Hi,
Im just started using VB.
What is Spread and how can I apply it?
Is there a free spread software
or do i need to buy it from specific vendors?





anne

Farpoint Spread is a grid or spreadsheet control which is bindable to a data source.
There are numerous other brands of similar controls as well.
These are GUI controls that are displayed on a form, and are configurable and programable to provide a "rich" (and sometimes confusing) user experience. Anyway - there are similar controls that come with VB6, such as the datagrid and the flex grid. These are scaled down versions of the more powerful commercial third-party products.

To use one of these you:
1 - Buy it or get an evaluation version if you don't already have it.
2 - Install it on your development box if it isn't already there.
3 - Add it to components toolbox
4 - Drag it onto a form
5 - Set its properties
6 - Write code for it

Thats about it. It can be very complex to get easy to use (and useful) functionality out of these things. Learning to use them isn't all that hard, but with some of them there are a lot of properties, events, and functionality available which makes them powerful and flexible, but it can be hard to learn how to make them work well. However, they sometimes are the only reasonable way to provide features that would otherwise take a lot of work to accomplish, and they are generally easy enough to get the basic features working reasonable well.

I have done a lot of consulting on projects where a number of various third-party controls were used to provide a complex UI but had ended up with serious problems. When I review the project the main issue I see usually has to do with using the databinding features of these controls. It seems so simple and clean to just hook up to a table or view and allow users to edit things directly in the grid, but this often leads to all kinds of issues if it isn't thought through properly.

So... have fun!


Woody Z http://www.learntoprogramnow.com

Thank you. Your reply was very helpful. :)

anne