Required:
  SuperEdi
  VB6 Runtime Files

Download:
  Auto C 3.5.3
  (approx. 800 KB)

Recommended:
  ActiveX Control Pad

Compilers:
  Borland C/C++ Compiler
  LCC-Win32 Compiler
  Pelles C for Windows
  Open Watcom C/C++

Additional:
  Version History
 

Copyright © 2010
by Wade Schuette
wadeschu@gmail.com
Updated August 16, 2010

Auto C - 3.5.3 - August 16, 2010

Auto C is a way to create Windows applications in C visually. Drawing controls on a form using a mouse is all you need to do to create a working Windows program in C. Use a toolbox, properties box and property pages to design and edit your program's user interface. Use the same sort of WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) design environment that the classic Visual Basic IDE provides.

Use of the following controls is supported:

Check Box
Combo Box
Command Button
Frame (group box)
Label
List Box
Option Button
Picture Box
Progress Bar
Scrollbar
Slider
Tab Strip
Text Box
Toolbar
Up-Down Button

Minimum Requirements:
VB6 Runtime Files
WoLoSoft International's SuperEdi

Recommended:
Microsoft ActiveX Control Pad
Borland C/C++ Compiler 5.5
LCC-Win32 Compiler
Pelles C For Windows
Open Watcom C/C++
Microsoft MSDN Library (version 6 or later)
Additional help files are also recommended. See Auto C's help file for more information.

Setting up Auto C on your computer involves obtaining and installing various free programs from different sources. All are free to use indefinitely. If you have SuperEdi installed then you can run Auto C to get an idea of what it does. Then, you can download and install more components if you wish to.

Microsoft ActiveX Control Pad is integral to Auto C's operation. However, you can run Auto C without it and install it at a later time. You should install at least one supported compiler if you haven't already done so. If you don't have the MSDN Library then you should download the recommended help files. See Auto C's help file for more information.

Auto C has great built-in support for using bitmap and icon resources. Also, using custom colors for many controls is supported. These features help make your user interfaces colorful and attractive.

Auto C can be used to make Windows GUI mode Applications and Dynamic Link Libraries only. Auto C projects are of one specific form. A project will contain a C source code file and header file that are completely auto-generated.

However, the benefit is that Auto C is very practical. So many other IDE's leave you wondering how to actually make a Windows program with it. This is not the case with Auto C. With Auto C you can simply point and click to make Windows executables of moderate complexity.

There is no script or language that you have to learn in order to use Auto C. You work with platform SDK C. Auto C doesn't create dialog box RC scripts.

One way to use Auto C is to use it as a project file generator. You can then use the files it creates in the IDE of your choice. You can even use the files in another IDE and then come back and reopen a project in Auto C so that the project's user interface can be re-edited.

About the MS Forms 2.0 Form Layout Designer

Auto C makes use of the MS Forms 2.0 form layout designer. Although the MS Forms 2.0 form layout designer has been around for a long time, it can still be found in applications such as Microsoft Office XP 2002 and Microsoft Office 2003, and other newer products. To see this, run Word or FrontPage and press Alt & F11 to start the Visual Basic Editor (you might need the Office setup disk). Then use the Insert menu to insert a UserForm. This will demonstrate that the same form layout designer that ActiveX Control Pad uses (contained in Fm20.dll) is still used with modern Microsoft products.

You can access the Visual Basic Editor under Microsoft Word using automation. However, you must first explicitly allow macros access to Visual Basic projects. To do this, run Microsoft Word. Under the Tools menu there will be a Macro sub-menu. Select Security from the Macro sub-menu and the Security dialog box will appear. On the Trusted Sources tab, check the check box that says "Trust access to Visual Basic Project" and click OK.

After allowing external access to Word VB projects you can try the following VBScript. It creates an instance of the VB editor and makes it visible, adds a form and then adds a label to the form:

'VBScript example of creating an instance of the VB Editor under Microsoft Word using automation.
'Requires that Word's Macro Security settings allow external access to Visual Basic Projects.

Const vbext_ct_MSForm = 3

On Error Resume Next

Set WordApp = CreateObject("Word.Application.8")

If Err.Number = 0 Then

    WordApp.Visible = True
    WordApp.ShowVisualBasicEditor = True

    Set VBComps = WordApp.VBE.ActiveVBProject.VBComponents

    If Err.Number = 0 Then

        For Each Object1 In VBComps
            VBComps.Remove Object1
        Next

        Set Form1 = VBComps.Add(vbext_ct_MSForm)
        Set Label1 = Form1.Designer.Controls.Add("Forms.Label.1")

        Label1.Caption = "Hello, World!"
        Label1.FontBold = True
        Label1.AutoSize = True
        Label1.Left = Form1.Designer.insidewidth / 2 - Label1.Width / 2
        Label1.Top = Form1.Designer.insideheight / 2 - Label1.Height / 2

        If MsgBox ("Click OK to close and quit, or Cancel to quit without closing.", _
        vbOkCancel, "Closing") = vbOK Then WordApp.Quit

    Else

        MsgBox "Visual Basic Editor could not be accessed." + VbCrLf + VbCrLf + _
                    "Make sure that the Visual Basic Editor is installed, and that " + _
                    "macro security settings trust programmatic access to VB Projects.", _
                    vbOKOnly, Err.Description

        WordApp.Quit

    End If

Else

    MsgBox "Word Object could not be created.", vbOKOnly, Err.Description

End If

After Fm20.dll is registered on your system the MS Forms 2.0 designer can also be used under Visual Basic 5 or 6. To try this run VB, right-click the Toolbox and select "Components...". The Components dialog box will appear. Click the "Designers" tab and make sure that Microsoft Forms 2.0 is checked and click OK. Use the Project menu to add an MS Forms 2.0 form to the project.

An instance of the MS Forms 2.0 form layout designer can't be created using just the Fm20.dll. Here is what Microsoft says about using Fm20.dll:

About Microsoft ActiveX Control Pad

ActiveX Control Pad is a free program from Microsoft that uses the MS Forms 2.0 form layout designer. Theoretically Auto C could have been designed to use one of the commercial Microsoft applications described above. However, users would have to own Microsoft Office or Visual Basic in order to use Auto C. ActiveX Control Pad is used so that all users can use Auto C.

When ActiveX Control Pad is run under Auto C everything except the MS Forms 2.0 form layout designer is disabled or suppressed. The fact that it uses older forms of html and vbscript is irrelevant as far as Auto C is concerned. Only ActiveX/Automation/OLE and API functions are used to create C source code from the form being edited. Auto C doesn't read from those older style object tags. Auto C provides a replacement toolbox, which means that ActiveX Control Pad will run without error under all versions of Windows.

ActiveX Control Pad is described by Microsoft as being a Beta Release, For Developers. This is a very accurate description. It is not the sort of program that a non-developer would use. It is recommended that you only use it with Auto C and that you manually remove the Start Menu shortcuts it creates when it is installed.

If you have version 6 of the MSDN Library (the version that comes with Microsoft Visual Studio 6 products) then you already have Microsoft ActiveX Control Pad. Refer to Auto C's help file for more information about installing ActiveX Control Pad from the MSDN Library 6 CD, and for information about using the MSDN Library for keyword help in SuperEdi.

Auto C Version History

Version 3.5.3 - August 16, 2010

• The way in which fonts are created has been simplified, and default values are now used for most of the arguments to CreateFont(). Previously, non-default arguments were used for some fonts.
• The navigation pane in the help file is no longer hidden when focus is lost.
• Minor revisions have been made to the example files to more closely match how Windows shows and hides access keys as the Alt key is pressed.

Version 3.5.2 - July 28, 2010

• If you created a new DLL project and specified the name of an existing file, no message box was displayed to confirm the file overwrite.
• Files opened with Auto C are now kept off of the recent documents menu.
• Improvements have been made to the VB form example file that is included with Auto C (In the DLL Source sub-folder of the Run-time Link Dll Example folder). It is an example of using the RunTimeDemo dll under VB6, and it also contains complete information on using it under VB.NET.
• When looking for the Borland compiler, the default location of C:\BORLAND\BCC55\ is checked again. With the last couple of versions of Auto C that location wasn't checked.

Version 3.5.1 - July 15, 2010

• When browsing for files using the Picture Property Page, all file types were initially displayed in the File Open dialog box. Now, a filter is properly applied and only bitmap, icon and cursor files are shown. This was only a problem with version 3.5 and no prior versions.
• The way in which Auto C reads what a program writes to StdOut and StdErr has been improved. Previously, doing anything more than writing short strings could cause Auto C to crash. There was a practical limit of 255 characters, and this was not documented. Now there is no limit on string length and reading strings from StdOut and StdErr should be more stable.
• The file search utility GREP is no longer distributed with Auto C. Searching of file contents is now done directly in code. GREP would not return multi-line macro definitions. Entire multi-line macros should be displayed, although searches may take slightly longer.
• Prior versions of Auto C contained troubleshooting information concerning a problem with Open Watcom 1.8, and an Auto C example files contained a workaround for that problem. Because an updated version of Open Watcom is now available, the troubleshooting information and workaround have been removed. Please upgrade to Open Watcom version 1.9.

Version 3.5 - July 9, 2010

• If a DLL project was open, an error would occur when changing the dll's name or when adding/removing dll project files.
• When a form was opened for editing, a control's font size wasn't always set correctly, depending on the font and size.
• Scrollbars now have a PageSize property. Change the PageSize to change the size of a scrollbar's Scroll Box.
• COMDLG32.OCX is no longer distributed with Auto C. File open and save operations are now done directly in code.

Version 3.4.9 - May 25, 2010

• Version 3.4.8 had one minor regression: Compiler output was written to SuperEdi's console twice instead of just once.

Version 3.4.8 - May 16, 2010

• If a program launched by using Auto C's custom command didn't end by itself, clicking "Stop" didn't always end all processes cleanly, and sometimes Auto C would freeze. This problem should be fixed, clicking the stop button should now properly end the process.

Version 3.4.7 - April 25, 2010

• If all controls were removed from a form, HWND declarations for those controls were not always removed. This problem has been fixed.

Version 3.4.6 - April 23, 2010

• With versions 3.4.1 to 3.4.5 the Add Declarations command didn't work correctly. Variable declarations for exported dll functions weren't added to a project's main file, only to the auto-generated file. This problem has been fixed.
• The Recommended Help Files topic has been removed from the help file.
• When manually specifying the Borland compiler's location, a Browse For Folder dialog box is now displayed instead of a File Open dialog box.

Version 3.4.5 - March 25, 2010

• If a web page is open in SuperEdi's Web Browser, that page is now reloaded when a different project is opened.
• Auto C's application manifest has been moved back into Auto C.exe as the only resource. Previously, it was a separate file.

Version 3.4.4 - March 5, 2010

• If Auto C is near the right or bottom edge of the screen when the screen resolution is decreased, Auto C will now bring itself back onto the screen.
• A link has been added to Auto C's help file for the Windows 7 version of the Microsoft update required to view Windows Help (*.hlp) files.
• When ActiveX Control Pad is run under Auto C the Properties Box is now displayed automatically.

Version 3.4.3 - February 15, 2010

• With the last two versions of Auto C, the menu icon was not correctly displayed in ActiveX Control Pad as intended.
• With version 3.4.2, some files were not removed when uninstalling.

Version 3.4.2 - February 13, 2010

• Auto C now makes backup copies of project files.
• A minor change to the Play Sound example was made to make it perform better under Windows Vista and later.

Version 3.4.1 - January 9, 2010

• When adding a resource script file to a DLL project, you couldn't use a file with the same title as an existing DLL project file. For example, if a file named File1.c was part of a DLL project then you couldn't add a file named File1.rc. This restriction no longer exists.
• All of Auto C's resources have been moved to AUTOC.DLL. Previously, some resources were in Auto C.exe and some were in AUTOC.OCX.
• Links in the help file are now opened within the help viewer. Previously, clicking some links in the help file were displayed in the default web browser.

Version 3.4 - July 23, 2009

• If SuperEdi was minimized when a form or menu was opened for editing then ActiveX Control Pad wasn't displayed correctly.

Version 3.3.9 - July 15, 2009

• When editing menus, applying changes is now much faster.

Version 3.3.8 - July 3, 2009

• The length of some binary Boolean values that Auto C wrote to the registry were longer than they needed to be, sometimes as many as four bytes. Although this did not cause any errors, the length of the values have been reduced.
• Invalid variable names for font handles were created when font names contained any characters other than letters, numerals or spaces. This problem has been fixed.
• If you changed a Scrollbar's backcolor from the default, and no other control color had been changed from the default, then the scrollbar's backcolor was not changed. This problem has been fixed.
• The default backcolor for Scrollbars has been changed from COLOR_BTNFACE to COLOR_WINDOW.
• The option of having a form display a What's This Help button has been added.

Version 3.3.7 - June 18, 2009

• When the Windows Styles dialog box was used to add a cursor or icon to a project an excessively long resource name was generated. This problem has been fixed.
• Selecting "MainWindowProc" from the Functions menu didn't work. This problem has been fixed.

Version 3.3.6 - June 9, 2009

• If a function had a somewhat long arguments list then it didn't appear in Auto C's functions menu. This problem has been fixed.

Version 3.3.5 - June 6, 2009

• Under 64-bit Windows, Auto C only worked with 32-bit versions of SuperEdi. Now you can use a 64-bit version of SuperEdi.
• Under 64-bit Windows, 64-bit Pelles C did not work with Auto C. Now you can use either 32-bit or 64-bit Pelles C with Auto C.
• Previously, a call to InitCommonControlsEx() appeared in the auto-generated source code only if common controls were actually used. Now, a call to InitCommonControls() will always appear no matter what types of controls are used. This corrects a problem that existed on some Windows XP machines when using Windows XP visual styles.
• When using Auto C's functions menu with a Dll file that contained only a DllMain function, an extra menu item appeared. The unneeded menu item has now been removed.

Version 3.3.4 - May 14, 2009

• When editing a form or menu, making the height of the form as small as it could be could cause errors to occur, depending on the type of controls on the form. This problem has been fixed.
• The values 1, 2, and 24 are no longer used for child window identifiers. This change was made to avoid using the same values as those used for IDOK, IDCANCEL and MANIFEST_RESOURCE.
• Under the Form menu, the option of having Auto C set the position and size of ActiveX Control Pad has been added. When "Align With SuperEdi" is selected, ActiveX Control Pad's size and position will be aligned with SuperEdi when it is run under Auto C.

Version 3.3.3 - April 30, 2009

• With the last few versions of Auto C, there were problems using bitmaps, icons and cursors if they were not in the EXE project folder. Auto C did not recognize them as being valid files.
• Previously, the font size used for the items in Auto C's main window was fixed. Now, if you have changed the font sizes that Windows uses (it usually requires some third party tool to do so), the font size used by Auto C can be increased up to a maximum size of 10.

Version 3.3.2 - April 15, 2009

• When using Watcom to link a Dll, the command line was not displayed in SuperEdi's output window.
• Two files were unintentionally included with the last two releases. They have been removed.

Version 3.3.1 - March 19, 2009

• The auto-generated function LoadDllFunctions didn't work properly if the Dll was in a folder other than the EXE application. This was only a problem with version 3.3 and no prior versions.

Version 3.3 - March 18, 2009

• Global variables are now used for child window HWNDs. The auto-generated functions GetItem and GetToolTipsHwnd still exist, but using them in new code is no longer recommended.
• When running ActiveX Control Pad, if you selected a control and pressed enter, and then used the Apply Changes command, sometimes controls would shift position by a few pixels, depending on the type of control selected. This problem is now fixed.
• Specifying a tooltip for a combobox never worked. This problem is now fixed.
• The name of the file used to launch ActiveX Control Pad is now named "Auto C.alx" instead of "Pad File.alx".
• The name of the Dll that Auto C is now named "AutoC.dll" instead of "AutoCDll.dll".
• The accelerator tables created by Auto C now use all upper case characters for the keywords ALT, CONTROL, and SHIFT.
• The code generated by the Update Declarations command has been changed. The new version is simpler, more readable, and is more consistent with documentation about using Dlls at runtime.
• In the auto-generated function LoadDllFunctions negative numbers were used as arguments to the ExitProcess function. These have now been changed to positive values. This was done because some documentation says that only positive numbers (or zero) should be used with ExitProcess.

Version 3.2.6 - February 13, 2009

• If you started Auto C by passing a filename at the command line then the recent file list wasn't updated correctly.
• If no documents were open in SuperEdi then the tooltip for Auto C's Search Header Files button was inaccurate.

Version 3.2.5 - December 20, 2008

• When selecting an icon for a control to display, sometimes an error would occur. This occurred only with some icon files, ones that probably were corrupt. This problem has been fixed. Message boxes are now displayed when unusable icons are found.

Version 3.2.4 - December 16, 2008

• The same macros available when using SuperEdi's User Defined Tools can now be used with an Auto C custom command. For example, use $(FilePath) to represent the full name of the current document. Use $(FilePath) to represent the current file's path, etc.. Refer to the User Defined Tools section of SuperEdi's help file for more information.

Version 3.2.3 - December 8, 2008

• Minor changes to Auto C's setup program have been made. Previously, the setup program would sometimes try and register AUTOC.OCX if VB6 runtime files were not installed.
• Under Auto C's File menu, the Run Target EXE menu item was not properly updated. This problem has been corrected.

Version 3.2.2 - December 5, 2008

• Minor improvements to Auto C's appearance have been made. Also, the toolbar in the example project has been set to display stock windows bitmaps. (In the previous release, the toolbar had been unintentionally set to display file icons.)

Version 3.2.1 - December 2, 2008

• Some Microsoft documentation says that a Tool Tip window should be made the topmost window after it is created. Therefore the auto-generated code now includes a call to SetWindowPos that makes a tooltip window the topmost window.

Version 3.2 - November 1, 2008

• Under Windows Me/98/NT4 the size of the main window was not set correctly when ActiveX Control Pad was opened.

Version 3.1.9 - October 22, 2008

• When a new project was created, an unused variable was declared at the beginning of the WinMain function. The declaration has now been removed.

Version 3.1.8 - October 21, 2008

• You could not cut, copy & paste checkbox controls because an error would occur when pasting. Now you can cut, copy & paste all controls without errors occurring.
• When a new project was created, no default string was assigned to be the program name. Now a default program name is created when a new project is created.

Version 3.1.7 - October 17, 2008

• An error would occur or ActiveX Control Pad would freeze when opening if you specified that a main window had a title bar but no icon or close button. This problem is now fixed.
• If you changed Window Styles while ActiveX Control Pad was open then the main window's size would increase by a few pixels. This problem has been fixed.
• Auto C's help file and the VB Form that is distributed with the Run-Time Dll Link example have been updated to reflect the correct number and type of arguments to the dll's demo function.
• A line has been added to the SetFocusByTabstop auto-generated function to skip disabled controls.

Version 3.1.6 - October 14, 2008

• If you compiled an individual file with Pelles C, and warnings but no errors occurred, Auto C would incorrectly report that compilation was not successful when it actually was. Also, with Borland and Pelles C warnings were displayed in blue instead of red if no errors occurred.
• Under Windows Vista, sometimes system error messages would appear if you closed Auto C while ActiveX Control Pad was open or if you opened another project while ActiveX Control Pad was open. Those message boxes should not appear anymore.
• There was a problem with the Controls Demo example from version 3.1.5. Some preprocessor directives were in the wrong place. Also, the wrong icon was included with the Play Sound example.
• If you removed all controls of a given type then the vertical spacing between auto-generated functions was lost.

Version 3.1.5 - October 11, 2008

• If any control had the design-time focus when the Apply Changes command was used then all controls would shift position by a few pixels. This problem is now fixed.
• When you changed the font for some controls the Properties Box did not immediately show the new font.

Version 3.1.4 - October 8, 2008

• If you added files to an EXE project and then later used the Apply Changes command, the names of the added files were not correctly saved. The next time you opened the project you had to repeat the process of adding the files to the project. This problem had been fixed a long time ago but had somehow unknowingly returned, likely as a result of using code from older backup files.
• If you removed all menus from a project then one extra character was incorrectly removed from the project's RC file. This was also a problem that had been fixed but had recurred, probably for the same reason.

Version 3.1.3 - September 30, 2008

• The problem of controls unexpectedly shifting position by a few pixels has been fixed. Previously, controls' left and top coordinates could change as a result of applying changes, and this was not immediately apparent.
• If you used menu accelerators then the message loop near the end of WinMain was not correctly updated as you made changes to the menu. This was a problem starting with version 3.1 and not with prior versions.
• Fixed a problem with the Label ActiveX control. If the label did not have a flat border style an error could occur with if the width or height was made very small. Also, labels with the etched border style were not assigned the correct style when opened for editing in ActiveX Control Pad.
• Minor cosmetic changes have been made to some of the auto-generated functions.

Version 3.1.2 - September 20, 2008

• A line of code had been inadvertently deleted from an example file. The missing line has now been restored.
• Minor cosmetic changes have been made to some of the auto-generated functions.

Version 3.1.1 - September 17, 2008

• If the Custom Command dialog box was open when you started to open another project it remained open. If you then tried using a custom command before opening another project an error would occur.
• The auto-generated function GetItem has been revised and improved. The old version required that child window IDs be consecutive numbers starting with 1. This requirement no longer exists. Although negative values can't be used, the revised function works with any valid positive values for child window identifiers.
• Minor revisions have been made to the auto-generated functions that set menu bitmaps.

Version 3.1 - September 14, 2008

• The capability to terminate the process of a custom command has been added. Previously you had to use Windows Task Manager to manually terminate the process of a custom command if it didn't end right away or got hung up.
• The Select Help File sub-menu under the File menu didn't always accurately show what the currently selected help file was. This problem is now fixed.
• The auto-generated source code used for the message loop near the end of WinMain has been changed. The new code is simpler and does a better job of showing what is actually going on within the message loop when accelerator tables are used. Existing projects will be updated to use the new code when the Apply Changes command is used.
• Some minor changes to the auto-generated WndEnumProc functions have been made, just to make them a little smaller.

Version 3.0.9 - September 3, 2008

• If there were fewer than 8 files in Auto C's recent file list, new files would be added to the end of the list. This meant that the most recent project would be the first to be discarded after the list grew to 8 files. Only when the list contained 8 files would a new file be placed in the first position. Now, a new entry to the list is always given the first position.

Version 3.0.8 - September 1, 2008

• When editing a project's form in ActiveX Control Pad, the form will now have the window styles that you specify. Exceptions to this are that at design-time the form will always be sizable and have a border around the client area. Otherwise, it will have the styles you specify.

Version 3.0.7 - August 28, 2008

• If you installed ActiveX Control Pad while Auto C was running and tried to use it right away, a problem would occur the very first time, and then it would work OK each subsequent time. Now you should be able to install ActiveX Control Pad while Auto C is running and use it immediately without any problems.
• The @ character is now excluded from project file titles. With Auto C, you can use any valid Windows filename except for filenames whose titles contain leading or trailing spaces, the at symbol(@), the apostrophe character('), or the ampersand character(&).

Version 3.0.6 - August 18, 2008

• Improvements to Auto C's functions menu have been made. It now works faster than it did with previous versions.

Version 3.0.5 - August 16, 2008

• Sometimes Auto C's functions menu didn't work correctly if a function name contained another function name (for example, Function1 and Function10).
• Previously, nothing prevented you from trying to search header files for a phrase that contained spaces. If you did, problems would occur. Now when searching header files you must specify a string that does not contain spaces.

Version 3.0.4 - August 2, 2008

• At design-time in ActiveX Control Pad, if you clicked an option button and then pressed enter, the option button's value would be set to True. This is now fixed. Clicking an option button won't automatically set the value to True. Use the properties box to set an Option button's initial value.
• Sometimes at design-time in ActiveX Control Pad a default icon was displayed instead of the icon you had selected for the main window.
• The last two versions of Auto C's setup program forced you to uninstall the existing program before installing the new version. You no longer have to do this. You can once again install Auto C on top of a prior version.
• The installer size is smaller because it is compressed more.

Version 3.0.3 - July 31, 2008

• If no documents were open in SuperEdi and you tried to use Auto C's File menu to select a help file an error would occur. This is now fixed. This was only a problem with version 3.0.2 and no prior versions.
• When you opened a project's form for editing, a CheckBox's Checked property or an OptionButton's Value property was not set correctly. This problem has been corrected.

Version 3.0.2 - July 28, 2008

• Previously, Auto C.exe would register AUTOC.OCX at the time of first use. Now Auto C's setup program will register it if FM20.DLL is found.
• The way in which a project's form is opened is improved. Opening ActiveX Control Pad should be much faster.
• Improvements to Auto C's File menu were made so that it now has a smoother appearance. Previously the File menu appeared a little "jerky" because items within it were being drawn as it was clicked.

Version 3.0.1 - July 26, 2008

• Fixed problem where sometimes system error messages would be displayed when you tried to start Auto C.
• ActiveX Control Pad is no longer required to run Auto C. This change was made in order to reduce the possibility of an error occurring when Auto C starts up, and to make installing Auto C easier. Auto C no longer references FM20.DLL directly to use MS Forms 2.0 objects. It uses those objects using late-binding only. This means that FM20.DLL does not have to be registered on your system in order for Auto C to start up and run.
• The file Auto C.ocx is also no longer referenced through early binding. It will be installed but it won't be registered until after ActiveX Control Pad is installed and FM20.dll is registered on your system.
• The help file now includes additional troubleshooting information that can be helpful if problems occur when you try to run Auto C.
• A setting has been added that can be used if error messages appear whenever you close ActiveX Control Pad. Select "Hide message boxes" from the Form menu. Auto C will then try to suppress the error message boxes.
• Auto C's Application Manifest is now a separate file named Auto C.exe.manifest. Previously it was part of Auto C.exe as a resource. If a severe error occurs when you try to start Auto C, rename the manifest file or move it to another location. In extreme cases this can allow Auto C to run under Windows XP or later.
• With one exception, all of the files that Auto C installs are now kept in Auto C's program folder. Previously, two files (AutoC.ocx and AutoCDll.dll) were installed to your system folder. It has now been determined that the files do not have to be in the system folder and that keeping them in Auto C's program folder can potentially make troubleshooting a little easier. The exception is the file COMDLG32.OCX. It is still installed to your System or System32 folder, depending on your version of Windows.
• When you run a custom command, Auto C now displays the return value (exit code) from the custom command in addition to anything it writes to StdOut and StdErr.

Version 3.0 - July 3, 2008

• A new system for determining window sizes is now used. The size of the main window and the position and size of controls should now be more accurate.
• When building or re-building an EXE project, sometimes Auto C didn't detect that an error had occurred when compiling a source file. Now, the building process should always stop if an individual object file is not successfully created.
• Sometimes if you started to browse for the Borland compiler but then cancelled, Auto C would not properly handle the cancellation. This is now corrected.
• Slight changes to the example projects have been made. The auto-generated comments are improved.

Version 2.9.6 - June 21, 2008

• If a control had an Accelerator key sometimes the key would be lost when ActiveX Control Pad was opened. This problem should now be fixed.
• Under some circumstances it was possible for the Main Window's caption to disappear in ActiveX Control Pad. Now, the caption should always appear correctly.
• The default bar color of a progress bar was not correct, and you could not specify that a progress bar should use default colors.
• If you started Auto C by passing a filename at the command line, you could not open a different project. The first project would always be re-opened if you tried to open a different project. This is now fixed.

Version 2.9.5 - June 14, 2008

• An extra leading space was added to the main window's caption when displayed in ActiveX Control Pad. The extra space has been removed.

Version 2.9.4 - June 4, 2008

• Under Windows Vista, if you changed menu background colors then Auto C's menus did not appear correctly. They now appear correctly.
• If you compiled a file individually and there was an error, Auto C did not put SuperEdi's caret on the line with the error and make SuperEdi the foreground window. Now it does.
• If some tabs of a Tabstrip control had tooltips and others did not, the tabs without tooltips could be assigned the literal "NULL" as the tooltip. This is now fixed.

Version 2.9.3 - June 4, 2008

• The window position of ActiveX Control Pad was not saved when it was closed. This is now fixed: When ActiveX Control Pad is run it will have the size and position it had when it was last closed. (This was only a problem with Auto C versions 2.9.1 and 2.9.2.)
• Sometimes the function Toolbar_DropDownClick would be added to the auto-generated source file when it wasn't needed. (This was only a problem with Auto C versions 2.9.1 and 2.9.2.)
• Previously, under Windows Vista you had to right-click and select "Run as administrator" to start Auto C. You no longer have to do this.

Version 2.9.2 - June 1, 2008

• Version 2.9.1 had a problem in that it would fail to recognize that an EXE project source file had errors, and would proceed with building the project. This problem was corrected as soon as possible.

Version 2.9.1 - June 1, 2008

• When you compiled Dll project files individually Auto C would incorrectly report that the file had not been successfully compiled when it actually had been. (This was only a problem with version 2.9, not with prior versions.)
• Files added to an EXE project were not compiled in the same order that they were linked in. Although this was not really a problem, this has been changed so that source files are now compiled in the same order that the corresponding object files are linked.
• An Open command has been added to the File menu. Use it to open a different project without closing Auto C. Previously it was necessary to exit Auto C in order to open a different project. Now, Windows Vista users don't have to restart Auto C by right-clicking and selecting "Run as administrator" to open another project.

Version 2.9 - May 26, 2008

• If the form or menu was open for editing and a second instance of Auto C was started, problems with closing ActiveX Control Pad would occur. This is now fixed. If a second instance of Auto C is started while Auto C is running, the first instance will be closed right away.
• If you close Auto C while the form or menu is open for editing ActiveX Control Pad will be closed without prompting you to save changes.
• The way in which Auto C closes is now faster.
• The -q option (quiet output) is no longer used with the Watcom linker.

Version 2.8.9 - May 7, 2008

• The Manifest files created by Auto C now have a simpler form.
• For Windows VIsta users, message boxes have been added to Auto C's setup program and to Auto c.exe that inform users of the need to start by right-clicking Auto C's icon and selecting "Run as administrator".

Version 2.8.8 - April 24, 2008

• If the name of the target EXE contained a period (.) then it could not be run from within Auto C. This is now fixed.
• The way in which filenames are validated has been updated. Now, any valid folder name may be used and any valid filename may be used, except if the file title contains an ampersand (&) or apostrophe (').

Version 2.8.7 - April 17, 2008

• If you tried to compile a DLL project file individually when you had selected Borland C++ as the DLL compiler, the file would be compiled in C, not C++. This is now fixed.
• Sometimes Auto C would incorrectly report that a file hadn't been successfully compiled when it actually had been. This should now be fixed.
• A minor change was made to the way a DLL is linked with Watcom C.

Version 2.8.6 - March 18, 2008

• If you had no compilers installed and you tried to search header files an error would occur. This is now fixed.
• A registry key created by Auto C was not deleted when uninstalling.

Version 2.8.5 - February 18, 2008

• When browsing for a help file there was a problem if you tried to select a Windows Help (*.hlp) file. This is now fixed.
• The directive #define WIN32_LEAN_AND_MEAN has been added to source files. This greatly reduces compile time, especially when using Borland or Pelles C..

Version 2.8.4 - February 5, 2008

• If a DLL project contained a resource (RC) file, and you were using Watcom C++, then compiling the RC file individually would not work because Auto C used the wrong command. This is now fixed.

Version 2.8.3 - January 28, 2008

• Sometimes the toolbar control could be moved and resized at design-time in ActiveX Control Pad when it should not have been. Now the toolbar's position and size are always fixed.
• When closing Auto C sometimes SuperEdi would remain running and it was unclear whether or not Auto C had ended. Both Auto C and SuperEdi should now promptly close when you close Auto C.
• Some example files have been revised.

Version 2.8.2 - January 16, 2008

Top of Page