Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!thunder.mcrcim.mcgill.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!bloom-beacon!eru!hagbard!sunic!liuida!prosys!ath From: ath@prosys.se (Anders Thulin) Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.programmer Subject: Re: TCXL problems (was: shareware C graphical windowing library need Message-ID: <698@helios.prosys.se> Date: 5 Jan 91 10:52:49 GMT References: <694@helios.prosys.se> Organization: Telesoft AB, Teknikringen 2A, S-583 30 Linkoping, Sweden Lines: 45 In article greg@turbo.atl.ga.us writes: >ath@prosys.se (Anders Thulin) writes: >> The file I miss is <_TcxlVid.h>. [ ... ] > It should be in there. It's in the registered distribution, and I have > no idea why it shouldn't be in the shareware distribution. There are a few odd things about the SIMTEL copy. The TCXL-LIB.EXE is called TCXL_L.EXE and has a different date than the other files. Perhaps the uploader repacked the distribution and missed a few things. >> The documentation doesn't look too good either. There's much of it, >> but it isn't complete, nor easy to use, mostly due to lack of an >> index. [ ... ] > Check the appendixes. Those defines should be in Appendix C. Most of the > stuff is fairly self-explanatory. MNU_VER - vertical menu, ITM_PUL - > pull-down menu attached. There are also examples in the tcxldemo.c > source code. Yes, those were easy - just get everything into Emacs and search for it. But what about the omnidirectional menus and the MNU_DSP flags? No examples, no documentation anywhere . Experimenting is one way of finding things out, but I've learnt to spend my time better. There was a comment in the reference manual that examples weren't included, as they would bloat the manual and make it worthless as an evaluation tool. Strange reasoning. Perhaps I'm overreacting. I am still wedded to the idea that shareware packages should be treated just as any ordinary commercial offering, and be judged on the same terms. Documentation is one of them. > I believe 6.0 is in the works. v5.52 will be out soon, and they are > working on porting it. I have yet to find a better library package for > the price... Well, I sort of agree. I believe the library package is decent. But I spend too much time hunting for information, some of which isn't even there. As I'm willing to pay for documentation, I'm going to use another library for now. But I will certainly be interested in how TCXL evolves. That note about event-controlled UI's seems promising ... -- Anders Thulin ath@prosys.se {uunet,mcsun}!sunic!prosys!ath Telesoft Europe AB, Teknikringen 2B, S-583 30 Linkoping, Sweden