8/16/2009

After much study and effort, sometimes with incredible difficulty, I have managed to clobber together a working sequential database: JABAS Address Cardfile. As a new user, I started this project by trying to solve some issues with an address book another user had posted. The program grew into what became Jaba's Address Book with Buttons, posted on the Novice board on July 24, 2009.

My motivation became making an address book that would be as simple to use as MS's Cardfile, from the old Windows days. That is the address book my wife prefers, but I had difficulty getting it to run on our new Vista equipped laptop. (Vista seemed to insist I use Windows Contacts).

I had the most trouble learning to work with the listbox and updating the database, arrays and listbox after editing or deleting a contact. I asked some questions on the forum and got help from the pros. I spent much time reading posts, help files, archived programs and tutorials. I think the effort payed off in that I now have a funtional and workable little program that is actually useful to someone.

There are many address book and contact manager programs available to computer users, and I don't for a moment think mine offers anything different from all the others. But as an exercise in learning basic programming, it is a good utility to work with. If I continue with this project, I would like to rework the interface so that it more closely represents that of MS's Cardfile. I think that task would involve graphic windows and controls, which is an area I've not tackled yet.

I look forward to any comments or suggestions. How does the GUI look on your system? How's the code - bloated and unnecessary, or reasonable for the task? Can you break the program with ordinary use of the functions? Is it easy to use?

Thanks for all the help from the forum and its members.

jaba

Some design considerations:
-Wanted one small interface for all tasks to take place. This decision created problems with keeping user from accidentally saving double entries or doing something else the user did not expect.

-Color scheme is an attempt to separate content from controls, for a cleaner look.

-Wanted to experiment with timer function, so I created the  blinking help arrow at startup, and the backup message at shutdown.

-I like the idea of providing some help, so I used the small "?" button, similar to commercial software.

-Broke with tradition and placed the phone numbers along with the contact name at top of window, since I most often look up a phone number rather than an address.
