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1 - Under The Hood - The ebm Form Editor
(download editor source .zip file)In the mid-90s I first came across Visual BASIC, and was hooked - the ability to drag and drop items to create the finished form, and leave most of the annoying details to the compiler, suited me. Of course, I soon moved to C/C++, but remembered the IDE (integrated development environment) of the VB with fondness.
A few years later, Borland released Builder, a C++ design tool similar to VB, but with C++ code output (they also have a Pascal version, Delphi). Again, the ability to concentrate on code, and avoid the minutiae of designing forms, made programming vastly simpler.
Out of these roots, the ebm Form Editor was born. While nowhere near as useful (it is a design tool only, not an IDE), it makes the tedium of object setup on the Franklin eBookMan a little easier.
This article looks at the programming of the editor, especially the core, for those interested in tinkering and modifying it.
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