For those of you using the official IDE, there’s no real solution to this “problem”. When you’re working on something small, it’s not a big deal to define a couple of declares here and there… However, on bigger code this becomes a real issue!. So why waste the time switching between IDEs or doing it by hand?…

Grab it and let me know how it runs! (nasty ugly source included).

The tool is very simple to install, I recommend you unzip directly into your PB directory and configure it as follows:

That’s it. You’re ready to declar’em!.

Cheers.

• Interactive rename refactoring (as featured in Eclipse)
• Coloring for procedure/macro listings
• Unintrusive project funcionality (The possiblity to define projects and source/resource files for each in a comprehensive way)
• Centered dialogs (As ranted in the past)
• Proper indentation line guides (both solid and dashed would be nice, Scintilla supports this already…)
• Official tools (plugins) such as but not limited to:
  • Automatic procedure declarations (to output a declare list for a specific source)
  • SVN and other repository support
  • Comprehensive code statistics
  • Memory profiler (to profile modules and overall heap consumption/usage and memory-leak detection)
  • Better code profiler ( the current one is crap and not a real profiler per se )
  • Automatic code documentation support (robodoc or similar would be nice)
• Settings defined by user group or project.
• Better overall stability.

Those are just a few of them, off the top of my head. Now it’s worth noticing that some if not most of the aforementioned plugins could easily be programmed by the community, however since this is a commercial product it’s not such a far cry to request those essential tools, is it?.

I could elaborate on each point but they are pretty much self explanatory and most of the features already exist in most world-class integrated development environments. Needless to say, most of them are a must-have. Specially with the profiling tools.

That’s my wish-list for the next major release, of course it won’t happen but it can’t hurt to wish for, right?

I have another list in mind, for the compiler/language itself… But I’ve yet to polish it. And believe me, that’s a big list.

You can’t just say “it’s Microsoft’s fault” — Are you in some sort of mac-only cleanse?, What’s your #%&%#$ problem?!

Those who “pass the ball” (as the user suggested) are part of the problem. You, being a programmer can certainly code a simple CBT hook, right?. Are you against hooks, perhaps – you are a purist, I hear… Sorry, but sometimes solutions are “dirty” and you have to live with them.

Just for the record, I too use a split-screen and I find it annoying that dialog boxes are not centered to their parent.

I certainly think that this sort of behavior is not good for a business, but then again they’ve been cat-walking away from reality for years now (Look at their website if not, look at the fact that they haven’t implemented basic functionality to their language and by basic I mean a proper container library and whatnot!). Most of their user-base consists of people who are afraid of real, world-class languages. That’s my opinion, take it or leave it.

But before you throw crap at me do remember that I support them, I just don’t like the way they’re doing things. Pretty much like Apple does (they do crap) however the fanboys don’t realize this and they see any criticism as bad for the company image, when in fact what damages the company is that nonsense wall they put up when anybody, and I do mean “anybody” says “anything” that appears to be “against” their product/s.

Even if you don’t like it at least have the decency to hear those who are genuinely interested in your product, those who are giving away (and for free) true and useful suggestions for you to improve them. I don’t give a damn about this particular user but I do care when a so called company does this sort of things to their own users, it’s just uncalled for and plainly unprofessional.

Have a nice day, code follows.

; This snippet was based on the following code by Microsoft:
; http://support.microsoft.com/kb/180936
EnableExplicit ; The only way to go.
 
Procedure.i CenterMsgCallBack( uMsg.i, wParam.i, lParam.i ) 
 
	Select uMsg
		Case #HCBT_ACTIVATE
 
			Define.RECT typFormRect, typRectMsg
			Define.i plMsgHook, hWnd
			Define.i lxPos, lyPos
 
			hWnd = GetParent_(wParam) 																																																		; the parent will be the callee
 
			If hWnd 																																																											; can't hurt to check.
 
				plMsgHook 	= GetWindowLong_( hWnd, #GWL_USERDATA ) 																																				; get the hook address
 
				If plMsgHook 																																																								; can't hurt to check.
 
					GetWindowRect_( hWnd, typFormRect )
					GetWindowRect_( wParam, typRectMsg )
 
					lxPos = (typFormRect\Left + (typFormRect\Right - typFormRect\Left) / 2) - ((typRectMsg\Right - typRectMsg\Left) / 2)
					lyPos = (typFormRect\Top  +	(typFormRect\Bottom - typFormRect\Top) / 2) - ((typRectMsg\Bottom - typRectMsg\Top) / 2)
 
					SetWindowPos_( wParam, 0, lxPos, lyPos, 0, 0,	#SWP_NOSIZE | #SWP_NOZORDER | #SWP_NOACTIVATE ) 														; position the window.
					UnhookWindowsHookEx_(plMsgHook) 																																													; release the hook.
					SetWindowLong_( hWnd, #GWL_USERDATA, #Null ) 																																							; unset the user data.
 
				EndIf
 
			EndIf
	EndSelect
 
EndProcedure 
 
Procedure.i CenteredMessageRequester( Title.s, Text.s, Flags.i=#Null, hWnd.i=#Null )
 
	Define.i lInstance, lThreadID, plMsgHook
 
	If Not hWnd
		hWnd = WindowID( GetActiveWindow() )
	EndIf
 
	If hWnd
 
		lInstance = GetWindowLong_( hWnd, #GWL_HINSTANCE )
		lThreadID = GetCurrentThreadId_()
 
		If lInstance And lThreadID 																																																			; just to make sure, can't hurt.
 
			plMsgHook = SetWindowsHookEx_(#WH_CBT, @CenterMsgCallBack(), lInstance, lThreadID) 																						; create the cbt hook.
			SetWindowLong_(	hWnd, #GWL_USERDATA, plMsgHook ) 																																							; save the hook address, we'll need it to release it.
 
			ProcedureReturn MessageBox_( hWnd, Text, Title, Flags )																																				; finally, create the message box.
 
		EndIf
	EndIf
 
EndProcedure

And a small example:

OpenWindow( 0, 500, 200, 400, 200, "testing" )																																											; test window
MessageRequester( ":(", "I'm a normal messagebox", #MB_APPLMODAL | #MB_ICONERROR )																									; conventional msgbox
CenteredMessageRequester( ":)", "I'm a centered messagebox!", #MB_APPLMODAL | #MB_ICONEXCLAMATION )																	; our centered msgbox.

The “Programmer” can now copy&paste and compile.

Cheers.

PS: You can also find the source in here: http://gushh.net/dev/?file=pb/centermessagebox.pb As usual, that’s my code repository for PB.