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rather, a wafer thin widget.

Perhaps you're using a fixed version of rebgui?

Yep, chalk that up as another thing fixed in 0.3.5. ;) The wafer 
thin dragger is still a problem though.

When items are placed at absolute positions, they don't resize.  

So, how about we do a 

at 50%x30%  ??

Not so much an absolute positioning problem as a by-product of RebGUI's 
simplistic resizing model. Compare:

	display "" [field #WH field #WH return field #WH field #WH]

with:

	display "" [field #H field #WH return field #Y field #YW]


This limitation is by design so won't be changing any time soon (I 
tend to design GUIs that conform to it naturally ... but that may 
be just me ;) )

How do I right-align the text in a field?

The area widget, like text-list, should have a slider that appears 
as needed. Hope to have that in the next build.

The action associated with the first tab of a tab-panel does not 
fire when first viewed ... wonder if that should be the case.

Is there a way to alter the spacing vertically in a check-group? 
 It doesn't respond to space nxn ...

Latest build available at: http://www.dobeash.com/files/RebGUI-035.zip

Issue log: http://www.dobeash.com/it/rebgui/issues.html


*** Unzip this file into your existing RebGUI 0.3.0 distribution. 
Requires View 1.3.1 ***

Highlights include:


 - generic face-iterator function shared by all lists (text-list, 
 table, edit-list & drop-list)

 - new improved table widget finally supporting row (including multiple) 
 selection

 - updated drop-list & edit-list widgets (defocusing support still 
 limited though)
	- area widget now sports a slider by default

 - resizing code (supporting negative sizes) reverted to pre-0.3.4

 - IMPORTANT: resizeable windows that don't have min-size specified 
 are automatically assigned one the same as the original window size
	- Various multi-row text selection issues resolved
	- Various focus issues resolved
	- numerous other minor bug fixes and coding improvements

In the works

	- basic menu widget
	- revamped documentation 
	- stabilize existing code-base for 0.4.0 beta release

I want to scroll the pane within a tab panel.  It's the 7th tab. 
 I can find the tab itself

tp2/pane/8/offset/x: 

but what is the path to the panel face ?

Something like this:

display "" [
	t: tab-panel data ["A" [field] "b" [field]]
	return
	button "<" [t/pane/1/offset/x: t/pane/1/offset/x - 10 show t]
	button ">" [t/pane/1/offset/x: t/pane/1/offset/x + 10 show t]
]

I've got about 80 check boxes on one tab panel scattered through 
a number of group checkboxes ... need to clear them in one hit. 
Need some way to run thru all the checkboxes and reset them.

Perhaps the 'clear-text accessor function can generalised to a clear-face 
function ?

Graham, I think a clear-widget accessor (with a "/default value" 
refinement) would make a good addition.

What do feel about adding a right mb click to tables ?  Just thinking 
of way to remove items from tables.

Sounds reasonable. What about a double-click action as well? I was 
thinking of expanding the layout parsing rules such that *any* widget 
could be specified as:


 widget [default left-click action] [default right-click action] [default 
 double-click action]

but I'm not sure whether this is overkill or not.

It also means we have a cleaner screen .. fewer widgets to clutter 
it up to do the things we need to do with tables ie. add, remove, 
elements

Another wish for tables .. a way to set the colour of a row, which 
is controlled programmatically.  So, you might have a table of messages 
in your inbox, some of which you have read ( one colour ), and those 
to be read ( another colour ).

tabbing does not seem to work between fields in a modal window.

the docs says that display has a /layout refinement, but it doesn't.

Looks like the layout is not parsed correctly when you specify a 
modal layout with /dialog

Should <CR> act the same way as tab in shifting focus ?
Should tab also fire an action associated with a field ?

display "" [ group-box 60x20 "Test" data [ a: field 40 [ show-focus 
f]] return group-box 60x20 "Test2" data
[ f: field 40 ]] do-events
** Script Error: Cannot use path on none! value
** Where: edit-text

** Near: if all [tmp/x < 0 tmp2/x < 0] [face/para/scroll/x: tmp2/x 
- tmp/x]
tmp3:


After typing a few times in the top field, and then hitting enter, 
the error above can occur.

Simulate a click, as in:

	button "change" [
		sexfld/pane/2/feel/engage sexfld/pane/2 'down none
	]


but long-term this needs to be handled by a generic show-widget function. 
Other points above have been noted. ;)

Latest build available at: http://www.dobeash.com/files/RebGUI-036.zip

Issue log: http://www.dobeash.com/it/rebgui/issues.html


*** Unzip this file into your existing RebGUI 0.3.0 distribution. 
Requires View 1.3.1 ***

Highlights include:

	- All widgets now support alt-action & dbl-action blocks

 - Table & Text-list widgets now have a selected function to access 
 selected data directly

 - New clear-widget accessor function to handle setting values within 
 iterated faces
	- Added a clear-text accessor function
	- Documentation updated to reflect above changes
	- Number of minor bug fixes

In the works

	- revamped focus system
	- basic menu widget
	- context menu widget
	- stabilize existing code-base for 0.4.0 beta release

display "" [ group-box 60x20 "Test" data [ a: field 40 [ show-focus 
f]] return group-box 60x20 "Test2" data
[ f: field 40 ]] do-events


type abcd in the top field, hit enter.  Type abc in the bottom field, 
and hit enter.  Then hilite all the chars in the top field, enter 
a single character, and hit enter.  

** Script Error: Cannot use path on none! value
** Where: edit-text

** Near: if all [tmp/x < 0 tmp2/x < 0] [face/para/scroll/x: tmp2/x 
- tmp/x]
tmp3:
>>

This is version 3.6

What we need is a key logger to record all the keystrokes so we can 
easily duplicate these errrors.  Took me  a few mins to duplicate 
it.

Can clear-widget also be made to take a block of faces

should clear-text be generalised to also clear the rows of a text-list 
and table ?

Focus question. Given that CR and Tab should fire a field's action; 
should loss of focus due to mouse click do the same (i.e. should 
clicking in field1 then field2 cause field1's action to fire)?

Me too. Suppose the clicked face is a "save". That would expect all 
the fields to be entered, means fired.

Compare these two:

display/dialog "" [ f: field return p: password  ] do-events

and 


display/dialog "" [ f: field return password do [ show-focus f] ] 
do-events


Adding the show-focus adds a cursor to the password field as well.

The problems is how to do the feedback on input errors. This may 
have to be customized for a given program. I kept it simple and just 
made it beep :-)

My tentative design concept for field level validation at the moment 
is to allow a block of REBOL data types to be specified, such as:

	field options [integer! decimal! none!]


with invalid input changing the field color and not allowing focus 
to leave. Successful validation would restore field color and place 
the loaded face/text contents in face/data. Haven't thought about 
min / max lengths, although an empty field would be treated as none! 
so null / not null is handled by default.


The password suggestion is a good idea, perhaps a min/max length 
option and a 'dict option that ensures the password contains no spaces 
and does not appear in the currently loaded dictionary?

ie. the rule can be defined by the user, and the gui allows us to 
specify a rule.

If you make the rules that complex, I think there should be a way 
to give custom feedback, like displaying an error message

Which is indeed very flexible, but data types would be a good default

There's a problem with money, though, because the REBOL 1'000 syntax 
is not the human 1.000/1,000 way

(Not that there isn't always a problem with money ;-)

My thought is to have two parse rules -- one evaluated on keypress, 
the other on exit (of field).  The exit parse rule would be strict, 
the keypress one would allow for partially completed entry, but denies 
a keypress that fails the rule.  The two parse rules could be passed 
as arguments or created from a dialect?

Working on a number of 'layout fixes and adding support for a "return-after 
n" type keyword that should reduce the number of 'return's used in 
certain types of displays.

I'm using code like the following quite often now:

	display join settings/file " Summary" compose/only [
		...

  records: table 90x25 #W options ["Date" right .4 "User" left .2 "Description" 
  left .4] data (

   sql compose [select [date user description] from sys_records where 
   (id) order by date desc]
		) [
			;	set record path
			record-path: dirize join file-path first face/selected
			...
		]
	...
	]


The table widget is now very DB friendly. I haven't had a need for 
a grid widget, but then again my apps don't require spreadsheet type 
functionality.

Column resizing and sorting now work correctly. In addition a number 
of useful accessor functions exist to more easily manage the data. 
From the online doco:

5.24 Table


Columns and rows of values formatted according to a header definition 
block.

Specification
 	action	block to execute when an item is selected. 	
 	data 	block of values. 	

  options 	Optional multi word followed by column header entries in 
  the form: 	
		string specifying column title
		word specifying column alignment
		decimal specifying column width as a percentage

Runtime
 	data 	block of values to display. 	
 	picked 	block of currently selected row number(s). 	
 	selected 	block of currently selected data. 	
 	redraw 	function to redraw widget after data changes.

is there a multicolumn text list? Btw - why Carl did not check-in 
his updated and better list style as from VID 1.3 older IOS initiative 
for 1.3?

table still needs a lot of work imo .... when you select record, 
move down by arrow down - when hilighted-row reaches the bottom, 
it does not cause srolling and row hilighting vanishes ...

Thanks, that and table still need a few minor aesthetic improvements 
but the base functionality is pretty solid.

Haven't come across that one before. When it's happened was there 
anything in common between occurrences (I'm assuming its too sporadic 
for a reproducible test case)?

No plans with 'get-text, unless it was to do something over and above 
what face/text does (i.e. trim then show).


The alert problem is related to RebGUI's liberal use of hide-popup 
to cope with drop-lists and edit-lists that need to be closed when 
another one is opened. I figured at the time that having more than 
one non-modal dialog open at the same time probably didn't make much 
sense - although an alert from within one is a valid case [in hindsight].

I just noticed that you can't initialise the data in a table with 
a copy [], but you have to 'clear it instead.

table/data: copy []
append table/data [ ... ]
table/redraw 

does not work

but 
clear table/data
append table/data [ ....]
table/redraw 

does work

Ashley, can we fix it so we can allow alerts within a modal window?

The other thing ( small ) is that rows from a database are normally 
returned like this


[ [ .... ] [.... ] ] whereas table expects it's data like [ ............... 
]

we have to flatten it before sending it to the table.

Alert ... to be fixed.


Table data is normally changed with "insert clear data [...]" - this 
optimization needs to be documented.


The table data representation shows my bias towards a simple flat 
structure and is compatible with RebDB (representing each row as 
a block makes sense for small volumes of data but is wasteful once 
sizable numbers of rows are being managed).

Good observations, keep them coming. ;)

I guess the slight problem with a flat structure is that you have 
more interdepencies in the code


With a flat structure, I have to know that there are 4 elements in 
each row

row: skip face/data first face/picked - 1 * 4

Whereas with blocks for rows I can do this instead

row: skip face/data first face/picked - 1

From my experience with Cyphre's table style, it makes sense to use 
a name/value block for the data. With this you can throw a block 
in any order and even one, that has more fields than being displayed. 
The latter makes a lot of sense if you just want to get back an internal 
ID.

Also, when removing rows from a table, you have to remove each item 
in a row, rather than just the one block

One problem is sorting; You need to extract the row you need to use 
for sorting, create the sorting sequence and rebuild the block. Or 
is there a faster way?

How does I detect a close event in the main window so I can do a 
clean up ?

Not easy at the moment. This probably needs to be a refinement handler 
block like scroll.

As I already said, it is imo insufficient or even let's say incorrect 
to base field validation upon rebol datatypes. As we can't have our 
own datatypes, those available are just some kind of primitives, 
not of much of a use ...

Back in old DOS days, with tools we worked with, we had following 
available:


1) VTG (Variable To Get) function - you could specify VTG$("AB"), 
and user was able to only enter A or B letter, nothing more - we 
used it to limit letters for floppy disk access


2) we had system of field-masks .... e.g. tel-number: (999) - 999 
999 - then all non num chars were displayed in field, you could not 
delete them, they were skipped, and you was only able to write numbers 
.... if you wanted to allow chars, you used "X" insted of "9". Pretty 
powerfull concept - not too much complicated, and allowing you to 
limit bugs ppl can enter ...

I don't know how to do it best in REBOL, maybe a mask dialect, or 
directly a parse block? That is upon clever heads here :-)

One of the most difficult fields was date entry field 99.99.9999, 
with VO we had three or more implementations. Native one pretty sucked 
- it is all about what chars you allow, what happens if you press 
tab, del, how is field hilighted by default, what part is hilighted, 
if your backspace key deleting letters stops at dot or not etc ec. 
With date field - do you want to allow user to enter any number? 
67 or other number is surely not a good day-number, is it? :-) Now 
do you want to disallow user to type nonsense directly? How do you 
know without linking it to calendar? Or do you do your validation 
when leaving your field? Some ppl do validation once per form, e.g. 
when you try to press "Save" button (not my preferred way, at least 
for some field-types, but some do prefer that) ...

I don't want to complicte the whole thing - but if you are about 
to add some functionality - first answer to yourself some of above 
questions - because semi-functional solution is not a solution for 
me and in that case it is just becoming a bloatware, which sooner 
or later, will be replaced by custom solutions, as ppl simply will 
need above functionality. And the worst possible thing is, if your 
solution does not allow to be replaced in an easy way ...

Some of those are philosphical questions about application design 
/ user interface.

For example, I have one application that permits things like "Not 
sure, maybe next tuesday. must ask Bob" in a date field.

That's perfectly valid until they click the "publish" button. Then 
we need a real date. So *private* data conforms to their rules; *public* 
conforms to ours.

*Some* validation can only happen after the event -- unless you enforce 
the order in which fields are completed. And even then it's not always 
possible.

May you need some lightweight masks for simple things. Plus the ability 
to skip off to a tailored validation function for the more awkward 
stuff.

Is a zip code an integer! or string! Is a password field string! 
or integer!  ?

Good questions.....A zio code format depends on the country....even 
if you switch masks vy country name, the country name may be entered 
after the zip code.

You'll only handle that correctly with post-form completion validation.

in some ways you have to implement a mini editor for the field.  
prevent scrolling. skip over characters.

Back again regarding the data format for tables, sometimes I want 
to include a database key in the data without displaying it.  So, 
it might the 3rd element in a row where there are only two columns 
displayed.  With a flat data spec, I can not do this.

Also, I don't know if this is intended, but if you manage to click 
on the arrow in a table header, nothing happens.  to sort, you have 
to avoid the arrow.

show-focus highlights all the text in a field. Wonder if better to 
just show the cursor at the end.

Note the following user-configurable blocks under ctx-rebgui/edit:

	tabbed: [area field edit-list password button]

	hilight-on-focus: [field edit-list]

	caret-on-focus: [area field edit-list password]

	action-on-enter: [field edit-list password]


But its probably a good idea to agree on the "correct" default behaviour 
anyway.

If you do a show-text area {some rather large text},and then do a 
show-text area with small text, the small text appears at the bottom 
of the area field.  If you then click on the area field, it moves 
to the top.

Should a double click also fire the single click action ?

It does by default as a double-click generates two 'down actions 
with the latter having event/double-click = true. This is usually 
a good thing anyway as (in the case of lists with a highlight bar) 
double-clicking a new entry automatically triggers the default single-click 
action (highlight a new row) plus the double-click action we are 
interested in trapping.

Version 1.3.1.3.1 has /keep. Is it in a newer version?

Had to increase width to account for longer three letter day abbreviations 
(previous version used two letters), but having each cell being a 
square yielded too much white space (especially when the last row 
has no entries in it). "<" and "<<" buttons will eventually be replaced 
with SVG icons when support for that is added.

Ashleny, just wondering how complex a GUI you've managed to build 
with the current version.

Graham, I've messaged you privately. When I get back from the DevCon 
(November 1st) I'll put some screen-shots of some of my commercial 
apps up. Maybe a demo or two as well.

I'm setting a radio-group using the following code

field/pane/2/feel/engage field/pane/:value 'down none


The radio group appears in a pane, and if I display that pane first, 
then there is no problem.  But if I try it before I display the pane 
containing the radio-group, I get this error.

I suspect that a value is being initialised only on showing it, when 
it should be initialised with the display function.

Anyone working on a toggle widget ?

Can i ask anybody: is anyone working on a witget GRID (or similar 
- for example: text-list with more(multi) columns)?

How is that different from a table widget ?

So table widget doesn't have a cursor to mark selected row..

the options word "multi" allows you to select more than one row at 
a time.

was it discussed here before? Why recent Rebgui version takes 15MB? 
Playing a bit with demo and it is now 19,5MB after few minutes of 
usage ...

I made some improvements in the list-view widget for rebgui  ^^ Now 
dynamc widget changes impact on data to be drawn (so when you change 
the state of a checkbox this impacts on the stored data) I make a 
generic callback funtion to allow ppl to save list data into a file 
 on changes. I make some estetical changes too 
I hope you will apreciate it  ^^

it's been a while since i don't get internet connection so I hope 
it works fine with rebgui  0.37

shadwolf, do you know how to remove a tab dynamically from a tabbed-panel, 
and also how to add tabs dynamically?

row  adding row is mutch more easyer than handleling column ... To 
skip column we have several way to do this ...  one or just estetical 
and doesn't impact upon internal datas and other are about impacting 
uppon internal datas structure then provoc a redraw

List view is  thinked like a rendering engine you give to it a stutured 
list of datas then you get it on screen

so you modify the datas structure (internal datas) then make a show 
listview-var1  to make the changes applyed on screen

I give a very simple sample of this in the list-view052.r script

but then you must treat not only the countainer but the content too 
on allocation that's obvious but on disallocation it can be a nightmare 
to handle could be interresting to make a recursiv short cut to  
disalocate things

I'm having a lot of problems typing into an area field.  The cursor 
will jump to the bottom of the screen when I'm typing in the middle 
:(

and if editing text, and text wraps, then enter a space, cursor jumps 
to end.

that does a focus and changes caret? i tested, the messing with /caret 
is in show.

yes this is a upg version you need 0.31 tu make it work (images, 
dicionary,translation=) etc