utils/dialoged/docs/body.tex

   1 \chapter{Introduction}\label{introduction}
   2 \pagenumbering{arabic}%
   3 \setheader{{\it CHAPTER \thechapter}}{}{}{}{}{{\it CHAPTER \thechapter}}%
   4 \setfooter{\thepage}{}{}{}{}{\thepage}%
   5
   6 The wxWindows Dialog Editor is a tool for creating dialog resource files, in {\tt .wxr} format.
   7 It differs from wxBuilder in the following respectes:
   8
   9 \begin{enumerate}\itemsep=0pt
  10 \item Scope. It is written for dialog editing only, and is therefore more convenient than wxBuilder for this purpose.
  11 \item File format. Dialog editor reads and writes wxWindows resource files (extension {\tt .wxr}) and has
  12 no independent file format.
  13 \item Robustness. It is written in a more principled way than wxBuilder, and is less ambitious.
  14 \item Ease of use. Windows are edited using the mouse or via consistent {\it property editors}, which
  15 provide immediate visual feedback of changed properties.
  16 \end{enumerate}
  17
  18 Dialog Editor 2.0 should be compiled and used with wxWindows 2.0.
  19
  20 \section{Current status}
  21
  22 Dialog Editor currently runs under wxMSW and wxGTK. It has yet to
  23 be tested under wxMotif.
  24
  25 \section{Future developments}
  26
  27 \begin{itemize}\itemsep=0pt
  28 \item Motif compilation.
  29 \item It would be nice to have a dialog browser, showing thumbnails of
  30 all dialogs in a particular directory.
  31 \item Maybe add a menubar editor (from wxBuilder).
  32 \item Maybe convert Windows .rc files.
  33 \end{itemize}
  34
  35 \chapter{Commands}\label{commands}
  36 \setheader{{\it CHAPTER \thechapter}}{}{}{}{}{{\it CHAPTER \thechapter}}%
  37 \setfooter{\thepage}{}{}{}{}{\thepage}%
  38
  39 \section{Dialog editor menu bar}
  40
  41 \subsection{File menu}
  42
  43 \begin{twocollist}\itemsep=0pt
  44 \twocolitem{New Dialog}{Creates a new dialog resource.}
  45 \twocolitem{New Project}{Creates a new project (clears index and resets project name).}
  46 \twocolitem{Open...}{Opens an existing resource file.}
  47 \twocolitem{Save}{Saves the current resources.}
  48 \twocolitem{Save As...}{Saves the current resources in a named file.}
  49 \twocolitem{Clear}{Clears the current resources.}
  50 \twocolitem{Convert Old Resources...}{Takes a directory of wxWindows 1.68 dialog resources,
  51 and converts them to wxWindows 2 resources, in a separate directory. See
  52 \helpref{Converting old files}{convertingoldfiles}.}
  53 \twocolitem{Exit}{Exits the program.}
  54 \end{twocollist}
  55
  56 \subsection{Edit menu}
  57
  58 \begin{twocollist}\itemsep=0pt
  59 \twocolitem{Test Dialog}{Creates the current dialog for test purposes.}
  60 \twocolitem{Recreate}{Recreates the currently selected control from the underlying resource. This may be necessary
  61 to regenerate items that cannot be changed dynamically, and which have got out of sync with the displayed
  62 item.}
  63 \twocolitem{Delete}{Deletes the currently selected resource.}
  64 \end{twocollist}
  65
  66 \subsection{Help menu}
  67
  68 \begin{twocollist}\itemsep=0pt
  69 \twocolitem{Help Topics}{Displays on-line help at the contents page.}
  70 \twocolitem{About}{Displays an dialog showing the Dialog Editor version and author.}
  71 \end{twocollist}
  72
  73 \latexonly{\newpage}
  74 \section{Command toolbar}
  75
  76 The command toolbar consists of the following tools:
  77
  78 \begin{twocollist}%\itemsep=0pt
  79 \twocolitem{\icon{new.eps}{New}}{Clears the project.}
  80 \twocolitem{\icon{open.eps}{Open}}{Opens an existing resource file.}
  81 \twocolitem{\icon{save.eps}{Save}}{Saves the current resources.}
  82 \twocolitem{\icon{vert.eps}{Horizontal align}}{Aligns the centre of the selected controls horizontally.}
  83 \twocolitem{\icon{alignt.eps}{Horizontal top-align}}{Aligns the top sides of the selected controls horizontally.}
  84 \twocolitem{\icon{alignb.eps}{Horizontal bottom-align}}{Aligns the bottom sides of the selected controls horizontally.}
  85 \twocolitem{\icon{horiz.eps}{Vertical align}}{Aligns the centre of the selected controls vertically.}
  86 \twocolitem{\icon{alignl.eps}{Vertical left-align}}{Aligns the left sides of the selected controls vertically.}
  87 \twocolitem{\icon{alignr.eps}{Vertical right-align}}{Aligns the right sides of the selected controls vertically.}
  88 \twocolitem{\icon{copysize.eps}{Copy size}}{Copies the size of the first selected control to the subsequently selected control(s).}
  89 \twocolitem{\icon{copywdth.eps}{Copy width}}{Copies the width of the first selected control to the subsequently selected control(s).}
  90 \twocolitem{\icon{copyhght.eps}{Copy height}}{Copies the height of the first selected control to the subsequently selected control(s).}
  91 \twocolitem{\icon{disthor.eps}{Distribute horizontally}}{Evenly distributes the space between the selected controls, horizontally. Note that the controls
  92 should be selected in order from left to right.}
  93 \twocolitem{\icon{distvert.eps}{Distribute vertically}}{Evenly distributes the space between the selected controls, vertically. Note that the controls
  94 should be selected in order from top to bottom.}
  95 \twocolitem{\icon{tofront.eps}{To front}}{Puts the selected control(s) to the front of the display list.}
  96 \twocolitem{\icon{toback.eps}{To back}}{Puts the selected control(s) to the back of the display list.}
  97 \twocolitem{\icon{help.eps}{Help}}{Invokes Dialog Editor help.}
  98 \end{twocollist}
  99
 100 \latexonly{\newpage}
 101 \section{Tool palette}
 102
 103 The tool palette is used to select a type of control to create on the dialog.
 104 To create a new control, select a tool with left-click, then left-click on the dialog.
 105 Select the pointer tool to use left-click for selecting and deselecting
 106 items.
 107
 108 \section{Resource tree}
 109
 110 The resource tree shows a list of the dialogs, controls and bitmaps currently loaded
 111 in Dialog Editor. Double-clicking on an item shows the associated resource.
 112
 113 \chapter{Procedures}\label{procedures}
 114 \setheader{{\it CHAPTER \thechapter}}{}{}{}{}{{\it CHAPTER \thechapter}}%
 115 \setfooter{\thepage}{}{}{}{}{\thepage}%
 116
 117 \section{Running Dialog Editor}
 118
 119 To run Dialog Editor under Windows, click on the Program Manager or Explorer icon.
 120 Under UNIX, run from the command line.
 121
 122 The main window shows a menu bar, command toolbar, tool palette, resource list, and
 123 status line.
 124
 125 \section{Creating a dialog}
 126
 127 To create a new dialog, click on the {\bf File: New} menu item, or equivalent
 128 toolbar button. A dialog will appear. To put a control on the dialog, left-click
 129 on the appropriate palette icon and then left-click on the dialog. A new item
 130 will appear at the place you clicked.
 131
 132 You can edit any control or dialog by control-left clicking. A property editor
 133 will appear, allowing any property to be selected and edited (see \helpref{Using property editors}{propeditors}).
 134 You can also edit items by right-clicking to show a menu, and then selecting {\it Edit properties}.
 135
 136 To move a control, drag the item with the left mouse button, or edit
 137 the position values in the property editor. To resize a control, you
 138 can either select it by left-clicking and then dragging on a selection
 139 handle, or edit the size values in the property editor.
 140
 141 You can delete items from the right-click menu, or by selecting the item and
 142 choosing {\bf Edit: Delete} from the menu bar.
 143
 144 \section{Using property editors}\label{propeditors}
 145
 146 Property editors consist of a list of properties and current values, plus controls at the top of
 147 the editor. If the property is of an appropriate type, you can edit the value directly in the
 148 text field, and confirm or cancel the value using the two buttons to the left of it.
 149 If the property has a predefined range of values, such as labelFontFamily, you can
 150 see a list of permissable values by clicking on the button labelled with an ellipsis symbol ({\bf ...}).
 151 This will show a listbox with possible values and current selection. You may also be able
 152 to cycle through values by double-clicking the value in the listbox.
 153
 154 Properties may have special editors appropriate to the type. Filename properties invoke
 155 the file selector, and properties containing list of user-definable strings use a
 156 string editor.
 157
 158 When you change a property value, this value is immediately reflected in
 159 the dialog or control.  If the item allows this value to be changed
 160 dynamically, the relevant wxWindows function will be called internally
 161 to effect the change.  If the value cannot be changed dynamically, the
 162 item will be destroyed and re-created, which means that there will be
 163 more flickering associated with some kinds of property changes than
 164 others.
 165
 166 \section{Saving and loading files}
 167
 168 Use {\it File: Save} and {\it File: Save as} or the equivalent toolbar button
 169 to save the current dialog(s) in a wxWindows resource file (extension {\tt .wxr}).
 170
 171 The {\tt .wxr} file can be used directly in a wxWindows program, if
 172 wxWindows resources have been enabled when building the wxWindows library.
 173 These files can be loaded dynamically, or included directly into program source
 174 with a \verb$#include$ directive. See the wxWindows user manual for further details.
 175
 176 \section{Working with identifiers}
 177
 178 Dialog Editor keeps track of identifiers in your resources, and reads and writes an include file of the
 179 form {\tt name.h} where 'name' is the root name of your {\tt .wxr} file. Dialog Editor
 180 knows about the predefined identifiers such as wxID\_OK.
 181
 182 When you create a dialog or control, the identifier is initially generated. When you
 183 edit the identifier via a property editor, you can choose a new name, such as a predefined
 184 symbol and optionally change the integer assigned to the name (assuming it's not a
 185 predefined symbol).
 186
 187 When you save the project, the identifier include file is saved as well. Include this file
 188 in your project so that you can refer to controls and dialogs by identifier rather than
 189 obscure integers. Note that the {\tt .wxr} file itself can only contain integer ids and not the symbols,
 190 due to way in which the resource file is loaded.
 191
 192 \section{Multi-platform development}
 193
 194 {\tt .wxr} files generated on one environment (e.g. Windows) can be used in another (e.g. GTK).
 195 If you use default fonts and colouring (set {\bf useSystemDefaults} to True in the dialog properties)
 196 then the dialog fonts and colours will take on the native values, rather than ones specified in the
 197 resource. Without this, colours in the dialog resource may not match system colours.
 198
 199 Also, set {\bf useDialogUnits} to True whenever possible since this will cause the dialog
 200 to be created using a scale based on the current system font size, and will result in dialogs that are
 201 portable between screen resolutions as well as platforms.
 202
 203 Because the same control can have different sizes on different GUIs,
 204 the user should be cautious in assuming that one resource file will work for all
 205 platforms. It may be better to plan to conditionally include or load different
 206 resource files for different platforms, with spacing modified to suit each
 207 environment. The best thing is to try your dialog resource on several platforms
 208 and see whether tweaking is required for some platforms.
 209
 210 \section{Converting old files}\label{convertingoldfiles}
 211
 212 Dialog Editor can make an attempt at converting dialog resources created with Dialog Editor for wxWindows 1.68.
 213 The command is {\bf Convert Old Resources...} on the {\bf File} menu.
 214
 215 You need to specify two directories, an input and an output directory. Dialog Editor will
 216 do the following conversions:
 217
 218 \begin{enumerate}\itemsep=0pt
 219 \item wxMultiText becomes a wxTextCtrl with wxTE\_MULTILINE style.
 220 \item wxText becomes a wxTextCtrl.
 221 \item wxMessage becomes either a wxStaticText or wxStaticBitmap.
 222 \item wxButton becomes a wxBitmapButton if necessary.
 223 \item wxGroupBox becomes wxStaticBox.
 224 \item Controls that no longer have labels, such as wxTextCtrl and wxListBox,
 225 have a separate wxStaticText control created for them at approximately the correct
 226 position. The label's window name becomes ControlName_Label where ControlName is
 227 the name of the control that formerly had the label.
 228 \item Identifiers are allocated.
 229 \item Font sizes are reduced to counter the decreased font size now created by wxWindows
 230 for a given point size.
 231 \item The dialog height is reduced slightly to compensate for the fact that the dialog caption
 232 is no longer included in the size.
 233 \end{enumerate}
 234