true. I have been thinking about it for a bit, but found that creating a blitz header file with this function might proove difficult, since the form must consist of blitz code and cannot be properly created at runtime.
The proprietary format is still a good idea, but maybe for saving the form as an intermediate file, this makes loading/saving in the Designer easier, and allows you to edit the form as you want, then simply export it as blitzcode if you wanted to.. This eliminates the need for a blitz header file and offers maximum compatibility for the Plugin itself. What I mean by this is, the proprietary format can be used with any other language besides blitz. I will simply need to add an export routine for each language I want to support, starting with BlitzPlus
Example:
I create a new form and save it as someform.vbp. This is the workingfile wich contains the formdata in a format easy to handle by the designer. I am considering using an Open Standard for this. possibly XML. the when you finish designing your form, just hit the Export button and specify BlitzPlus as the output language, and it will generate a file called someform.bb wich you can simply include in your project. When the export function/dode generation might change at some point, all you need to do is reopen the workingfile and re-export it.
Ill have to look into the details of the actual implementation tho, but so far this seems like the best way to go, specially since I happen to know, Rob has some other plans for Protean besides BlitzBasic.
The proprietary format is still a good idea, but maybe for saving the form as an intermediate file, this makes loading/saving in the Designer easier, and allows you to edit the form as you want, then simply export it as blitzcode if you wanted to.. This eliminates the need for a blitz header file and offers maximum compatibility for the Plugin itself. What I mean by this is, the proprietary format can be used with any other language besides blitz. I will simply need to add an export routine for each language I want to support, starting with BlitzPlus
Example:
I create a new form and save it as someform.vbp. This is the workingfile wich contains the formdata in a format easy to handle by the designer. I am considering using an Open Standard for this. possibly XML. the when you finish designing your form, just hit the Export button and specify BlitzPlus as the output language, and it will generate a file called someform.bb wich you can simply include in your project. When the export function/dode generation might change at some point, all you need to do is reopen the workingfile and re-export it.
Ill have to look into the details of the actual implementation tho, but so far this seems like the best way to go, specially since I happen to know, Rob has some other plans for Protean besides BlitzBasic.