Selecting Appropiate Software (VB/VBA/Studio)

[daniel_gt]

Hello,

I currently work in a research lab, and have been working on developing a code for some heavy data processing, which is currently being performed in Matlab. However, as the research progresses it has come to be time to create a GUI for more flexible inputs and adjustments, as well as easier visual representation, instead of having Matlab spit out 4 pages of graphs and a giant excel file. That being said, I find Matlab's GUI capabilities fairly cumbersome, so the lab is looking to a new program to write the GUI. Immediately, I thought of Visual Basic. However, the more I read into I'm slightly confused as the difference to Visual Basic/Visual Basic for Applications/Visual Studio etc. We're not really concerned with the price of the software, but simply want the one that will best be suited to our needs. Essentially, I am looking to create a program that is capable of interfacing with Matlab for calculations and plot display (or at least getting data for plot display, I not quite sure of graphing capabilities in these programs), as well as pictures from file paths, and then functions to modulate calculation regions/data sets etc. and save options when I'm done. What program would do this most efficiently? I am more concerned with the power of the program as opposed to the difficulty it is to learn, though they all seem as they would have similar syntax.

Thanks for any help

[si_the_geek]

Welcome to VBForums

Visual Basic for Applications is the "VB Editor" inside other programs, particularly Excel and Word etc. It is no use if you want to create a program that runs separately from the host application.

Visual Basic is a separate program, and is probably what you want - but only the simpler editions can be obtained separately from Visual Studio.

Visual Studio is a suite of the Visual languages, including Visual Basic and Visual C++ etc. This will be useful if you want to be able to use code from the other languages in the same project.


To start with I would recommend getting the free Express edition ( from www.microsoft.com/Express ), as it will allow you to at least make a start, and find out if the language is apt for you (eg: can interact with Matlab), and if there are any limitations that are causing you issues (if so you can upgrade to the edition that has the extra features you need, and load your project into it).

[daniel_gt]

Alright, that actually makes a lot of sense.

So, that being said. Back to the purpose of interfacing with Matlab, which language would most efficiently do this? I've done a little reading and seem to find more on integrating Matlab and C++, however I have also always heard VB is best for creating GUIs. Do you think it would be a good idea to get Visual Studio, and then use C++ to communicate with Matlab while using VB to create the actual GUI?

[si_the_geek]

I've never used Matlab at all, so I don't really know.

I doubt that C++ is any more capable of interfacing with it than VB is. The general rule for things like this is that the only differences are with the syntax of the code (which are easy once you've got the initial part done), but the official examples are in C due to that being what the developers of the software usually use.

I wouldn't be surprised if there are several VB examples around (especially on this site, so try the Search near the top of this page), in which case having just one decent example should be enough to work out the rest fairly easily.