When creating a project from scratch and saving it to disk, PowerBASIC Forms generates a complete application framework to cater for every dialog in the project. The saved files contain a framework which includes all essential variable and Sub/Function declarations, dialog creation code, menu creation, and keyboard accelerator code. PowerBASIC Forms also generates dialog Callback frameworks for each dialog in the project.
The newly created .BAS file can be immediately loaded into the PowerBASIC IDE and compiled, edited, and executed, etc. From this point, the actual functionality or "meat" of the program can begin to be added to the .BAS file. If you have not done so, please take a brief detour to the Handling new vs. existing files topic for an overview of the differences between creating new projects and opening existing files.
To ensure that PowerBASIC Forms can reload an existing project from disk, manually added code to the generated code template must not be placed or altered within the named blocks (#PBFORMS metastatement blocks). That is, editing code within the marked blocks may prevent PowerBASIC Forms from reading the source code back into the design environment at a later date.
See Also
Handling new vs. existing files