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From: rosenkra@convex.com (William Rosencranz)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st.tech
Subject: Re: Closing AES boxes interfering with VDI drawing
Keywords: redraw timing
Message-ID: <111330@convex.convex.com>
Date: 15 Dec 90 04:46:29 GMT
References: <9267@ncar.ucar.edu> <1990Nov29.145734.1059@chinet.chi.il.us> <27569349.8114@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca>
Sender: news@convex.com
Organization: Convex Computer Corporation; Richardson, TX
Lines: 46

In article <27569349.8114@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca> johns@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca (Conan the Barbarian) writes:
>>>[ has a problem with dialog boxes ]
>
>	From my experience, the sequence goes like this.
>
>1. Build the dialog box via a RCS-like prog or by hand
>2. Center it on the screen with form_center() [ or if you want to, fill in
>   the x,y,w,h fields in the structure manually ]
>3. Call form_dial( FMD_START, ... ) to reserve some screen space
>4. Call form_dial( FMD_GROW, ... ) to draw a growing box [ optional ]
>5. Call objc_draw( ) to actually draw it on the screen
>6. Call form_do( ) to let the AES handle the dialog.  
>7. When you get control back again, call form_dial( FMD_SHRINK, ... )
>8. Call form_dial( FMD_FINISH, ... ) to free up screen space

this is the "normal" way of doing it, but it does have limitations. i think
the max dialog size is 1/4 the screen as that is all the memory form_dial
deals with. i may be wrong here, though...

there is a better way, at least i use it:

1) as above
2) save ALL the screen to a 32000 byte buffer
3) objc_draw anywhere u like
4) form_do as above, in a loop while (!exit_condition)
5) on exit, restore the entire screen from the buffer

you don't get the (silly?) growbox/shrink box (my beta testers told me to
ax them on some code i produced a while back).

this allows you to draw dialogs as big as the screen. the screen save/redraw
is virtually instantaneous. users have the need for speed. u can also draw
the dialog anywhere (on the screen makes most sense, though i think it is
possible to draw it off screen and clip to the screen - i actually think
i needed to do this once, but don't quote me).

u get the screen location from Physbase or Logbase calls (forget which).
i think vro_cpyfm is what i use to copy the screen, though tight loop
copying longs should work, too. jeez, it's been a while...

-bill
rosenkra@convex.com

--
Bill Rosenkranz            |UUCP: {uunet,texsun}!convex!c1yankee!rosenkra
Convex Computer Corp.      |ARPA: rosenkra%c1yankee@convex.com