🚀 go-pugleaf

Dear Basic Users,

Now that VB for Dos has been officially announced I would like to
ask a few questions about it. If anyone has the answers to any of
the questions below could they please
let me know either via the news group or via E-mail to

hlr@aber.ac.uk

(1) Does VB for Dos have full control over COM ports as QB does
    (I'm asking this because VB for Windows doesn't have any
     direct support for COM ports).

(2) Does VB for Dos allow direct access to memory? I need INP and OUT
    statements to set registers / read data from ADC/DAC/DIO(Digital In-Out) 
    cards. Can I suspend updating of forms / screen etc while I'm talking
    to my Data Acquisition card so that I don't lose any data? 

(3) With the discussions of compatibility in this news group coming to the
    conclusion that new Basic's from Microsoft should be compatible with
    current versions of C can we conclude that this will apply to 
    VB for Dos? In particular is it compatible with DOS applications written
    in QuickC for Windows? i.e can I write a front end in VB for Dos and LINK
    rather than SHELL to my number crunching C program?

(4) Does VB for DOS have a graphing add-on as part of either the standard or 
    professional version to allow me to display XY graphs etc on the screen
    and/or printer.

(5) Speaking of printers, as VB for Windows uses the Windows printer drivers
    what sort of printer support is offered by VB for DOS? i.e. can I print 
    graphics from VB for Dos or am I limited to PRINT for text and
    crude Print Screen for graphics?

(6) If I shell from a VB for Dos program to something else is execution of 
    the VB program suspended or does it continue in the background? Also,
    once the application that I shelled to is complete can I easily 
    discover whether or not it executed correctly?
 
I appreciate that some of these questions are a bit deep but VB for Windows
looked really good until I found that I had no direct COM support or low level
access to data acquisition cards.

The reviews that I have read about VB for Dos look really good but not
suprisingly they don't address my problems exactly (reviews never do).

Perhaps someone on this News Group has the answers, I hope so.

Looking forward to hearing from you,

Hazel Davey   (hlr@aber.ac.uk)
Dept. Biological Sciences,
Aberystwyth,
Wales
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