Simple GUI

[Lothar Schirm]

After some discussions with BasicCoder2 in "Another Simple Textbox", I have done further work on my GUI project. New release available, see first post!

[BasicCoder2]

@Lothar Schirm,
What I like most about your code is how easy I find it to read :)
In practice I have found lists (or groups) of buttons and/or text boxes useful.
In the case of a textbox list hitting ENTER or TAB should move the focus to the next textbox.
At the moment I am playing with some multiline text box code with word wrap and it is coming along nicely.

[Muttonhead]

nice work, i like it.:)

small bug in Listbox: i've reduced the height to check the box scrolling... when clicking directly under the last visible entry, (if exists) the next unvisible entry appears.

btw: after changing my machine and OS, i have rework my own project a little bit, now it "looks" like yours :D

Mutton

[BasicCoder2]

@Muttonhead,
Your controls look very professional.
http://www.freebasic.net/forum/viewtopi ... &hilit=gui

I tried to run your multiLineEditBox to compare it with my effort but unfortunately my version of FreeBasic must be too old as I just get compiler errors.
Compiler output:
C:\FreeBasic\sGUI\sGUI_v0.8.3.8\sGUI_v0.8.3.8\sGUI\MultiLineEditBox_Basis.bas(1) error 55: Illegal specification, at parameter 1 (event) of AddMLEBGadget() in 'declare function AddMLEBGadget (event as EventHandle ptr,x as integer,y as integer,w as integer,lines as integer,mode as integer=1) as Gadget ptr'
And so on ...

[Muttonhead]

@BasicCoder2:
Hmmm,there are no problems with this combination sGUI_v0.8.3.8 + fbc 0.9. With fbc 1.0 i get errors too.
But your sGUI version is not the latest.

Mutton

[Lothar Schirm]

Thank you both for your comments!

@Muttonhead, I do not want to re-invent such a complex GUI as your sGUI, which is very mighty and sophisticated. Thank you that you want to adopt my design. It is more or less the same as BasicCoder2 used for his new textbox (http://www.freebasic.net/forum/viewtopi ... =7&t=23281). - I know that the scrolling behaviour of the listbox is still a little bit buggy, I will work on it the next days.

@BasicCoder2, your proposal of control arrays with the use of ENTER and TAB keys is fine, but for the moment I do not need it for myself, so I will not implement it now.

[BasicCoder2]

@BasicCoder2, your proposal of control arrays with the use of ENTER and TAB keys is fine, but for the moment I do not need it for myself, so I will not implement it now.

Yes if you are rolling your own you only implement what you need as opposed learning to use a complete package which has to have everything someone might need as they would otherwise have to modify the package to suit. Over time more and more bells and whistles are added to commercial products such as Visual Basic controls for programmers or options in programs like Excel or Word.

I found in your adding numbers demo having to click the text box before entering a number annoying and it would be even more so if I had to enter a lot of data in say an array of text boxes (spreadsheet). Also numbers are right aligned. Another feature would be to give a text box a data type so that invalid data would be rejected. If you ever write a program that others might actually use such things are important.

[Lothar Schirm]

I understand. I have uploaded a new release, see first post:
- Bug in the listbox described by Muttonhead and another one that I have discovered myself is fixed
- You can write directly into the textbox or a cell of the data grid when clicking it with the mouse.

My intention was not to deliver a full-featured GUI, but just to give my first "Simple GUI" a better style and performance. So I am not sure whether I will do further improvements, as you suggest.

[Lothar Schirm]

For your perusal (optional of course), here is a simplified Win Api of my previous code.

Code: Select all

#include "windows.bi"
freeconsole
Declare Sub OPERATE(flag As Integer)
Dim Shared As hwnd B1,B2,answer 'used in sub
Const MainWindow ="#32770"
Dim As MSG msg
'The window and boxes
Var hWnd= CreateWindowEx( 0,MainWindow, "CALCULATE", WS_OVERLAPPEDWINDOW Or WS_VISIBLE, 200, 200, 400, 600, 0, 0, 0, 0 )
B1      = CreateWindowEx( 0, "EDIT", "", ws_border Or WS_VISIBLE Or WS_CHILD Or WS_HSCROLL Or ES_AUTOHSCROLL  , 50, 80, 200, 45, hWnd, 0, 0, 0 )
B2      = CreateWindowEx( 0, "EDIT", "", ws_border Or WS_VISIBLE Or WS_CHILD Or WS_HSCROLL Or ES_AUTOHSCROLL , 50, 280, 200, 45, hWnd, 0, 0, 0 )
answer  = CreateWindowEx( 0, "EDIT", "", ws_border Or WS_VISIBLE Or WS_CHILD Or WS_HSCROLL Or ES_AUTOHSCROLL  Or ES_READONLY, 50, 480, 200, 45, hWnd, 0, 0, 0 )
Var label    =CreateWindowEx( 0, "STATIC", "ANSWER:",WS_VISIBLE Or WS_CHILD , 20, 450, 70, 30, hWnd, 0, 0, 0 )
Var ADDBUTTON= CreateWindowEx( 0,"BUTTON", "A+B", WS_VISIBLE Or WS_CHILD, 50,380 , 50, 30, hWnd, 0, 0, 0 )
Var minus    = CreateWindowEx( 0,"BUTTON", "A-B", WS_VISIBLE Or WS_CHILD, 110,380 , 50, 30, hWnd, 0, 0, 0 )
Var prod     = CreateWindowEx( 0,"BUTTON", "A*B", WS_VISIBLE Or WS_CHILD, 170,380 , 50, 30, hWnd, 0, 0, 0 )
Var divide   = CreateWindowEx( 0,"BUTTON", "A/B", WS_VISIBLE Or WS_CHILD, 230,380 , 50, 30, hWnd, 0, 0, 0 )
Var lblA     =CreateWindowEx( 0, "STATIC", "A = ",WS_VISIBLE Or WS_CHILD , 15, 85, 30, 30, hWnd, 0, 0, 0 )
Var lblB     =CreateWindowEx( 0, "STATIC", "B = ",WS_VISIBLE Or WS_CHILD , 15, 285, 30, 30, hWnd, 0, 0, 0 )
'loop
While GetMessage( @msg, 0, 0, 0 )
    TranslateMessage( @msg )
    DispatchMessage( @msg )
    Select Case msg.hwnd
    Case hWnd
        Select Case msg.message
        Case 273
            End
        End Select
        '__________________  
    Case AddButton
        Select Case msg.message  
        Case WM_LBUTTONDOWN
            OPERATE(1)'ADDUP
        End Select
        '____________________   
    Case minus
        Select Case msg.message  
        Case WM_LBUTTONDOWN
            OPERATE(2)'SUBTRACT
        End Select
        '______________________  
    Case prod
        Select Case msg.message  
        Case WM_LBUTTONDOWN
            OPERATE(3)' MULTIPLY
        End Select 
        '_______________________
    Case divide
        Select Case msg.message  
        Case WM_LBUTTONDOWN
            OPERATE(4)'DIVIDE
        End Select 
    End Select
Wend

Sub OPERATE(flag As Integer)
    Dim As String outtext1,outtext2,result
    Dim As Integer charcount1,charcount2
    charcount1 = GetWindowTextLength(B1)
    charcount2 = GetWindowTextLength(B2)
    outtext1 = String(charcount1," ")
    outtext2 = String(charcount2," ")
    GetWindowText(B1,outtext1,charcount1+1)
    GetWindowText(B2,outtext2,charcount2+1)
    Select Case As Const flag
    Case 1:result= Str(Val(outtext1)+Val(outtext2))
    Case 2:result= Str(Val(outtext1)-Val(outtext2))
    Case 3:result= Str(Val(outtext1)*Val(outtext2))
    Case 4:result= Str(Val(outtext1)/Val(outtext2))
    End Select
    setWindowText(answer,result)
End Sub

 

I am working further on my WinGUI library. I wonder about some strange constants (Const MainWindow ="#32770") and msg.message = 273 to end the program. Can anybody explain me where these constants are documented?

[SARG]

hi,

#32770 is the windows class number for dialog box. see the link below
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/librar ... s.85).aspx

273 is the code for WM_COMMAND. Normally there should be other tests before doing an action here it's a shortcut....

Information could be found on msdn.
There also an old file : win32.hlp a bit outdated however with precious information.
A best way is looking inside programs to understand how things are done. By example try with fbdebugger ;-)

[Lothar Schirm]

Additionally to my "Simple GUI" project, I have written a TUI (for console or graphics window) and a small WinAPI library, see first post.

[Lothar Schirm]

WinAPI library updated on 01 July, 2015: Easier coding for menus (see first post)

[MichaelW]

The problem with using the #32770 style is that it's a system-defined class that, among other potential problems, specifies a system-defined window procedure. The normal way of working around this, processing messages in your message loop, does not provide the same capabilities as processing them in a window procedure that you control.

This code was tested only with Version 1.02.0 (03-23-2015), built for win64 (64bit), under Windows 8.1-64:

Code: Select all

#include "windows.bi"

function WindowClassStyleBits( style as UINT ) as string
    dim as string rval, crlf = chr(13) & chr(10)
    if style and CS_BYTEALIGNCLIENT then rval &= "CS_BYTEALIGNCLIENT" & crlf
    if style and CS_BYTEALIGNWINDOW then rval &= "CS_BYTEALIGNWINDOW" & crlf
    if style and CS_CLASSDC then rval &= "CS_CLASSDC" & crlf
    if style and CS_DBLCLKS then rval &= "CS_DBLCLKS" & crlf
    if style and CS_DROPSHADOW then rval &= "CS_DROPSHADOW" & crlf
    if style and CS_GLOBALCLASS then rval &= "CS_GLOBALCLASS" & crlf
    if style and CS_HREDRAW then rval &= "CS_HREDRAW" & crlf
    if style and CS_NOCLOSE then rval &= "CS_NOCLOSE" & crlf
    if style and CS_OWNDC then rval &= "CS_OWNDC" & crlf
    if style and CS_PARENTDC then rval &= "CS_PARENTDC" & crlf
    if style and CS_SAVEBITS then rval &= "CS_SAVEBITS" & crlf
    if style and CS_VREDRAW then rval &= "CS_VREDRAW" & crlf
    return rval
end function

dim as WNDCLASSEX wcx

'' Return value is non-zero for success, zero for failure:

print GetClassInfoEx( NULL, "#32770", @wcx )
print

with wcx
    print "style         = ";hex(.style,sizeof(.style)*2)
    print "lpfnWndProc   = ";hex(.lpfnWndProc,sizeof(.lpfnWndProc)*2)
    print "cbClsExtra    = ";.cbClsExtra
    print "cbWndExtra    = ";.cbWndExtra
    print "hInstance     = ";hex(.hInstance,sizeof(.hInstance)*2)
    print "hIcon         = ";hex(.hIcon,sizeof(.hIcon)*2)
    print "hCursor       = ";hex(.hCursor,sizeof(.hCursor)*2)
    print "hbrBackground = ";hex(.hbrBackground,sizeof(.hCursor)*2)
    print "lpszMenuName  = ";hex(.lpszMenuName,sizeof(.lpszMenuName)*2)
    print "lpszClassName = ";hex(.lpszClassName,sizeof(.lpszClassName)*2)
    print "hIconSm       = ";hex(.hIconSm,sizeof(.hIconSm)*2)
    print
    print WindowClassStyleBits(.style)
end with

sleep

Code: Select all

 32770

style         = 00000808
lpfnWndProc   = 00007FFA5EB30F80
cbClsExtra    =  0
cbWndExtra    =  30
hInstance     = 0000000000000000
hIcon         = 0000000000000000
hCursor       = 0000000000010003
hbrBackground = 0000000000000000
lpszMenuName  = 0000000000000000
lpszClassName = 000000000040809E
hIconSm       = 0000000000000000

CS_DBLCLKS
CS_SAVEBITS

[Lothar Schirm]

Thank you for your advice! May be useful, but ...

Well, I am not a WinAPI expert, so I do not really understand what you mean. I just studied the examples here http://freebasic.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=13451 and some other simple WinAPI code by dodicat, and then I tried to hide all the cryptical WinAPI stuff with a lot of zeros and strange parameters into some easy to use subs and functions. My first attempt was to create a GUI for myself based on FBGFX, but then I saw that it would be lot of work to add other elements and features like a multiline textbox with scrollbars, pulldown menus, textboxes (numeric, password, right aligned or centered text) etc. I did not want to re-event the wheel (e.g. Muttonhead's sGUI). So I decided to build a simple WinAPI library for myself. It has all the functions I need, I do not intend to invest more time and work. If somebody can use it, it's fine. If he wants to modify it: no problem. The community seems not to be very interested in this WinAPI library. It has been downloaded nearly 50 times up to now, while my FBGFX based GUI has been downloaded more than 200 times.

[BasicCoder2]

The community seems not to be very interested in this WinAPI library. It has been downloaded nearly 50 times up to now, while my FBGFX based GUI has been downloaded more than 200 times.

Perhaps because the WinAPI doesn't work with Linux?
I read some winAPI programming tutorials back in my Assembler and C days but essentially you have no control. It was all wrote learning without really being taught how to find what is required for your project from the winAPI documentation. If the tutorial didn't cover it you couldn't do it. With FreeBASIC I can make the GUI however I like including all that stuff you wrote you couldn't be bothered with.