Re: Visual basic Interface

[Daniel J S. <dan...@ie...>]

Justace Clutter wrote:

>I think that a starting point can also be the kile application.  There
>is a gnuplot interface there.  It is done in QT for linux but I am sure
>that it can be somewhat instructive.  You could also just write a
>frontent for it to create a gnuplot command list and then pipe that to
>an instance of gnuplot.  That will save you from a lot of low level
>stuff.
>  
>

Justace,

Please explain what kile and QT are.  This rentor98 may be a newbie... 
like myself.  I gather what you are saying is that this person may want 
to seek out similar applications to Excel but for which there is plenty 
of documentation available about building the software?

My advice is to heed Hans' warning.  My experience with low-level stuff 
on a Microsoft platform is frustration.  First, I got sucked in, 
thinking "oh all I need do is modify this or that and then ba-da-bing". 
 But then I got to the point of having to interface with drivers and 
DLLs.  Some frustrating system errors for legitimate reasons like parity 
failures, or what not.  So then I thought I could go to Microsoft's web 
site and get the tools to recompile a driver.  That lead to lots of 
searching and when I found something that looked applicable, I had a zip 
file full of so many files I didn't know where to start.  It's as though 
you can't dip your toes in the water, you have to become an all out 
Microsoft developer.

In my case I then sought out solutions in linux.  I learned a lot about 
launching subprocesses, building and installing drivers, low level I/O, etc.

Dan