Write your own apps for Windows

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Product	Description	Download Now
Ubercode Trial Pack	This is for personal use testing out Ubercode, and can be downloaded free of charge. The Trial Pack is fully functional, and gives you 30 days to evaluate the software. Note: Under Windows Vista, the Trial Pack may show an error message "Setup was unable to create the directory". If this happens, find the Trial Pack exe file in Windows Explorer, right-click the file name, and choose "Run as Administrator". Confirm the installation and Vista will allow you to continue.	ubercode.trial.1.3.2207.exe (16,071,919 bytes)
Makelink Program	This is the source code and documentation for the Makelink program. Makelink is written in C, and is designed to create Windows short-cuts from the command line.	makelink.zip (67,805 bytes)
Helpster Program	This is the help generator and documentation. Helpster creates CHM files, HTML files, HLP files and Word documents.	helpster.zip

Installation Instructions

These instructions tell you how to install the Ubercode Trial Package. The download is fully functional and gives you 30 days to evaluate the software. Also it's free and you don't have to register or fill in any forms.

The download requires Microsoft Windows (any version). It assumes you have basic Windows experience such as opening and closing programs, using menus and dialog boxes etc. Programming experience is useful but not essential - the instructions show you what to do:

1. Download Ubercode

Click the link above to start the download. This copies the most recent Trial Package to your computer. If the web browser asks whether to run the program from its current location or whether to save it to disk, choose Save to Disk. The browser may also ask for the name of the file. Leave the default name and click Save to start the download.

2. Install Ubercode

When the download has finished, run it to install Ubercode. If you know where you saved the download, locate the file and run it. This starts the installer program.

If you're not sure where the download ended up, it's easy to find it. Under Windows XP, click Start - Search - Files or Folders, click on All files and folders, type in ubercode.trial.1.3.2207.exe and click "Search". This finds the download file on your computer. When the search is finished, double-click the file name to start the installation.

When the installer runs, it comfirms the installation and asks for the folder where you want to install Ubercode. After checking these details the installer takes a minute or so to install the files. At this point you don't have to be logged on to the web.

When the installation is done, you have a working copy of Ubercode on your computer. Now you're ready to write a program.

3. Start the Developer Environment

The Developer Environment has commands to help write programs. Start it by double clicking the icon on the desktop:

When the Developer Environment starts up, it shows a window titled Startup Wizard. We don't need the wizard for now, so click the Close button to make it go away.

4. Write a program

Now use the Developer Environment to write a program. We will write a Hello World program that displays a short message. There will be about 8 lines of code and most of them are written automatically, so this is easy.

In the Developer Environment, use the File - New - Program menu command to write the code. A dialog titled "New Program" will appear. Click in the entry field next to "Program Type", delete the text that says "1-Main Window" and and type in "2" instead (just the number 2, without the double quotes). Then click OK.

Your desktop should now look like this:

What we've done is create a new program, but one that uses a function (block of code) instead of a window. We don't want the automatically created window, since we're going to use our own window instead. If you look closely at the program text, it should look like this:

Now comes the technical bit. Look closely at the program text, and where it says:

   // Put code here

change it to:

   call Msgbox("Hello","My first program","OK")

Make sure you get the commas and double-quotes in the right places. The text between the double quotes is known as a string and can be anything you want. For the moment though, leave it like it is.

5. Run the program

Now you compile the program and run it. Click the Run button (shown with the arrow) and wait a few moments:

After it compiles, the program starts running as a real Windows EXE file (also called an executable file or an application). You should see a message box like this:

The first string "Hello" is put in the message box caption (the blue area) and the second string "My first program" is in the main part of the message box. This order is easy to remember because it flows down the page. Click on OK to close the program.

6. Congratulations!

When you've reached this step you've successfully installed Ubercode, and written, compiled and run your first Ubercode program. Hello World is useful because it checks everything is installed properly, and it's a stepping stone for larger programs.

What's next?

You can change this program to show different text. Go back to the code editor and change the text between the double quotes. Click on Run to save, compile and re-run the program.

If you're a beginner programmer, take a look at the "Learning to Program" manual. This has step-by-step instructions for writing programs, and explains things in much more detail. This manual is also included in the download as a PDF file, and a printed copy is included when you buy a registered copy of Ubercode.

For more ideas, take a look at Technical Support. This is a data base with sample programs for many different programming tasks. You can download programs and compile them, or mix and match from different samples to make your own programs.

Finally, remember the Trial Package is for evaluating the software. At the end of the trial period, either buy a registered copy or remove the software. The use-by date can be seen using the Help - About menu command in the Developer Environment.