Tomasz,
While, being a Mac guy, I am quick to vilify Microsoft. However, in
this case you are being too harsh on them. They seem to have improved
their free version for 2008 and with some more experimentation, I was
able to get the free version to compile the ADK Sample project and
produce the sample.dll. Then I modified the functions.cpp slightly
and made another sample.dll that functioned properly with AFL calls.
Here is what I did to make it work:
1. I reinstalled the ADK from scratch to get rid of my previous
experiments.
2. I double clicked the Sample.dsp file which launched Visual C++
2008 Express Edition
3. A dialog box came up requesting to convert the project format to
an updated version --I clicked Yes. This was the key step.
4. I did a "Build Solution" from the Build menu.
5. The Sample.dll was generated error free and placed in the "Debug"
folder.
6. I moved the Sample.dll into the Plugins folder and started up
AmiBroker. I added a plot calling ExampleEMA. Success.
There is a humorous side to this story also...
I modified the ExampleEMA just to make sure that it was my changes
that I was seeing and not something else, since the ExampleEMA was a
prebuilt function. I called it myExampleEMA, and I changed the
function to return a constant. It worked half way???? The name
changed, but it returned the exact same moving average result as before.
I tried all kinds of changes to that function which seemed to have no
effect. I finally commented practically everything out in the
function and it still returned a beautiful moving average. My mind
was going in circles tying to figure out how my changes could be
ignored. It truly seemed impossible. It is funny that when you don't
know what you are doing and in a new situation, the mind is open to
the wildest speculations to explain what is happening.
Eventually, I commented out the other two functions: exampleMACD and
ExampleMA. Finally I got a compile error message. It turns out that
there is a typo in the function table. Both ExampleEMA and ExampleMA
point to VExampleMA code. Since the file was last modified in 2001,
it must have been there for 7 years and nobody noticed until now --or
at least did not bother tell AmiBroker about it. It was lurking for
all those years just waiting for a novice like me to get tricked into
thinking the laws of programming physics were suddenly altered. LOL
Now I will proceed to try and make my real dll work.
Best regards,
Dennis
On Apr 26, 2008, at 10:22 AM, Tomasz Janeczko wrote:
See also the video:
http://www.amibroker.com/video/devcpp.html
Best regards,
Tomasz Janeczko
amibroker.com
----- Original Message -----
From: Tomasz Janeczko
To: [email protected]
Sent: Saturday, April 26, 2008 4:19 PM
Subject: Re: [amibroker] Visual C++ 2008 Express simple DLL sample
file?
Hello,
Visual C++ 2008 EXPRESS edition (FREE) is severely limited and does
NOT support creating of DLLs at all.
That's why you get error when compiling it with Express edition.
Microsoft never gives useful things for free. Express editions are
toys only.
To create DLLs you need either Standard or Professional edition, or
free Borland compiler or free GCC( GNU CC)/MinGW
http://www.bloodshed.net/devcpp.html
Sample project files for free Dec-C++ are included in the ADK.
Best regards,
Tomasz Janeczko
amibroker.com
----- Original Message -----
From: Dennis Brown
To: [email protected]
Sent: Saturday, April 26, 2008 2:18 PM
Subject: Re: [amibroker] Visual C++ 2008 Express simple DLL sample
file?
Paul, That is exactly what my plan was and what I was attempting to
do. However, the example in the ADK would not compile error free
with Visual C++ 2008 Express as I explained. Perhaps it would with
the full version, but I explained that issue in my last post to Mike.
BR,
Dennis
On Apr 26, 2008, at 2:13 AM, Paul Ho wrote:
You should start off by compiling the examples contained in the
ADK. and increment things slowly so you know what could possibly
cause the problem
From: [email protected] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
On Behalf Of Dennis Brown
Sent: Saturday, 26 April 2008 1:44 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: [amibroker] Visual C++ 2008 Express simple DLL sample file?
Hello,
I took the challenge from Tomasz that anyone who is willing to learn,
can extend AFL to do anything. My chosen task is to restore the
scroll position of the Parameters Window after a "Reset all" button
click --and yes, it has an important use.
Tomasz informed me that I would need to write a DLL to make this
possible. There may be other ways, but I will try it this way.
First I have to say that I do not know C++ (other than AFL has a
similar syntax). Next I am not very familiar with anything Windows (I
am a Mac guy). So if I can do this (with a little help from my AB
friends) Tomasz will be vindicated in his statements.
I determined that all I need is to make an extremely simple DLL. It
will create the following new AFL function:
oldScrollPosition = GetSetWindowScroll(newScrollPosition);
It will simply return the current scroll position of the active
foreground window and then set the scroll position to the supplied
parameter. It should only be about 10 lines of C++ code.
I have found the Windows calls that will get the handle of the
foreground window, and (with a pointer from Tomasz) calls to get and
set the scroll thumb position on a standard window.
Everything else I need to do I can handle with AutoIt or AFL.
I have installed the free ADK and installed the free Visual C++ 2008
Express program, and started to try to write this.
Initially I tried just Building the Sample DLL in the ADK. That
mostly works, but gives me errors on the Plugin.cpp:
error C2491: on 5 critical lines for : Definition of dllimport
function not allowed
these are the PLUGINAPI statements for Release, Init,
GetFunnctionTable, SetSiteInterface, and GetPluginInfo.
Somehow, I think I really need these lines to compile for any AB DLL
to work...
I have tried a bunch of things, and I can make it give me more
errors,
but unfortunately no less errors. So I think I need some hints or
more help to get started.
I was wondering if anyone has an answer, or a simple DLL sample
project file that builds error free on Visual C++ 2008 Express that
you could email me to get me started on the right track with this?
Thanks,
Dennis
