crunch@well.UUCP (John Draper) (06/02/86)
STATUS REPORT ON THE GADGET EDITOR ---------------------------------- So Far, I have put in a Week of work on the Gadget Editor, and now am at the turning point where I have to decide to put it out commercially or post it on the nets. There are (of coarse) benifits to me for BOTH routes. I also feel that a few more days on it will make it "Usable" although not ALL the functions are in. It now provides a fairly easy way to HACK on Intuition's gadgets. It can save you a lot of time fooling around with those nasty structure initializations. If I were to post the source on the Nets. Would any one interested in "cleaning it up" please do so, and document the changes in the Source, and re-posting it. Sorta like Emacs and Mandlebrot. I would like to make this an "Official" Programmers Network Project. If you are interested in hacking on this, Here are the features yet to put in: *** Editing Images and linking them in *** Entering IntuiText and linking them properly. *** Saving and Getting Gadget "set" from disk I will plan one more "Hacking session" on it, then document the glitches and how the gadget structures are manipulated. Some of the glitches are: 1. If you just add a gadget, and it's selected, you leave a rectangle where it "Was", No big deal, just use the "Sledghammer" Menu option: CLEAR SCREEN and REFRESHGADGETS, to re- generate them. It then generates "Initialized Source code" which can then be "Pasted" into your program with your editor. I currently am "kprintf'ing" all the IO through the serial port. Where my main editor is. In each of the "Stubbed" menu-items, I document what the item is supposed to do. I have files for each menu item. Ie: "utilmen.c" contains all the Utility menu functions. Please start thinking of other features you might want it to have. and If you want to help put them in. Several people have already responded from an earlier posting. If you want to help, Please post your reply to one of the following Net addresses: John Draper - Programmers Network WELL: crunch BIX: crunch DELPHI: crunch CIS:73557,1176 (Yes Folks I'm there also) USENET: ....ihnp4!ptsfa!well!crunch
crunch@well.UUCP (John Draper) (07/15/86)
GADGET EDITOR STATUS REPORT
---------------------------
Just a notice to all you people patiently waiting for the Gadget editor.
It is coming along quite well. I am currently finishing up the addition
of Intuitext to the gadgets. Dave from Sacramento, is tidying up the
menus, and Brent is working on the part that saves to disk.
The current version of the gadget editor allows you to "Draw" the
rectangles on the screen to any size which represents the rectangle that
incloses the gadget. The RIGHT mouse button is used for the menus and
Drawing the gadgets, the LEFT button is used for playing with them.
Currently, it is very easy to "break" the program and crash the
system by putting in "strange" flag settings, and other "wrong" things.
I currently do NO error checking in that department, this is so that
Jim Mackraz at Amiga would have full control (If he is even using it).
Eventually, as my knowledge of Intuition increases, I will be putting
in the necessary checks to prevent entering in wrong gadgets. I am going
to be working on the Exclusion portion sometime in the next following weeks.
Other additions include:
1. Naming the gadgets
2. Fixed a bug in the "Save as Source" section, so the proper
structure initialization text is correct.
The only thing left that needs to be added is the ability to add custom
Images. Do we have any volunteers? If so, please mail me at the
following net address at the end of this letter.
The planned meetings we have on CIS and the WELL are very productive,
and we get a lot accomplished. We could use a good "bitmap" expert.
And need more volunteers. This project and resultant program can save
a lot of us programmers a lot of time and work. It is worth spending
a little time working on it.
Our next meeting will take place in a few weeks. Exact meeting date
is not yet set. Anyone wanting to work on it, Please mail me, and
I will mail you the source listing. I'm compiling it on the Manx C
compiler. The source is also on the WELL in the Programmers Network
library, and in a special section in the Amiga sig on Compuserve.
If you have an account on Compuserve, Please mail me your PPN so I
can have you added. It takes a few days for the CIS Sysop to validate
you.
For those wanting to attend the meetings, get access to the Source,
and/or help out, please mail me, I will reply with the information you
will need to join the project. It is a GREAT learning experience
for students, and beginner programmers.
John Draper - Programmers Network
WELL: crunch
UUCP: ihnp4!ptsfa!well!crunch
BIX: crunch
Delphi: CRUNCH
CIS: 73557, 1176