS Access (possibly with MS SQL Server2K in
# > future)
#
# I *thought* you could use ODBC to interface with MS Access, but I'm not
# positive. Otherwise, it ought to be possible via OLE (right?). There's
# no specific DBD for either Access or SQL Server that I know of.


I'm almost 100% certain ODBC will do the trick. Back in the bad old days,
I did some web stuff with Access in development in Sybase in production.

#
# >3. Print reports in landscape and portrait mode
#
# Eek - now you're talking hardware interfaces - way out of my realm.
#

This might help:
[url]http://blade.nagaokaut.ac.jp/cgi-bin/scat.rb/ruby/ruby-talk/32861[/url]


Chad

[Shashank Date]

Hi,

> I *think* Vruby/Swin will give you that from what I've read. I haven't
> actually tried it. I'm a bit concerned that the author says his
> development environment is Windows 98, but perhaps it's a non-issue.

Yes, Vruby/swin gives that , and Win 98 is a non-issue (yet).

> > 2. Interface with MS Access (possibly with MS SQL Server2K in
> > future)

>
> I *thought* you could use ODBC to interface with MS Access, but I'm not
> positive. Otherwise, it ought to be possible via OLE (right?). There's
> no specific DBD for either Access or SQL Server that I know of.

Yes, I will use ODBC (or OLEDB, whichever turns out to be easier ;-)).
ODBC Performance is not a big issue yet since the database is very small.

> >3. Print reports in landscape and portrait mode

>
> Eek - now you're talking hardware interfaces - way out of my realm.

The feature list on this website says something about "using printer with
swin"
[url]http://www.osk.3web.ne.jp/~nyasu/vruby/vrproject-e.html#feature[/url]

I will have to find out what it is all about. (if only I could
read/understand
Japanese ... sigh)

> >4. Run only on one machine (no networking etc)

>
> Simple enough - don't create any sockets or pipes that would allow
> networking. :)

Yes :-)

And I spent about an hour installing the "nifty" FormDesigner:

[url]http://homepage3.nifty.com/Yukimi_Sake/ruby.html[/url]

But it is worth the pain. Will keep you posted.

> We'll help as we can, I'm sure. :)
> Dan

Thanks Dan.
-- shanko

[Shashank Date]

"Chad Fowler" <chad@chadfowler.com> wrote in message

> I'm almost 100% certain ODBC will do the trick. Back in the bad old days,
> I did some web stuff with Access in development in Sybase in production.

Yep.

> # >3. Print reports in landscape and portrait mode
> This might help:
> [url]http://blade.nagaokaut.ac.jp/cgi-bin/scat.rb/ruby/ruby-talk/32861[/url]
>
>
> Chad

Thanks , Chad ... I somehow missed that.
-- shanko

[Steve Tuckner]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Shashank Date [mailto:sdate@everestkc.net]
> Sent: Saturday, November 22, 2003 2:37 PM
> To: [email]ruby-talk@ruby-lang.org[/email]
> Subject: Using Vruby instead of VB ?
>
>
> Inspired by Steve's presentation at RubyConf-2003, (
> thanks to zenspider, see:
>
> Steve Tuckner: Ruby World: (Not) Implemented
> [url]www.zenspider.com[/url] /dl /rubyconf2003 /RubyNotImplemented.tar.gz
> )
>
> I am looking at the possibility of using Vruby/Swin instead of
> VisualBasic
> to develop a small (commercial) application on Windows. This
> application
> has
> to:
>
> 1. Have native (Windows) look and feel

VRuby/Swin

> 2. Interface with MS Access (possibly with MS SQL Server2K in future)

DBI/ODBC

> 3. Print reports in landscape and portrait mode

Chad Folwer has covered that with his link to ruby-talk

> 4. Run only on one machine (no networking etc)

Simple

>
> With Steve Tuckner, Dan Berger, Park Heesob and many other Win / Ruby
> experts on my side, I feel like taking the risk ;-)
>
> What do Rubyists have to say ? Any gotchas I need to be aware of ?
>
> -- shanko
>

The main gotcha you have to worry about is the ruby thread suck up all the
time issue.

I will try to get a version of VRTools available soon so that you can use
it.

Steve Tuckner

[Shashank Date]

"Steve Tuckner" <STUCKNER@MULTITECH.COM> wrote in message

>
> The main gotcha you have to worry about is the ruby thread suck up all the
> time issue.

I remember you mentioning about this during your presentation, but I did not
undertsand it fully then.
I also read your explanation in ruby-talk #85998 (to which David Garamond
correctly replied in
ruby-talk # 86070). I do not see any evidence of this when I run a small
test application say like this:
#-----------------------------------------
#
# Using vruby-031110
# Using vrswin-030906
#

require 'vr/vruby'
require 'vr/vrcontrol'

class MyForm <VRForm
def construct
self.caption="Hello World"
self.move(300,200,250,200)
addControl(VRButton,"btn1","&Exit",80,50,80,40)
end

def btn1_clicked
messageBox "Button Pushed"
exit
end
end

VRLocalScreen.showForm(MyForm)
VRLocalScreen.messageloop
#-----------------------------------------

Evidently I am missing something (or it could be that the author fixed it in
the recent version).

> I will try to get a version of VRTools available soon so that you can use
> it.

That would be awesome ! Looking forward ...

> Steve Tuckner

Thanks Steve.
-- shanko

[daz]

"Shashank Date" wrote:

> Hi,
>
>
> 3. Print reports in landscape and portrait mode
>
> The feature list on this website says something about "using printer with swin"
>

[url]http://www.threeweb.ad.jp/~nyasu/vruby/samples-e.html[/url]
(labeled "using priner" - which probably defeats Google)
^t

.... refers to the author's sample printer script:
[url]http://www.threeweb.ad.jp/~nyasu/vruby/sample/printer.rb[/url]

---

If you do use Win32OLE to script MS Access, OLE printing should be usable also ?

Wiki references for /other/ MS Office apps.
[url]http://www.rubygarden.org/ruby?ScriptingOutlook[/url]
[url]http://www.rubygarden.org/ruby?ScriptingExcel[/url]


Of possible interest (from Access/VBA help):

PrintOut method -
.PrintOut [printrange][, pagefrom, pageto][, printquality][, copies][, collatecopies]

PrtDevMode property - [Orientation] member (amongst others)
An Integer that specifies the orientation of the paper.
It can be either 1 (portrait) or 2 (landscape).



Haven't played this; good luck,


daz