Message-Id: <m0yEaTo-000S2nC@inti.gov.ar>
Comments: Authenticated sender is <salvador AT natacha DOT inti DOT gov DOT ar>
From: "Salvador Eduardo Tropea (SET)" <salvador AT inti DOT gov DOT ar>
Organization: INTI
To: Vic <tudor AT cam DOT org>, djgpp AT delorie DOT com
Date: Mon, 16 Mar 1998 11:05:08 +0000
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Subject: Re: About GUI's
In-reply-to: <350AD507.3621@cam.org>
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Vic <tudor AT cam DOT org> wrote:

> I'm allmost finished with XGUI. I discovered limitations in design
> (what design? I started with a button and built the rest on top of that
> :) and the next version (after finishing this one) will be more
> thoughtfully designed from the beginning.
> So, what is a GUI supposed to do anyways? What is the best way of
> designing one? What objects should it provide (XGUI 0.5 has text
> buttons,bitmapped buttons, checkboxes, radio buttons, panels, bitmaps,
> line edit, progress bars, hidden and visible list boxes, windows.
> I plan adding menus, labels (text thing) and edit window (text) before
> shipping version 1.0 beta).
> How is the user supposed to interact with it? Or the objects created by
> the user?
> (Of course I'm asking your opinion on how it would be best to do all of
> these. XGUI allready does all that but I find it somewhat limited)
> TIA,

IMHO:

A GUI isn't just some buttongs, widgets, etc. To make a working GUI you must 
follow some approach like Windows or TVision. They have an events collector 
that traps all the events from keyboard, mouse, other dialogs, etc. and 
dispatchs the right message to the dialogs. In this way the things can be made 
much more flexible. 
Additionally it must be done with C++ or some C approach to emulate the C++ 
flexibility to allow the members override. That's is: you must be able to 
redefine part or all of the behavior of a button or any other control.
DEGUI uses call backs to do it, but it isn't enough, I have an application 
using TVision+DEGUI and I find much more flexible the TVision approach.
I you want to know more about the architecture of the TVision I can describe 
you it, but is a little complex.
Another important thing is to provide an easy way to make the dialogs, allowing 
the insertion/deletion of controls dinamycally and providing some way to 
construct the dialogs without much code/effort.

SET
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Salvador Eduardo Tropea (SET). (Electronics Engineer)
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