====================================================================== Microsoft(R) Product Support Services Application Note (Text File) BV0701: FEATURES QUESTIONS & ANSWERS ====================================================================== Revision Date: 11/92 No Disk Included The following information applies to Microsoft Visual Basic(TM) for Windows(TM) versions 1.0 and 2.0. -------------------------------------------------------------------- | INFORMATION PROVIDED IN THIS DOCUMENT AND ANY SOFTWARE THAT MAY | | ACCOMPANY THIS DOCUMENT (collectively referred to as an | | Application Note) IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY | | KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO | | THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND/OR FITNESS FOR A | | PARTICULAR PURPOSE. The user assumes the entire risk as to the | | accuracy and the use of this Application Note. This Application | | Note may be copied and distributed subject to the following | | conditions: 1) All text must be copied without modification and | | all pages must be included; 2) If software is included, all files | | on the disk(s) must be copied without modification [the MS-DOS(R) | | utility DISKCOPY is appropriate for this purpose]; 3) All | | components of this Application Note must be distributed together; | | and 4) This Application Note may not be distributed for profit. | | | | Copyright 1992 Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved. | | Microsoft and MS-DOS are registered trademarks and Visual Basic | | and Windows are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. OS/2 and | | Presentation Manager are registered trademarks licensed to | | Microsoft Corporation. | | dBASE is a registered trademark of Ashton-Tate Corporation. | | Paradox is a registered trademark of Ansa Software, a Borland | | company. | | SYBASE is a registered trademark of Sybase, Inc. | -------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Q. Does Microsoft Visual Basic for Windows support a line- continuation character? A. Neither version 2.0 nor version 1.0 of Visual Basic offers a line- continuation character. However, the maximum line length in version 2.0 has been increased to 1,024 characters from 255 characters in version 1.0. 2. Q. Can I create database applications using Microsoft Visual Basic for Windows? A. The Visual Basic Professional Edition version 2.0 provides an Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) dynamic-link library (DLL) and an SQL driver so that you can access data on a Microsoft or SYBASE(R) SQL Server. The ODBC DLL was designed to offer a generic interface to any database system. Currently, the ODBC DLL only supports Microsoft SQL Server databases; you cannot use the ODBC DLL to access local database files, such as those created by dBASE(R) and Paradox(R). As drivers become available for these database systems, you will be able to access the data for these systems. The next question and answer set provides more information about Microsoft SQL Server. If you are not using the ODBC interface to write database applications, you can devise your own data storage and access scheme by using the file-related statements provided with Visual Basic or by acquiring a database add-on library or custom control from a third-party software vendor. 3. Q. I am familiar with Microsoft SQL Server and am interested in using SQL Server with Visual Basic. Where can I get more information on this? A. Call Microsoft OnLine Sales at (800) 443-4672 for information on using Visual Basic with Microsoft SQL Server. 4. Q. OS/2(R) Presentation Manager(R) is mentioned throughout the version 1.0 "Programmer's Guide." Is there an OS/2 Presentation Manager version of Microsoft Visual Basic? A. No, there is currently no version of Visual Basic that supports OS/2. The version 2.0 Visual Basic for Windows documentation does not mention support for OS/2 Presentation Manager. We may choose to develop a similar product for OS/2 Presentation Manager in the future. 5. Q. Does Microsoft Visual Basic for Windows support serial communications? A. The MS COM control provided with Visual Basic Professional Edition version 2.0 supports serial communications. Visual Basic version 1.0 essentially has no built-in communications support. You can use the Open statement to open a COM port, but you cannot specify parameters and there is no "On Com" statement. All communications can be performed using the Windows application programming interface (API). 6. Q. Can I create an multiple-document interface (MDI) application using Microsoft Visual Basic for Windows? A. Version 2.0 of Visual Basic supports the creation of MDI applications by supporting MDI containers and MDI child forms. Version 1.0 does not support these features. The Visual Basic Professional Toolkit for version 1.0 provides an MDI child control that is also compatible with Visual Basic version 2.0; however, it is recommended that you use the MDI features provided with Visual Basic version 2.0 instead of the MDI child control. Because version 2.0 supports MDI, no updated MDI child control is available with Visual Basic Professional Edition version 2.0. 7. Q. Can I call Windows API routines and third-party DLL routines from my Microsoft Visual Basic for Windows application? A. Yes. Visual Basic can call any routine in any dynamic-link library as long as the DLL uses the Pascal calling convention and does not accept any function pointers as parameters.