Welcome!
1.) That's mostly opinion but I think most people favor Sparky's for that kind of stuff. There's also Newton, though.
2.) There are no bones in DBPro. Instead there are limbs. You can find out which limb is the hand by using this code to load your object and looking at the limb names it displays:
load object "Path Here",1
perform checklist for object limbs 1
position object 1,0,0,0
position camera 0,0,5
point camera 0,0,0
do
for c=1 to checklist quantity()
text 10,(c*20),checklist string$(c)
text 110,(c*20),str$(checklist value a(c))
text 210,(c*20),str$(checklist value b(c))
text 310,(c*20),str$(checklist value c(c))
text 410,(c*20),str$(checklist value d(c))
next c
control camera using arrowkeys 0,0.5,0.25
if shiftkey()=1 then move camera down 0.5
if controlkey()=1 then move camera up 0.5
loop
3.) In programming, you'll find that there are many, many entirely different ways to get the program to do a certain thing. I would say you should use TDK's code for a cube in which each side is a seperate limb (below). You can scale it using SCALE OBJECT if you need a different size platform. Then you can easily check to see if the character is touching the limbs on the sides or the limbs on the top and bottom.
Function MakeLimbCube(ObjNum,Size#)
Offset#=Size#/2.0: MeshNum=2000: PlainNum=2000
Make Object Cube ObjNum,Size#
Make Object Plain PlainNum,Size#,Size#
Make Mesh From Object MeshNum,PlainNum
ADD LIMB ObjNum,1,2000: Offset Limb ObjNum,1,0,0,0.0-Offset#: Rem Cube Side 1 (Front)
ADD LIMB ObjNum,2,2000: Rotate Limb ObjNum,2,0,90,0: Offset Limb ObjNum,2,0.0-Offset#,0,0: Rem Cube Side 2 (Left)
ADD LIMB ObjNum,3,2000: Rotate Limb ObjNum,3,0,180,0: Offset Limb ObjNum,3,0,0,Offset#: Rem Cube Side 3 (Back)
ADD LIMB ObjNum,4,2000: Rotate Limb ObjNum,4,0,270,0: Offset Limb ObjNum,4,Offset#,0,0: Rem Cube Side 4 (Right)
ADD LIMB ObjNum,5,2000: Rotate Limb ObjNum,5,270,0,0: Offset Limb ObjNum,5,0,0.0-Offset#,0: Rem Cube Side 5 (Bottom)
ADD LIMB ObjNum,6,2000: Rotate Limb ObjNum,6,90,0,0: Offset Limb ObjNum,6,0,Offset#,0: Rem Cube Side 6 (Top)
Delete Mesh MeshNum
Delete Object PlainNum
Hide Limb ObjNum,0
EndFunction
Then you can use GLUE OBJECT TO LIMB to attach a weapon to the hand limb.
4.)What's that?
5.)Again, there are no bones in DarkBASIC. However, you can use the app above to find out which limb is the head, for example. Then you can easily use the head's limb number to rotate it around with ROTATE LIMB and similar commands.
6.) Ok...that's why we're here