jesup@cbmvax.UUCP (Randell Jesup) (08/22/88)
In article <5613@ihlpf.ATT.COM> warren@ihlpf.ATT.COM (Montgomery) writes: > My appliction would like to use the mouse for >pointing and menues, and take explicit control of a scrollbar if >provided, but would otherwise like to treat the screen like a >terminal. Most windowing systems seem to offer me the choice of >running my application under a terminal emulator (e.g. xterm, >shelltool) that provides no access to the mouse and no control of >the scrollbar, or running directly on the windowing system, which >requires that I explicitly paint the screen using calls to the >windowing library instead of escape sequences and usually requires >that my application be re-structured to be event driven, which isn't >very natural for it. What I'd really like is: This has been thought of before, in the Amiga OS. The console device (that is attached to windows optionally) is essentially an ANSI 3.64 terminal emulator. It also has additional escape sequences that allow you to turn on things such as mouse buttons reporting, mouse position, window resizing, etc. While not every thing can be done through this, it allows most of what you're looking for. >Changes in the mouse buttons reported via escape sequences in the >same input stream as the keyboard. Mouse position either reported >with the button events or available via a function call. Available. >Some way of presenting menues, either by specifying in advance that >a certain button is for menues, giving a menu, and having the >selection reported in the input stream, or by having some function >that puts up a menu and returns a selection invokable after a mouse >push. Menu numbers are returned when a menu is selected. Intuition (the windowing system) calls for setting/clearing menustrips can be used with this. >Explicit control over any scrollbars, either through an escape >sequence that controls where the bar is displayed or through a >function call that does it. Mouse pushes in the scroll bar would be >reported in the same way as other mouse pushes, perhaps with >different encoding. Scrollbars are not currently directly part of the user interface. Proportional gadgets (with x and/or y freedom, and either automatic knobs (% of width/height) or custom images are part of the OS, and can be reported via the console.device. Also requesters that pop up will send set/clear messages, and disks inserted/removed will send messages (though it doesn't identify which disk at this time). There is also a timer entry, I think you can get 1/10 sec messages there. All messages are timestamped in secs and microsecs, and include modifier key/button states. >The closest thing I have seen to this is the windowing system on the >Unix PC, which can be set up to report mouse events the way I'd like >and provides the ability to put up a menu, but I have yet to see >comparable things for X, News, or Sunview. Any suggestions? -- Randell Jesup, Commodore Engineering {uunet|rutgers|allegra}!cbmvax!jesup
sau@wind.bellcore.com (Stephen A Uhler) (08/24/88)
In article <5613@ihlpf.ATT.COM> warren@ihlpf.ATT.COM (Montgomery) writes: >I face a problem when porting an application into a new windowing >system that strikes me as common, but few windowing systems provide >a good solution for. My appliction would like to use the mouse for >pointing and menues, and take explicit control of a scrollbar if >provided, but would otherwise like to treat the screen like a >terminal. [text deleted] What I'd really like is: [text deleted] The MGR windowing system. It permits application programs to specify arbitrary strings to be sent to the application in response to mouse hits and menu selections, on the same data stream as keyboard input. Instead of reqiring a special program to do terminal emulation, terminal emulation is availiable in every window and may be restricted to an arbitrary sub-rectangle within the window. Thus you can have scroll bars, banner lines (etc.) of your favorite size and still take advantage of the built in terminal emulation. Existing non-window applications can readily take advantage of pop-up menus and mouse based positioning, simply by instructing MGR what application keyboard commands to simulate in response to mouse or menu selections. You can get MGR via anonymous ftp from bellcore.com (or send mail to mgr@bellcore.com if you can't). Stephen Uhler sau@bellcore.com
gvr@jumbo.dec.com (Guido van Rossum) (09/02/88)
MGR's author forgot to tell us what systems MGR runs on. To save you an ftp trip to bellcore, it runs on Sun 2 and 3 monochrome and color monitors only. --Guido van Rossum PS: what are all the boring MS-Windows questions doing in this group? Isn't it time for comp.windows.ms?
brent@well.UUCP (Brent Southard) (09/02/88)
In article <13319@jumbo.dec.com> gvr@jumbo.UUCP (Guido van Rossum) writes: >PS: what are all the boring MS-Windows questions doing in this group? >Isn't it time for comp.windows.ms? Unfortunately, Guido, not all of us are priviliged enough to have Unix workstations on our desks. While I'm looking forward to doing X or Open Look programming in the future, I'm doing what I can with MS Windows for the present. I think it is as valid a windowing system to discuss here as any other. If someone *would* like to start a Windows newsgroup however, I think it would be a good idea... Any takers? brent -- Brent Southard | Everybody's trying to be a friend of mine, Usenet: ...well!brent | Even a dog can shake hands. - W. Zevon CIS: 76657,415 | We fell into love, love's a very deep hole. GEnie: b.southard | - Loudon Wainwright III
dgordon@teknowledge-vaxc.ARPA (Dan Gordon) (09/07/88)
In article <7008@well.UUCP> brent@well.UUCP (Brent Southard) writes: >Look programming in the future, I'm doing what I can with MS Windows for the >present. I think it is as valid a windowing system to discuss here as any >other. If someone *would* like to start a Windows newsgroup however, I >think it would be a good idea... Any takers? > I'm up for an MSW newsgroup. We might get an interesting technical forum for those of us working in MSW, AND we could keep Guido from sinking into ennui. Dan Gordon
blair@enint.Wichita.NCR.COM (Brian Lair) (09/07/88)
In article <24789@teknowledge-vaxc.ARPA>, dgordon@teknowledge-vaxc.ARPA (Dan Gordon) writes: > In article <7008@well.UUCP> brent@well.UUCP (Brent Southard) writes: >>Any takers? > > I'm up for an MSW newsgroup. Hear! Hear! Perhaps comp.windows.ms? Until there's such a newsgroup, what is considered the best electronic forum for MS Windows discussions and q&a? -- Brian R. Lair NCR Corporation, E&M Wichita, Advanced Development Brian.Lair@Wichita.NCR.COM {ece-csc,hubcap,gould,rtech}!ncrcae!ncrwic!Brian.Lair {sdcsvax,cbatt,dcdwest,nosc.ARPA,ihnp4}!ncr-sd!ncrwic!Brian.Lair
mcdonald@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu (09/08/88)
>Until there's such a newsgroup, what is considered the best electronic >forum for MS Windows discussions and q&a? - On this network, comp.windows.misc. There is a very active, knowledgeable, and expensive group on Bix; they seem to be VERY commercial people. Doug McDonald