Ecere programming book, Happy Holidays!
I realize it has already been two weeks since the last blog entry. I’ve previously mentioned I would resume the work on the Acovel Media Player as well as improving the IDE’s code editor (Undo is still a blatantly missing feature…). These things are still high in priority, but I started working on a new project which should turn out very valuable. Thus those goodies will not be ready in 2007 as I would have hoped, but they’re still coming sometime soon in the new year.
About the new project, despite the abundance of good samples, I believe the lack of documentation is a major reason for people hesitating to jump on using eC and the Ecere SDK. Filling up the API documentation reference would certainly be helpful, but I think an in depth guide on how to use these various technologies available in the SDK would be even more useful. That is why I decided to start writing a book.
The Ecere Tao of Programming will teach programming from the ground up, making use of all the tools making up the Ecere SDK. I haven’t totally decided yet on the distribution method, but I would like to print and publish hard cover editions. You can take a look at an excerpt from the first chapters as well as an overview of the table of the contents for the book here. The intent is for the book to be a thorough Programmer’s Guide for the SDK, while at the same time it should be able to teach basic programming using C and eC to previously non programmers. It will also cover advanced programming concepts such as 3D graphics, multithreading, networking and much more.
I would like to wish everybody very happy holidays, and a wonderful year 2008. Also, special thanks to every current and future Ecere SDK users for their support 
December 25th, 2007 at 3:17 am
can’t wait the book
esp. “Section 15 - Writing database applications”
surely will boost eC
January 3rd, 2008 at 4:11 pm
Is it already written? I see there is an entire index which includes nice things, like how to show a file dialog box, and strings and more.
January 3rd, 2008 at 4:34 pm
I just finished writing the first section, “Programming in eC”, which teaches basic C and eC programming concepts.
I am currently writing the next section on object oriented topics. I’m hoping to finish writing the book by May or so, and I may post updated versions online until then.
Note that the SDK comes with numerous samples (The Chess game one being the one the book will cover in details) from which you can learn most of these things.
Right now, strings in eC are basically C null terminated strings, with the standard C library string routines readily available, and a number of string related functions available in the core eC framework as well.
And showing a file dialog box is quite easy: FileDialog dialog { }; if(dialog.Modal () == ok) { /* use dialog.filePath */ }
I’m also fully available for support, either on irc.freenode.net / #ecere or through the forums or email, so don’t hesitate to start writing eC code =)
January 8th, 2008 at 7:35 am
hi, my friend
I have a question, can someone use other program language to link to the ecere lib, or use the lib write by other language.
for example, i want use eC to program a aplication, and i want use wincap lib.
how can i do it ?
January 8th, 2008 at 12:51 pm
What language is the wincap lib?
It is possible to use C libraries from eC without any special effort, and flat C functionality of eC applications (no object oriented or eC specific feature) from a C program.
To use another language such as C++, right now it can be done but only at a C interface level.