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  • In this lesson you will learn the following concepts
  • Overview
  • A project to discover WLanguage
Lesson 3.1. WLanguage: Overview
In this lesson you will learn the following concepts
  • What is WLanguage?
  • How to discover WLanguage?
Lesson duration

Estimated time: 5 min
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Overview
As mentioned in the previous section, WLanguage is the programming language of WINDEV, WEBDEV and WINDEV Mobile. In this new part of the Tutorial, we will discover the basics of this language: variables, conditional statements, procedures, etc.
WLanguage is a rich language that offers multiple programming possibilities thanks to a comprehensive code editor, which makes writing code as simple as possible.
WLanguage is a 5GL. High-level functions are used for programming. One line of code in WLanguage usually corresponds to dozens of lines in a 4GL.
WLanguage is event-driven. Code is written in the corresponding WLanguage event. For example, this event can be associated with a control, window, page, report, etc. All events are available in the code editor. You can add additional events and manage special cases through programming.
You can also use object-oriented programming (OOP). Member and method, constructor, destructor, multiple inheritance, virtual method, polymorphism, etc. One lesson in this part is entirely dedicated to OOP.
Programming controls or objects is very simple, using specific functions and/or properties. Simply type the name of the control or object in the code editor to see all the functions or properties that can be used with it.
WLanguage functions that use controls or objects accept two syntaxes:
  • standard syntax. In this case, WLanguage functions start with the name of the corresponding "family" name. Thus, all the functions used to manipulate Table controls start with "Table".
    For example, to add elements in a Table control, you can use TableAddLine, specifying the name of the Table control as the first parameter:
    // Add "Moore" and "Vince"
    // in the last row of the "TABLE_ProductTable" control
    TableAddLine(TABLE_ProductTable, "Moore", "Vince")
  • prefix syntax.
    In this case, the name of the manipulated element is specified first. With the previous example, we can simply use AddLine on the Table control:
    // Add "Moore" and "Vince"
    // in the last row of the "TABLE_ProductTable" control
    TABLE_ProductTable.AddLine("Moore", "Vince")
Remark: The prefix syntax will be used for manipulating controls or objects in this tutorial.
All these aspects of WLanguage programming will be covered in the different lessons and parts of this tutorial.
Before you start using WLanguage, here are some WLanguage conventions to consider:
  • WLanguage doesn't use end of line characters.
  • The '//' characters are used to comment out lines of code. These lines of code are not interpreted. They provide better code readability.
  • In the WLanguage functions, the parameters passed to the function are enclosed in brackets.
  • Parameters are separated by commas.
  • WLanguage is not case sensitive.
  • "Spaces" are not interpreted.
  • Points are used as decimal separators.
  • WLanguage functions are in English. They are also available in French.
A project to discover WLanguage
In the previous part, we created a small application that allowed us to manipulate the interface and the code.
In this part, we will focus on the WLanguage code. No UI is required.
To do so, we will create a project (necessary for any programming task with WINDEV Mobile). In this project, we will write the WLanguage code directly in the code editor. This code can be tested immediately, by simply clicking "GO".
  • To create our working project:
    1. Start WINDEV Mobile.
    2. Display the WINDEV Mobile home page if necessary (Ctrl + <).
    3. On the home page, click "Create a project" and select "Android or iOS application". The project creation wizard starts. The different steps of the wizard will help you create your project. The information specified in this wizard can be modified later.
    4. The first step of the wizard allows you to select the project execution platform. Select "Android and iOS cross-platform" and go to the next step of the wizard ("Next").
    5. For this lesson, we are going to create a "blank" project. You can also create a project based on an existing example, provided with WINDEV Mobile. Select "Create a blank project" and go to the next step of the wizard.
    6. The wizard prompts you to choose the type of devices the project is intended for. Select "Generate an application for phones" and go to the next step.
    7. The wizard prompts you to enter the project name, location and description. In our case, this project will simply be named "WLanguage".
    8. By default, WINDEV Mobile creates this project in the "\My projects\WLanguage" directory. You can keep this location or change it via the [...] button.
    9. The different steps of the wizard appear on the left. These steps can be clicked directly. Since the other steps are not strictly necessary for this project, you can go to the "End" step directly.
    10. Click "Finish": the project is created. The new element window appears. Close this window by clicking "X" in the upper-right corner.
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Minimum version required
  • Version 28
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Last update: 05/22/2023

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