BuilderPlus User Guide

BuilderPlus and ScreenBuilder

BuilderPlus is an extension to HTBasic that adds code syntax for creating and programming dialog and widget controls for making GUIs (graphical user interfaces) for virtual instruments, device control, and graphical data presentation screens.

ScreenBuilder is the companion visual UI design tool.

With these two components, you can design GUis both visually and in code either separately or in combination. This is like other IDEs that provide both a code window and visual design window and you can choose one or the other as your main design tool or switch between them. It is often easier to design visually, but some tasks can be more efficient in code where you can use editing features like copy/paste and search/replace to more rapidly implement repetitive or similar design features.

Custom Configurations

You can customize certain configurations to optimize BuilderPlus features.

See ScreenBuilder for information on the ScreenBuilder application.

See Custom Configurations for information on customizing HTBasic and BuilderPlus.

BuilderPlus STATUS/CONTROL Registers

Since widget handles are equivalent to I/O path names, you can use STATUS and CONTROL with Registers 0 and 1 to get and set widget parameters and attributes. For example:

STATUS @io_path, 0; numeric_var ! returns a 5 which means @io_path is a widget:

STATUS @pb_12, 1; numeric_var ! returns a 6 which means @pb_12 is a device associated with the internal graphics CRT.

Any status register greater than 1 will cause Error 155 - Bad interface register number.

Except for ABORTIO, using ENTER, OUTPUT, TRANSFER, etc. (i.e., all other commands associated with I/O paths assigned to devices) generates Error 170 - I/O operation not allowed.