Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!helios.ee.lbl.gov!pasteur!ames!killer!texbell!tness1!sugar!peter
From: peter@sugar.uu.net (Peter da Silva)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Standardization
Keywords: Menus
Message-ID: <2872@sugar.uu.net>
Date: 20 Oct 88 23:48:40 GMT
References: <1314@nmtsun.nmt.edu>
Organization: Sugar Land Unix - Houston, TX
Lines: 84

My comment is... you're too specific. Standard menus shouldn't, at least at
this point, be specified any deeper than:

	Title: Jammed closely together, with anout 1.5 character positions
		between them. There's no need for extra space.

		Implementation:
			menu = AddMenu(menubar, newmenuname)

	Top level: Text, offset a little to make them look good when hilighted.
		Stacked vertically until the bottom of the screen, then
		continue on in even, even-height columns. Menu title should
		be jammed closely together... let the menus overlap, since
		they're not going to be displayed.

		Implementation:
			menuitem = Additem(menu, itemname)

		For grouping a half-character blank space will be left between
		groups:

		Implementation:

			menuitem = Addblank(menu, drawline);

		Drawline is true if a line will be drawn. This can be
		implemented as a short unselectable item (zero width, not
		ghosted, to avoid a dotted line).

	Next level: All checkmarked menus here. Offset to the right of the
		item they're attached to. Again, take them to the bottom
		of the screen then switch to multiple even, even-height
		columns.

		Implementation:
			subitem = Addsubitem(menuitem, subname, checked, mask);

			Checked is true if this is checked by default. Mask
			is a bitmask of other subitems in the same menu that
			are mutually exclusive. If none listed this will be
			a toggle.

This will let you build fairly nice looking if bland menus. I use an even 
simpler version of this in Browser. I'll post that if you like, but I'm not 
going to implement the whole thing. Menus are easy.

How do you define a standard for a scrolling list of text items? For an
editable text pane? For a set of radio buttons? These are the sort of objects
that need to be implemented. With a simple programmer interface...

	win = OpenWindow(...);
	wwin = NewWidgetWindow(win); /* build extended structure around win */
	UseDefaultBorder(wwin);
	pane = AddTextPane(wwin, 2, 1, 40, 4); /* Add a 40 by 4 text pane,
					          resize window to fit if
						  necessary */
	bar = AddRadioBar(wwin, 2, Below(pane)+1, 40, 1,
			  "Bunch|Of|Button|Labels");
			/* Add a radio bar below the pane, with a 1 scanline
			   gap. The bar is 40 characters wide and one deep,
			   and contains 4 buttons: BUNCH, Of, Button, and
			   Labels. Resize window if necessary. */
	Show(win);	/* Window was created backdrop behind the workbench
			   window. This brings it to the front and turns odd
			   the backdrop flag. */
	Wait(win->UserPort.mp_SigBits);
	while(widgetevent = GetWidgetEvent(wwin)) {
		if(widgetevent->widget == bar) {
			switch(bar->button) {
				...
			}
		} ...
		RecycleWidgetEvent(widgetevent);
	}

And so on. This would be way easier than the current setup. You wouldn't need
to count scanlines or guess. You could create new widgets (they're supposed to
be object-oriented, if you hadn't guessed)...

Anyone up for comp.sys.amiga Project #n?
-- 
		Peter da Silva  `-_-'  peter@sugar.uu.net
		 Have you hugged  U  your wolf today?

	Disclaimer: I accept full responsibility for my own typos.