Designing Views Outside ABC

While the View Manager is easy to use, it is sometimes advantageous to develop your views outside of ABC. An alternate method of designing the interface is to build a textfile external to ABC and use the external View compiler. Once the interface is compiled, it can be imported into ABC and the final touches made. The next sections describe the widgets, their characteristics and the format required to specify them. While the format is case-insensitive, the examples have the keywords in upper case for clarity. As an example, the external specification for the programmer interface is shown below. 

  MAINWINDOW progmain DIMENSIONS 100:100
  { DIALOGBOX progbox AT 0,2 TITLE "Program Box" WORKAREA 
    { MENU actmenu HORIZONTAL
      { PUSHBUTTON exit ICON "Exit" 
        PUSHBUTTON checkpoint ICON "Checkmark" 
        PUSHBUTTON exportAct ICON "directoryIcon" 
        PUSHBUTTON editAct ICON "Edit" 
        PUSHBUTTON doAct ICON "activityIcon" 
        PUSHBUTTON addAct ICON "add" 
        PUSHBUTTON delAct ICON "delete" 
        PUSHBUTTON undelAct ICON "undelete" 
        PUSHBUTTON renameAct ICON "rename" 
      }
      SCROLLEDWINDOW progwin AT 1,22
        DIMENSIONS 1100:700
        SCROLLBAR VERTICAL 
    }
  }

In the following sections, each of the Widget types are described and their syntax specification given.

Dialogbox

A dialogbox is the primary container for other widgets. Almost all the screen objects are dialogboxes which contain pushbuttons, labels, texteditors, listboxes etc. The characteristics of a dialogbox include its label, list of widgets, style (modal, modeless or workarea) and whether input focus should be taken when it appears. A modal dialogbox will appear and not allow other screen activity to occur until it is deleted. A workarea dialogbox typically appears within another dialogbox. The modeless dialogbox is "free-standing" on the screen. The label is only shown for a modeless dialogbox. 


    DIALOGBOX adialog AT 5,5 TITLE "name" MODELESS FOCUS
    { 
    }

The position, title, mode and focus are optional. The mode can be the keyword modeless, modal or workarea.

Label

A label is either text or an icon that is displayed within a dialogbox. It consists of a label which is a string. 


    LABEL alabel AT 5,5 TITLE "test"


            or


    LABEL anicon AT 5,5 ICON "abitmap"

If the ICON keyword is used, the name refers to the bitmap in the directory "/bitmaps".

Listbox

A listbox is a scrollable list of text items. With a listbox you can specify the number of rows in the listbox, its width in pixels. 


    LISTBOX alistbox AT 5,5 WIDTH 140 ROWS 10

Mainwindow

The mainwindow is the first window which appears when ABC is first entered. Designing your own mainwindow allows you to build your own applications using ABC. A mainwindow requires a dimension and a list of widgets which are restricted to a menubar, workarea dialogbox and window. 


    MAINWINDOW amainwindow AT 50,50 DIMENSIONS 500:300 
    {  ... other widgets ...
    }

Menu

A menu is a list of widgets which can be selected. The widgets can be labels, separators, togglebuttons, pushbuttons or pulldownmenus. A menu may be vertical or horizontal as well. 


    MENU aMenu AT 5,5 VERTICAL
    { ... other menu widgets ...
    }

Menubar

A menubar is a horizontal menu for a mainwindow and may consist of pulldownmenus, labels, separators or pushbuttons. 


    MENUBAR amenubar
    { ... other widgets ...
    }

Messagebox

A messagebox is a dialogbox which appears with a message and an ok pushbutton. 


    MESSAGE oops AT 200,200 TITLE "Oops!"

Popupmenu

A popupmenu is a menu which pops up on the screen as the result of a mouse click. It can be vertical or horizontal and can contain the same set of widgets as Menu. 


    POPUPMENU apop VERTICAL
    { ... other widgets ...
    }

Pulldownmenu

A pulldownmenu is a menu which appears as the result of a click on a pulldownmenu item. It consists of a label, may be vertical or horizontal and can contain the same set of widgets as a Menu. 


    PULLDOWNMENU apdm AT 5,5 TITLE "File" VERTICAL 
    { ... other widgets ...
    }

Pushbutton

A pushbutton is an active label. It can be initially inactive and made the default pushbutton. A default pushbutton will be activated when RETURN is pressed in a dialogbox which has a texteditor. Like labels, icons may be specified for pushbuttons. 


    PUSHBUTTON apush AT 120,50 TITLE "OK" INACTIVE DEFAULT

If an icon is desired, use the keyword ICON in place of TITLE. The supplied name will be interpreted as a bitmap name in the ABC directory "/bitmaps". You may optionally supply two bitmaps names separated by a colon. The first bitmap will appear when the pushbutton is not activated and the second when it is as in "closebox:openbox".

Radiobox

A radiobox is a collection of togglebuttons, only one of which can be on at any time. A radiobox may be horizontal or vertical. 


    RADIOBOX arbox AT 5,5 VERTICAL 
    { ... togglebuttons ...
    }

Scale

A scale is a widget which lets the user select a number within a range by sliding a slider on a scale. A scale may be vertical or horizontal, have an initial value and a precision (the number of digits to the right of the decimal). In addition, you can specify the overall dimension of the window surrounding the scale as well as the dimension of the scale itself. Tic marks may be labelled. You can also specify that a drag event be generated when the slider is dragged. 


    SCALE temp AT 5,5 TITLE "Temperature" HORIZONTAL 
      DIMENSIONS 170:50 
      INNER DIMENSIONS 100:10 
      BOUNDS 0:100 
      PRECISION 2 
      INITIAL 50 
      TICS "Cold","Hot" 
      DRAGNOTIFY

Scrollbar

The scrollbar widget lets a user drag a slider along a scrollbar. It may be vertical or horizontal. You can specify the dimensions of the whole slider as well as the scrollbox, the initial value and bounds of the scrollbar. The scrollbar will generate events when a unit increment or decrement occur, a page increment or decrement occur, or when an optional drag event occurs. 


    SCROLLBAR ascroll AT 5,5 VERTICAL 
      DIMENSIONS 20:100
      SLIDERSIZE 10
      INITIAL 50 
      BOUNDS 1:100 
      UNIT 1
      PAGE 10
      DRAGNOTIFY

ScrolledWindow

A scrolledwindow is a graphics window with scrollbars. 

    SCROLLEDWINDOW ascr AT 5,5 
      DIMENSIONS 1000:500
      SCROLLBAR VERTICAL HORIZONTAL
You may specify either vertical or horizontal scrollbars or both.

Separator

A separator is a vertical or horizontal line which may appear in dialogboxes and menus. 


    SEPARATOR asep AT 5,5 VERTICAL LENGTH 100

Texteditor

A texteditor accepts text typed from the keyboard. You may specify whether a vertical scrollbar is present and the rows and columns of the editor. The texteditor will automatically resize when text is entered beyond its original size unless the scrollbar is present. 


    TEXTEDITOR aneditor AT 5,5 SCROLLING COLUMNS 40 ROWS 3

Togglebutton

A togglebutton is a button which is either on or off. Like label it can display an icon as well as text. You may also specify whether it is initially on or off. By default, it is off. 


    TOGGLEBUTTON atog AT 5,5 TITLE "Test" ON
As with pushbuttons, replacing TITLE with ICON will display an icon rather than a checkbox. Supplying two bitmap names separated by a colon will allow you to display the on state with the first bitmap name and the off state with the second as in "onbit:offbit".

VideoWindow

A videowindow will show a motion picture clip in its window. 


    VIDEOWINDOW vw AT 5,5 DIMENSIONS 500:200

Window

A window is the only widget in which you can draw graphics. You must specify its dimensions. 


    WINDOW awindow AT 5,5 DIMENSIONS 200:300

Compiling Views

Enter your view definitions in a textfile and then issue the "abcwcomp" command to compile. For example, if you entered the view definitions in the file 'example.db' you would compile it with: 

    % abcwcomp example.db

If the view was correctly specified, the file 'example.asm' will be generated. This can then be imported into ABC and manipulated (see the Chapter on System mode). Of course, if there are errors, the compiler will list them and you may correct them.