What kind of programmer was EZGUI designed for ?
Some may wonder, for what kind of programmer was EZGUI designed for ? Why is the current version so expensive (at $249) ?
EZGUI is a product that was designed to be easy to use, so some may think it was designed for beginner or hobby programmers.
So whom was EZGUI written for ?
Professional programmers !
Consider my own experience. I date back to the DOS days when I wrote a lot of custom software for a variety of local businesses. I know what is involved in such work. Time is money, as they say. Every hour saved, makes a big difference in the bottom line. This is why I have always leaned towards building library code (why reinvent the wheel), which is one reason EZGUI was originally created.
Second, commercial software is meaningless if it is buggy. Software reliability has always been a high priority.
Third, software requires quality maintainance. What good is great code, which you can’t read a month or year later. You can not improved and fix code which is hard to read. Code readability is a must !
Fourth, performance. Software must run well. Must be able to run well on minimal hardware. It must perform !
With these, and other, goals in mind I developed EZGUI and over the years each new version built upon previous versions, adding more and more features, but maintaining the same goals.
When a customer tells me they built an app using EZGUI in hours or days, rather than in weeks or months, then I have achieved my goal.
When a customer raves about how much easier it is for them to build complex user interfaces using EZGUI, then I have achieved my goal.
EZGUI was not designed for non-programmers who want to be able to “draw” an application quickly, but not spend any time coding the guts of the software. There are tools for non-programmers and there are tools for programmers. Simply put, EZGUI was designed for programmers, coders.
EZGUI was not designed for building those simple one or two dialog utility style apps. EZGUI was designed for building large, even huge, complex commercial applications with thousands, tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands lines of code. The benefits of a GUI engine are never fully experienced when you write those small utility apps. The runtime DLL’s even seem like a burden then. But when you write a 50,000 or 100,000 line app with dozens and dozens of complex forms, then the benefits of a runtime engine begin to become obvious. The entire application will be tiny compared to its 100% SDK version. The runtimes won’t even matter anymore. There is a cumulative affect as the app gets larger and larger. The runtime saves more and more, meaning a smaller footprint not only on disk, but also in memory.
EZGUI was designed for programmer who need reliability. If you are building a large commercial application, then it has to work and work well. You need to be confident in it. EZGUI’s stability is well known among my customers. The runtime even protects you from common errors.
EZGUI was designed for professional programmers who need more power, more features. EZGUI is often compared to other third party tools for PowerBasic, like Visual Designers, but it is not the same. What Visual Designers (for PowerBasic) come with a 2D Sprite engine built in ? What Visual Designers come with its own Graphics engine ? What Visual Designer comes with its OpenGL Based 3D engine (5.0 version only) ? EZGUI was designed to provide more capability to the programmer. More ways to customize an application. What Visual Design tool comes with an ownerdraw engine built in (meaning more than simply create an ownerdraw control, but all the functionality to draw it). EZGUI’s graphic engine was also not designed as a game engine, but was designed for building commercial/professional business applications where some kind of graphic animation would solve problems and make the software more useful. For example the 3D model format EZGUI 5.0 supports is not a gamers model format, but is designed for high polygon count models in the millions. It supports the industry standard STL file format used in 3D printing and other business uses.
Also, EZGUI is much like a comic ? (huh ?) Yes, it is full of “one liners”. What I mean is that, EZGUI was designed to help programmers handle tasks with one or two lines of code, rather than dozens and dozens of lines of code. This make coding faster, easier and your code is much more readable. Who needs all those API structures to muddle up ones code ? Who needs all those API constants to muddle up ones code ?
EZGUI was designed for professionals where their tools make a difference.
For example, one customer who has written dozens and dozens of apps using EZGUI sent me a link to a video of a project run by a huge international corporation, where they are using equipment they helped design parts for. The project is a mission critical project where quality, reliability and features make a difference. Check out the video and at about 4 minutes and 33 seconds pause the video and notice the laptop computer they are using which is running this complex machine (which works over a mile underneath the ocean). The software, which my customer created for their client (the big corporation) was written using PowerBasic and EZGUI (4.0 I believe):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9fvdfE59_Y
Better quality version of the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQCZp0PfSic
This is the kind of thing EZGUI was designed for !
Professional, commercial quality software development.
I take the quality of my software tools very seriously, having written a good bit of professional level custom software myself in the past. I want the same quality and reliability for my customers that I always wanted.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words and the above video does the same. For my customer to gain the confidence they get from a huge national corporation like that one, they have to have the same confidence in me and the tools I provide.
So $249 is a low price for such quality !
EZGUI is also feature rich, especially in the graphic areas. It was designed to solve problems. It was designed for building unique user interfaces.
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