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Peter,
I have had some experience doing this and may be able to help. Both
responses you got were correct. The first response that said you couldn't
directly run 32 bit VB5 DLL's from a 16-bit app in TS was correct. Since
the 16 bit version of VB can't generate 16 bit DLL's, interfacing VB with TS
is not directly possible. There may be some esoteric work around or third
party app that I don't know about but barring this, you can't do it
The C++ answer was also correct. You need to generate a 16 bit C app for 16
bit TS. VC++ 1.52c or earlier should do the trick. You can't directly take
a 32 bit DLL (say compiled with VC++ 5.0) and call it from 16 bit TS.
However, if you're using C, and you have a ton of C coding and Windows API
skill, then you can THUNK across the TS 4/VC5 barrier. There are also other
work arounds using the windows messaging queue but all of this is pretty
sophisticated stuff requiring for most people a ton of time and experience
to master.
My advice to your friend since he probably doesn't know C or Windows API and
wants to write in BASIC is to buy a copy of Powerbasic from a company called
Powerbasic. They have a 16 and 32 bit version of a basic language that
compiles into machine code and can generate DLL's and EXE's.
What's great about this product is the price. The 16 bit version is like
only 64 bucks and the 32 bit version is around 199.00. The company is
headquartered in scenic Carmel, CA. I usually believe that you get what you
pay for but this product seems to be an exception to the rule. It's
incredibly powerful and generates great machine code for a realtively small
amount. It has a lot of machine-level features (pointers, stack control,
in-line assembler) that you don't get in VB.
www.powerbasic.com
I know there are EL system programmers out there who have written large DLL
in Powerbasic for Easy Language. The DLL for the Tradestation version of
MESA uses Powerbasic.
The good news is that TS5 will be totally compatible with VB5 and should be
compatible with VB6.
Regards,
Brian.
-----Original Message-----
From: Peter Gibson [mailto:Peter_Gibson@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Monday, October 05, 1998 9:21 PM
To: omega-list@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Visual Basic Code Within Easy Lanuage
I posted the attached question to the TradeLab list and thought I'd post it
here as well to see if anyone else has any additional insights.
"I have a Visual Basic program which I would like to run from Easy Language.
I gather the procedure is to put the Visual Basic program into a DLL which
can then be run from within Easy Language. Can anyone advise: as to what is
required, how difficult this is and whether there is a problem running a DLL
produced by VB 5.0 (32 bit) from within TradeStation 4.0 (16 bit)."
I got two responses: the first said I would not be able to run a 32 bit
program from within Easy Language. The second response suggested buying
Visual C 1.5 and an older 16 bit version of Visual Basic. The Visual C
program could then be used to call the Visual Basic program. Apparently
both programs are cheap, cheap, cheap on E-Bay. Anyone on this list have
any additional insights or comments?
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