forums.silverfrost.com

[LitusSaxonicum]

Given some of the excellent enhancements Paul has made to Clearwin+ recently, here is my first wish list for future Clearwin+ enhancements.
1. A mouse-hover or mouse-over function for %tb like the one Paul developed for %ib.
2. Ability to specify the colour for the outline and area selection in the area selection mode (and colour for the rubber band selection line).
3. More functionality in %lv, including more Excel-like features. (See forum discussions passim)
4. A windows 8 type application manifest, so that existing code would instantly get a make-over, like the 1 24 default.manifest achieved for the XP look and feel. (Or several, enabling user to choose from a family of themes).
5. An enhancement to %il so that if the limits turned out to be the same, that value would be locked into the corresponding %rd or %rf, instead of creating an error.
6. Some more primitives in the graphics area. Examples could include:
a. Line ends, including arrow-heads
b. Arcs
c. Spline or Bezier curves
d. Gradient fills for objects
e. Dotted or dashed lines more than 1 pixel wide
7. Ability to detect a double-click without a left-click before and after.
8. A vertical line or horizontal line to fill a box or complete window � suggest %hl and %vl as those format codes are not used at present � with the ability to choose colour. If for example, a 3 pixel wide line was used, then (say) %3hl, with the colours being given as parameters, as in:

[PaulLaidler]

Most of these would need some further explanation and discussion so I suggest you rank them in order of importance and then let's take them one at a time.

[LitusSaxonicum]

Hi Paul,

These are suggestions - for consideration - and not a list of definite requests. I'm content (happy overstates it!) to be told "No", or "not yet", or "too difficult" or even "over my dead body!". I was hoping to provoke other users into saying either "Yes, I like that one", or "I would like something else", so that you have a steer from the community at large. I completely understand that your priorities are set by yourself and the rest of Silverfrost, which is right and proper. As there are 13 points in my list (12 numbered, and 1 thrown in at the end) I'll have a go at each of them in a separate post. I don't have a specific priority associated with the numbering, as they were just random ideas that occurred to me over the last year, and had got to the point that I had a list long enough to consider posting.

I'll try to amplify each in a separate post if you don't mind me appearing to monopolise the forum for a while (at least in this thread).

Best regards

Eddie

[PaulLaidler]

I was hoping that we could just take one at a time so I suggest that you start with the top of your wish list.

[LitusSaxonicum]

Suggestion No 12: Rounded corners for %ob ... %cb boxes.
I�ve edited a screen-grab from a simple program to show the effect in the first labelled box �Readings�. I haven�t gone very rounded, but you can see the effect relative to the square corner boxes � aesthetically it reflects the rounded corners on the buttons when using the Windows XP manifest.



Difficulties obvious even to me:

There look to be multiple cases to address, particularly where different 3_D styles are in use, e.g. raised, depressed, panelled etc.
Just how rounded should the corners be?
What about %n.mob? I suggest that the rounded corners should be for the outermost box line only.
Clearly it is incompatible with the invisible style � could be an error message or just ignored.

Suggestion as to how it might look in Clearwin+ code:
Probably to invent another style option: rounded
Priority:
Nice to have, but far from critical.
Present workaround:
Use a background bitmap, although these have the potential to be huge.

Is this the degree of detail that you wanted?

Eddie

[PaulLaidler]

Yes this is very helpful. I think that I can do this one but, to help me with my work load, can you wait till I report that I have completed this one before posting another.

Thanks.

Paul

[LitusSaxonicum]

Of course. I will try to present the ideas in as helpful a manner as I can.

Eddie

[IanLambley]

Eddie,
I have a routine for drawing dotted or dashed lines. It is a bit rough but here it is:

[Wilfried Linder]

My wish since years: Something like %12.3rf to define the numbers of decimals for the output of decimal values (similar to the Fn.m format descriptor in Fortran).

Another idea: When drawing a rectangle with set_graphics_selection@(1), it would be nice if after the release of the left mouse button, the window keeps visible and one can move the borders with the mouse (for instance, to define the area of a part of a displayed image).

Regards
Wilfried

[LitusSaxonicum]

Thanks Ian and Wilfried.

I'll add Wilfried's precision format to my list, and think very hard about graphics facilities. Clearly most things can be done with very few simple primitives within a %gr area relatively easily in comparison to doing things in a format window.

Eddie

[PaulLaidler]

%ob[rounded] has been added and this can be tested with today's beta.

Both of Wilfried's suggestions are interesting but would require a significant allocation of development time.

[LitusSaxonicum]

Paul,

I'll go and test it over the weekend.

I suspected that Wilfried's suggestion(s) were difficult, but if you don't mind, I'll keep them onboard on the list.

With regard to the stretchable box, I can't see why it can't be programmed with existing Clearwin graphics features. My favourite application CorelDraw has such a feature. The stretchy box appears with 8 "handles", one on each corner, one on each midside.

I have programmed an example for this which I have put here https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/76596632/Stretchy_box.zip on Dropbox - I can't post the code as it is too long and anyway the code needs 5 cursor resources.

As this isn't a real need of mine, I have left the code in a state where you can pick up a handle and do the appropriate stretching, BUT if you move too fast you drop the handle. I don't know how to fix that, but I suspect it is a matter of perseverance. Secondly, the code relies on setting XOR mode, and while when you draw something on a black background in XOR mode you get the correct colour, when you draw it on white you get the colour complement (I wanted blue for the stretchy box, which works over black, but over white you get yellow!).

As a note for Wilfried, the 8 handles are numbered clockwise from the top left corner. I got the cursors from Vlasta (http://www.rw-designer.com/cursor-set/antialiased-classic).

Eddie

[LitusSaxonicum]

Hi Paul, what am I doing wrong? My first box starts like this:

[LitusSaxonicum]

Wilfried,

I solved the problem of dropping the handles, the revised code is here:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/76596632/W1.for

Eddie

[DanRRight]

My request would be to

- general change: CWP has to align all controls on their bottoms or middle (for %rb) not on top which is already discussed here. That may require serious change in CWP or could be easy and offered as an option, only devs cvan know that

- develop CWP diagnostic tool which will tell the place causing CWP crashes. I am dying with my tricky and complex (and most probably buggy) GUI under Windows 8 right now. being huge and complex and impossible to shorten it conflicts with Win8, or with Win32 limit, or something else. The so called "XP service pack 3 compatibility" and "Run as Admin" helps a bit but after 3-4 successful attempts to open and close some windows the GUI always predictably crashes. So i sometimes compile and leave it with CHECK and crash disappears, but then
reappears again after some non-related changes in the code.

- the OpenGL function which tells about pixel color under the cursor