Question Finding a "library"?

[grags]

Hi, I've been looking all over the internet for what I think is called a Library.

What I'm after is an extension to the RichTextBox in Visual Studio 2013 (VB). I don't know much about this sort of thing. But I heard these "libraries" provide more functions ?


Everything I have found so far is written in C. And I only know how to use VB (Barely)

 

[jmcilhinney]

A library is a file that contains executable code. In Windows, executable code is stored in either an EXE file, which is an executable program, or a DLL file, which is a dynamic link library. The only real difference between an EXE and a DLL is that an EXE has an entry point, i.e. a method that is executed first when the file is executed, which allows them to be run directly, whereas a DLL has to be used by an EXE or another DLL. In VS, when you create a new project, you can choose (amongst others) the Windows Forms Application template, which compiles to an EXE, the Windows Control Library template, which compiles to a DLL and is intended to be used by a Windows Forms application, or the Class Library template, which compiles to a DLL and can be used by any application. The term "library" is used in other languages besides .NET too, e.g. jQuery is a JavaScript library. In general, it simply means a file or files that contains types, members, functions, etc, that you can use in your application so that you don't have to write that code yourself over and over. It's just a chunk of reusable code to save you writing that code repeatedly.

If you are who I think you are then I believe I have already directed you to a number of links. What I believe you're looking for is not a library that extends the RichTextBox but a library that provides an object model for working with RTF text. You want something analogous to the HTML Agility Pack, which makes working with HTML easier but that doesn't mean that it extends the WebBrowser control. When I searched I specified .NET and I saw a number of options that were written in C#. C# is a completely different language to C, although C# syntax is based on C/C++ syntax. That's not a problem though. Almost the entire .NET Framework class library is written in C# and you have no issue using that. For instance, the RichTextBox control that you use is defined in the System.Windows.Forms.dll library and that was written in C#. Once compiled, C# and VB.NET code produces the same result and either language can use libraries written in either language. In fact, they can use libraries written in any .NET language, including F#, Delphi or others. A .NET library is a .NET library.

 

[grags]

I am indeed who you think I am. That's assuming you are who I think you are

Thank you for a descriptive reply. I'm going to be totally honest with you. I only understand about 30% of what you said (Though I read it a few times). Yes it might seem easy to some, but to me it just is not.


Can you tell me if any of these is what I'm looking for?

Gios WORD .NET Library (using RTF specification) - CodeProject
NRTFTree - A class library for RTF processing in C# - CodeProject

If so I *think* I will be able to figure out the rest myself. I just don't want to download random stuff, and spend hours trying to figure out what it does, to come to the conclusion it was the wrong thing to download. I tend to do that a lot.

 

[jmcilhinney]

Yes, those look right. The first one may be a bit higher-level than the second. If I was trying to do what I think you are, I'd probably go for the second one. That's without having looked closely at either though, and the second might seem a bit more "techy" in use.

 

[grags]

Thank you. I've already spent an hour trying to figure out how to import it

 

[jmcilhinney]

Follow the Blog link in my signature below and check out my post on Assemblies & Namespaces. .NET DLLs and EXEs are all assemblies.

 

[grags]

I followed your blog. Tried to find your post on Assemblies & Namespaces... Failed.
Tried to read some of the stuff you'd wrote in hope for some indication on how to find what I was looking for... Failed.
I don't understand all this Jargon. I don't even want to understand the Jargon. I just want things to work... Failed.

In short. I give up. Programming is now my past. I'm going to learn how to play Snap and try to beat my 11 year old Niece... Failed!

 

[jmcilhinney]

It's not jargon; it's terminology. If you want your programs to work without understanding programming terminology then it's no wonder that you've failed. That blog of mine includes only 16 posts, so if you were unable to find the one about assemblies and namespaces then I wonder about how hard you tried. If you're not prepared to do the leg work and just want to write code and have it do whizz-bang things then you are doomed to failure.

 

[grags]

The project I've been working on. So far has took me around 3 months. 2 months before I even touched the programming side of things. I've put a time-scale of around 6 more months on the project. if I were to research everything in your comments / blog and try to understand it then it'd be a further 6 months and more. And what for? All this started just because I wanted to copy the contents of a RichTextBox to a RichTextBox. I followed your advice and researched Library's. I've spent around 8+ hours trying to understand it (Doing the leg work). I've researched and researched and researched. And I still know nothing about Library's. Granted, my brain isn't the fastest for picking things up, In fact it's pretty damn rubbish. But I do my best.

And for the record my previous post was 90% humour.