upcomming tool [glayout]
[1/4] from: maximo:meteorstudios at: 2-Mar-2004 10:21
hi everyone,
just tought I'd let you all in on glayout.
Its an integration of the core functionality of the second-generation glass layout engine
RIGHT INTO VID :-)
this will let you build uis based on the nested row/column layout mechanism. everything
resizes when the window is resized, and it will even prevent the window from resizing
to larger than it needs. horizontal and vertical are treated independently, but every
feature added is always available in both, as I have built the engine over a coordinate(x/y)
abstraction layer.
here is an example source code:
;-----------------------------
rebol []
slim/open 'glayout 0.9
win: glayout [
vgroup [
button "load"
button "save"
hgroup [
text "name:"
field
]
hgroup [
text "job:"
field
] ]
]
gview win
;-----------------------------
there is no limit to nesting depth and all items have seperate default and minimum sizes.
the basic layout differentiation is that some vid elements benefit from stretching and
some dont. whenever a ui is stretched ABOVE the default size, then elastic faces get
that extra space based on their elastic weight.
The thing I worked on hard is to allow shriking to be smart.
When there is LESS than the default size, it shrinks all faces down to their minimum
and always leaves the rest of the shrinking to other faces which still have shrinking
space. Only once all non-elastic faces are to their minimum do the elastic faces start
shrinking. this is to keep any space hungry faces as large as possible all the time.
trying to shrink the window below its minumum size actualy resizes it to its minimum
size (eventually, scrollers will be added).
I'll be releasing this on rebol.org as a slim module, when I've finished updating the
rebol.org package downloader (which uses it), sometime this week(-end?).
-MAx
[2/4] from: andreas:bolka:gmx at: 2-Mar-2004 17:29
Tuesday, March 2, 2004, 4:21:34 PM, Maxim wrote:
> just tought I'd let you all in on glayout.
> Its an integration of the core functionality of the
> second-generation glass layout engine RIGHT INTO VID :-)
> this will let you build uis based on the nested row/column layout
> mechanism.
sounds interesting. if you know a bit about java i'd suggest having a
look on jgoodies forms (http://www.jgoodies.com/freeware/forms/) which
is by far the best layout engine i've ever worked with. may be
inspiring ...
--
Best regards,
Andreas
[3/4] from: maximo::meteorstudios::com at: 2-Mar-2004 12:03
jgoodies seems nice!!!.
It goes a long way towards what glass is meant to be when finished.
My current design problem, is with regards to the new glass dialect. I wonder how I
can make it so that the general concept of "styles" is kept, since we've all been so
spoiled by its ease of use.
WRT Glayout:
It already handles the actual layout in much the same manner as jgoodies seems to do
it, without fluff. :-)
I just need to get the VID styles to use it... most, if not all, of them can be mapped
quite quickly. I just need to expand the style which includes one of several prebuilt
'with blocs.
What glayout is missing is margin/spacing/padding/universal_skins/locale/drag&drop/scaling/custom
titlebar/etc.
I'm keeping that for the real Glass layout engine.
I just thought that if glayout can get some of your addicted to this very convenient
way of building
GUIs then all the better. Glayout is simple and quick!
I might add my (vid 1.2.1 complient) pop-up menu to glayout, if it benefits the downloader
in any way.
-MAx
---
You can either be part of the problem or part of the solution, but in the end, being
part of the problem is much more fun.
[4/4] from: greggirwin:mindspring at: 2-Mar-2004 10:12
Hi Andreas,
AB> sounds interesting. if you know a bit about java i'd suggest having a
AB> look on jgoodies forms (http://www.jgoodies.com/freeware/forms/) which
AB> is by far the best layout engine i've ever worked with. may be
AB> inspiring ...
Might have to look into that. The Mullet and Sano book they reference
is probably my most valued UI-related book.
-- Gregg