Visible Files

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Visible is copyright ©2006-2024 Erik Siers. Full source code is available under
terms of the GNU Affero General Public License (AGPL), version 3 or (at your
option) any later version. You should have received a copy of the GNU AGPL in
the Visible archive, but if not, you can download a copy from the Free Software
Foundation:
    https://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl-3.0.en.html

Visible comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY or GUARANTEE OF SUITABILITY for ANY
PURPOSE, implied, explicit, or otherwise. I make no promises that it will work
correctly, or even at all. (Visible doesn't do anything bad to my system, but no
guarantees it won't destroy yours. I'm not responsible if it does. In other
words: USE AT YOUR OWN RISK.) See the file COPYING.TXT for licensing details.
Use of Visible constitutes agreement to the license.

Visible is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it so long as this
file and the file COPYING.TXT (containing a copy of the GNU GPL v2) are both
included, and all copyright notices are left intact. Any modifications you make
must be documented, and if you distribute the modified version, you must also
indicate the changes you've made. Simply adding your name to the copyright
notice does not constitute a legitimate improvement.

If you decide to redistribute Visible, via a web site, file sharing network,
CD-ROM compilation, or anything remotely similar (not just sending a copy to a
friend) please let me know. (I'd appreciate a free copy of any commercial
products, but that's not a requirement.)

EXCEPTIONS TO THE COPYRIGHT: Code generated by Visible is *NOT* covered by the
GPL. Instead, the license that applies to the original source code governs the
generated code. For example, if you generate code from a Public Domain source,
the generated code remains in the Public Domain. If you generate code from a
BSD-licensed project, the generated code is also subject to the BSD license.
Most importantly, code generated from a GPL-licensed project remains GPL-
licensed. If you generate code from your own original work, you may apply your
chosen license to the generated code.

Note: Translations of source code (i.e., code that adapts or alters the original
code while maintaining its intended functionality) should be treated as
derivative works and are subject to the original license terms. However, I am
not a lawyer -- please consult legal counsel before attempting to copyright or
license any derived works.

VERY IMPORTANT: IF YOU USE VISIBLE (or any similar tool) TO TRANSLATE THE
VISIBLE SOURCE CODE, THAT TRANSLATED SOURCE CODE IS ALSO COPYRIGHTED BY ERIK
SIERS, AND IS COVERED BY THE GNU GPL AS DETAILED IN THE FIRST PARAGRAPH OF THIS
DOCUMENT!

The file visible.h is intentionally placed in the Public Domain and may be used,
modified, and distributed without restriction. This is to allow integration with
projects licensed under any terms.

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CONTENTS:
* WHAT IS VISIBLE?
  * WHAT IS BTOC?
* INSTALLING
  * UNINSTALLING
* USING VISIBLE
  * VISIBLE.H
* NEW SINCE LAST PUBLIC RELEASE
* KNOWN ISSUES (A.K.A. BUGS)
* TO DO
* FUTURE POSSIBILITIES
* FINAL THOUGHT


* WHAT IS VISIBLE?
Visible is going to be a Visual Basic to C++ translator. (I say "going to be"
because right now it isn't translating anything.) Its current main objective is
to take unaltered non-.Net Visual Basic code and translate it to standard C++,
including forms into appropriate resource scripts, and other classes (including,
but not necessarily limited to, classes, user controls, user documents,
designers, and property pages) into appropriate code.

Visible has been successfully run under:
- Nothing!

Note that Visible is still being written (and has been restarted multiple
times). The final version will be tested on the following OS's:
- Several versions of Windows: 64-, 32-, and even 16-bit
- A few versions of macOS, old and new (probably limited to OSX)
- A few Linux distros, hopefully including some non-x86 systems
- The major BSDs (FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD)
- Various flavors of DOS (specifically FreeDOS, DR-DOS, and of course MS-DOS)
- OS/2, including eComStation and (possibly) ArcaOS
...and probably a few other as-yet-undetermined systems. (QNX? AROS? RISC OS?)

Visible has not been tested under any other operating system (and probably won't
ever be), but the Visual Basic version should work on any OS that has a Win32
API layer and can use the Visual Basic 6 runtime file (MSVBVM6.dll) -- this
includes all versions of Windows from Windows 95 to Windows 11 (at least),
Win3.x with Win32s, WinNT3, and Unix-like systems with something like Wine or
Win4Lin. Once it's finished, the translated code should be able to compile and
run on pretty much any system with a C++ compiler. (That's the plan, anyway.
Stay tuned.)

It's important to note that if Visual Basic won't compile your source code, for
whatever reason, there's a very good chance that Visible won't translate it,
either. (Don't manually edit the "hidden" entries in the files; do it in VB so
it gets written to the file correctly.)

It's also important to note that one of Visible's major objectives is to be able
to translate itself to C++, and for the translated code to work under multiple
operating systems (initially Windows, Linux, and Macintosh, with other systems
coming later). I will consider Visible ready for alpha testing when all items on
this list complete successfully:
    1. Visible compiles under Visual Basic on Windows
    2. Windows version translates its own source code to C++
    3. Translated source compiles under GCC on Linux
    4. Compiled Linux version translates the original VB source code
The translated (C++) source codes generated in lines 2 and 4 must be ABSOLUTELY
IDENTICAL, with the possible exception of line endings (CR vs LF vs CRLF); ANY
other differences AT ALL will be considered failure.


* INSTALLING
There is currently no installation process for Visible. If you wish to try it
out, simply extract all files from the appropriate archive into a folder
somewhere and run Visible.exe (if it exists).


* UNINSTALLING
There is currently no uninstallation process, either. If you wish to remove
Visible, simply delete all files that were extracted from the archive.


* USING VISIBLE
For now, don't. But when it's ready for use, simply type:
    visible filespec
where filespec is any file or group of files, all of which will be treated as
Visual Basic files. Project files are used to pass lists of files (all entries
in a .vbp file are translated). Project group files are used to pass lists of
projects (all entries in a .vbg file are processed).


* VISIBLE.H
Included with Visible is the file visible.h. This file contains some C++ defines
that are required by translated projects. Unlike the rest of the Visible
project, visible.h (and ONLY visible.h) is in the Public Domain and may be used
or altered as you see fit. (This is so it can be included in projects using
*any* license.)


* NEW SINCE LAST PUBLIC RELEASE
- Everything! I'm still writing it.


* KNOWN ISSUES (A.K.A. BUGS)
- It doesn't translate anything yet. (I'd call that a pretty big bug...)


* TO DO
- Finish!


* FUTURE POSSIBILITIES
- Translate .vbp & .vbg (and possibly old .mak) files into makefiles. (Don't
  hold your breath.)


* FINAL THOUGHT
               "Perfection is an illusion, progress is eternal."