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Every Visual Basic programmer is familiar with the idea of an interactive designer. For example, User-Defined Forms and UserControls are created and edited using VB6's intrinsic GUI designer. The GUI designer allows the programmer to interactively edit a visual representation of the Form or UserControl and then stores most of the information in mostly text-based files (.frm/.ctl) files. In addition to its GUI designer, Visual Basic allows third party component developers to create their own interactive component designers. These Third-Party Designers (3PDs) require the installation the third-party product. They allow the programmer to interactively edit a visual representation of their components and store design-time information in mostly proprietary binary format. This is somewhat similar to, but worse generally more obscure than, the problem of complex proprietary setting third-party control information stored in for forms and controls in binary frx and ctx files.
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VB6 also has intrinsic DataReports |
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, DataEnvironments, WebDocuments, and PropertyPages all with their own custom designers |
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. These types are rarely used in the codes we have seen so they are not fully supported by gmBasic at this time. |
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Note: The process for converting ActiveReports dsx files to dsx.rpt files only words works for ActiveReports v2 format files. Fortunately, the vendor offers an Upsizer.
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