Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cornell!uw-beaver!blake!mrc@Tomobiki-Cho.CAC.Washington.EDU
From: mrc@Tomobiki-Cho.CAC.Washington.EDU (Mark Crispin)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Interface Builder question
Message-ID: <944@blake.acs.washington.edu>
Date: 23 Feb 89 01:39:47 GMT
Sender: news@blake.acs.washington.edu
Organization: Mendou Zaibatsu, Tomobiki-Cho, Butsumetsu-Shi
Lines: 34


     I'm building a distributed mail application for the NeXT.  It has
a bunch of windows, only one of which is visible at startup.  The
other windows (a "mailbox", "read", and "send" window) all have been
defined via IB and set as not visible at application launch through
the inspector.

     I can -- and will -- have many instances of these windows on the
screen at the same time.  Every time I read a message I'll get a new
read window, etc.  So, really the windows I defined via IB (which have
a scrolling text view and some buttons) are prototypes for the windows
I will create.

     However, I am at a total loss for how I should instantiate these
windows.  If I call the "new" factory method for the class associated
with each of these windows, then what I get is the tiny default window
made by [Window new].

     I'm almost at the point where I am going to have Interface
Builder decompile the interface, in which case I can get what I need I
need from the buildInterface() function.  However, this would mean
punting Interface Builder for any future changes in the interface.  It
also means having to write the code for all those connections.

     Any ideas?

     Oh, does anyone know if it is possible to have a menu which is
attached to (and associated with) a window instead of the main menu?
In other words, I want something that looks like a menu (including
having submenus), attaches as a separate square to one of my windows,
but otherwise is like a button.  Interface Builder makes all menus
come under the main menu, which is not what I want.

-- Mark --