| Rapid-Q Documentation by William Yu (c)1999-2000 |
Chapter 2 |
|
2. Rapid-Q Fundamentals
Before jumping into any language, it helps to know how to use it first.
This chapter will introduce you to the Rapid-Q environment, how to compile and
run your programs, and what the general structure of your Rapid-Q program will
look like.
2.1 Rapid-Q environment
Your Rapid-Q distribution should have included an IDE (integrated development
environment) program (called RAPIDQ.EXE), along with the actual Rapid-Q compiler (RC.EXE).
RAPIDQ32.LIB and RAPIDQCC.LIB are also required to compile any of your programs.
If any of these files are missing, please report the problem to me or the webmaster
of the site you downloaded Rapid-Q from.
These are the main (4) programs that you will need to develop and compile your
Rapid-Q source codes. The IDE is strictly optional, so if your distribution excludes
this file, don't fret. If you feel more comfortable
writing your programs in NotePad or whatever editor you choose, that's also
fine. If that is the case, you probably want to skip the next section on Using the Rapid-Q IDE.
All these files must reside in the same directory.
2.2 Using the Rapid-Q IDE
Unlike some IDEs that offer debugging options, the Rapid-Q IDE offers nothing
more than an environment to write your programs, run them, and provide
run-time command options. It has primitive error checks, I say primitive, because
the IDE doesn't do the error checking at all, (RC.EXE) the compiler does all of it.
It's just that the Rapid-Q IDE interfaces nicely with RC.EXE so you don't really
notice that. It also provides syntax highlighting which makes using the Rapid-Q
language much easier.
What are its limitations:
 | Not all components are available in the form designer
| When running your program, your source code is automatically saved
| All files are compiled before they are executed
| | |
I can't speak for everybody, but the Rapid-Q IDE is a good tool to use when starting
out to learn the Rapid-Q language, but as you become more accustomed to
the language, most people would switch to their favourite text editor.
That is not to say that you
should abandon using the Rapid-Q IDE altogether, if you feel comfortable using it,
by all means, stick with it.
2.3 Compiling and Running a Simple Application
Wait a minute, we haven't even covered the BASICs on writing a simple
application yet. Don't worry, we'll get to that, it's better to know how to
compile and run it first before doing anything else. Here is a very simple
GUI application that you can type in and compile for yourself.
DIM MainForm AS QFORM
MainForm.ShowModal
If you're using the Rapid-Q IDE, just type in that code (or cut & paste if you like).
Click on the Run Menu, and select Run. If all goes well, you should
see an empty Window at the top left hand corner of the screen. Close it and
return to your IDE. If you prefer the command line approach of compiling, then
load up your favourite editor, copy the above code and save it to a file (Forms.BAS).
Then to compile it, you type in:
RC Forms.BAS
If all goes well, you should have a Forms.EXE file in the current directory.
Just type Forms to run it. If all goes well, continue reading.
If not, then something is amiss, in which case, see the Trouble Shooting
section.
2.4 Command line switches for RC.EXE
I will only discuss the 3 more important ones:
-I[Path] Change Include Path
-L[Path] Change Library Path
-G[File] Icon file
The compiler by default looks in the current directory for the .LIB files and
any include files. You can override this by specifying the above command line
switches. Since we're talking about C type parameters, there are a few niceties
you have to know about, first, the paths should be specified like so:
RC -Ic:/rapidq/includes
You can use \ instead of / but there's a reason why / is preferred, consider this:
RC -I"c:\rapidq long dir\includes\"
If you never used C (or C++) you'll not likely see what I mean.
If you prefer the above command line, you have to add an extra \ to the end (or drop it entirely), like so:
RC -I"c:\rapidq long dir\includes\\"
or
RC -I"c:\rapidq long dir\includes"
This is because C translates \" into " which is obvious to any C programmer.
Also, long file names must be enclosed in quotations. Those are the catches, so
now you know (or already knew).
Now, to change the default icon for your .EXE file, you can use the -G command
switch:
RC -Gzip.ico zipview.bas
When your ZIPVIEW.EXE file is generated, the file "zip.ico" will replace the
default icon. Please note that your icon must be 32x32 and 16 colors (also 766 bytes).
2.5 General Structure of a Rapid-Q Program
There really is no pre-defined structure of a BASIC program, but there is
a general form that most people conform to.
Directives
Declarations
Global Variables
Main Program
This is only a general form, your Rapid-Q applications can be structured in a
variety of ways. Some of which will have similar results, and some will
have devasting or more customized results. For example, $INCLUDE is a
directive to import a file at that position. So if you use $INCLUDE
somewhere in your main program, it would have a different result than if you
included it at the beginning of your program.
2.6 How close to the BASIC Language is Rapid-Q?
Very close, all the familiar commands like DIM, PRINT, MID$, etc. are
inherited. That does not mean you'll be able to port your DOS based QBasic
programs to Rapid-Q without any modification. Since Rapid-Q is Windows
based, providing primitive support for CONSOLE, it's a safe bet you won't
directly convert your QBasic applications to Rapid-Q without a 50-90% rewrite of
your source code (depending on what the code does). Comments in Rapid-Q begin with the ' symbol, just
like QBasic, or you can use REM instead. You can also separate
lines by using the colon : symbol. This has the same effect as starting a
new line.
PRINT "Hello" : PRINT "World"
or
PRINT "Hello"
PRINT "World"
Most BASIC programmers will become very accustomed to the language once they use it.
However, Rapid-Q does not inherit the properties of Visual Basic.
For example, there's no SUB MAIN procedure, nor is there any
public or private identifiers used in Rapid-Q. Your entire program is considered
the MAIN program. Going from Rapid-Q to Visual Basic probably requires a bit
more effort than the reverse.