Re: [Pythoncard-users] EXPERIMENTAL new version of the resource Editor for adventurous testers.

[<bra...@om...>]

Wow! That's a lot of new features and bugfixes in a short time.  I will 
try out the new Resource Editor when I get into work today.


pyt...@li... wrote on 04/29/2005 07:47:19 
PM:

> 
> I have a new version of the resourceEditor available for testing and 
> comment.
> 
> It's a fairly substantial change, so should be treated with some caution 

> (i.e. save your work often, keep copies, etc.)
> However, I don't know of any bugs in it that aren't also in the original 

> 0.8.1, and haven't lost any data because of any problems with it.
> 
> Because it is such  a large change, I haven't yet checked it into CVS - 
> it has to be downloaded from my site, at
> http://www.tweedly.net/Python/newresourceEditorv0.1.zip
> 
> 
> This is a ZIP file - extract the files and you should have a single 
> directory which is a self-contained directory called newresourceEditor 
0.1
> (sorry if that's confusing - the zip file has (no space)v0.1, but the 
> extracted directory has a space, and just 0.1)
> 
> In it, you will find a "changes.txt" with a description of the 
> significant changes. A copy is included below for convenience.
> 
> Please give me any feedback - problems, comments, suggestions, etc. 
> either on this list, or if you prefer directly to al...@tw...
> 
> Thanks,
> Alex.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> This version of the resource Editor has the following changes:
> 
> Property editor window display.
> 
> The propertyEditor Window has been extensively changed. Previously it
> was a small window, showing a list of components and a list of
> attributes applicable to the currently selected component. The
> currently selected attribute was displayed (and editable) below this.
> 
> The new version uses a much larger window, again showing a list of
> components. For the currently selected component, ALL attributes are
> shown, in a large area to the right. Any of the attributes can be
> edited directly, and the change will take effect as soon as the focus
> leaves the field being edited (the Update button is still also
> available).
> 
> Component naming when created.
> 
> In the existing resourceEditor, every time you create a component
> (either from the Component menu, or by Duplicate, or Paste), you are
> presented with a dialog box to specify the name (and label / text for
> those components that have them).
> 
> I have taken that out (at least for now) - so the component is
> immediately created with the default name/label. I've found this
> better and faster for my testing - but I'm not sure if it would be the
> same when using the resourceEditor "for real", rather than for
> testing.
> 
> If you want to revert to the earlier behaviour, find the line
>        result = fakeEmptyDialog(desc, offsets, promptString)
> around line 1334. Comment it out, and reinstate the previous line.
> 
> The medium-term intent is to extend the "clever default"s for deriving
> labels from names, or names from labels - so that you can achieve what
> you need with the minimum amount of typing possible. Stay tuned ....
> 
> 
> Multiple components.
> 
> You can select multiple components and perform various operations on
> them. Clicking on a component selects it (just as before). Ctrl-click
> will add a component to the selected set, or remove it if it is
> already in there.  The property window can be watched to let you know
> if you are in "single-component mode" or "multiple-component mode".
> 
> If you select a number of components, and then deselect all but one of
> them, you remain in multi-component mode. (NB this feels better to me
> - but is certainly a candidate for later change if we think we
> should.) This does save a "flash" back into single mode display, when
> de-selecting and re-selecting most of a group.
> 
> If there is NO component selected, and you select the first one by
> Ctrl-Click, then you enter multi-component mode immediately. The
> specific reason I did this no longer applies - but I'd got used to it
> by then. Again, this does save a certain amount of "flashing" between
> the two modes (and their display).
> 
> Note that when in multiple-component mode, the component box in the
> property window is for display only - you cannot click in that box to
> (de)select components. It shows only those components which are in the
> selected set. This is mostly because Pythoncard doesn't have a
> multi-choice list box, but also partly because using a multi-choice list
> would make it harder to see at a glance which are selected.
> 
> Once a set of components have been selected, you can mouse-down
> (i.e. press and hold, no ctl-key) WITHIN one of the selected
> components; this will bring up the enclosing rectangle for the whole
> set, and you can then move them around. 
> 
> They can also be moved using the arrow keys; however, this has always
> been a bit flaky - sometimes the key events get captured by something
> else, and used for filed-traversal-tabbing. It may be a bit more flaky
> with the new display panel - see "nudge commands" below for other
> options.
> 
> Note that Copy, Cut and Paste *do* work for multiple components. There
> isn't yet a Delete command that works for multiple-component mode, but
> you can simply Cut them in the meantime.
> 
> Buttons for layer changes.
> 
> A component can be moved Back/Forward using the main menu Options /
> Send to Back, etc., or the shortcut keys Ctrl-1, Ctrl-2, etc.
> However, these keys don't work when focus is in the property
> window. Buttons have been added (below the component list box) to
> allow re-layering of a component.
> 
> As well as the 4 buttons corresponding to the existing commands, there
> is an additional one which WILL (but doesn't yet) take a set of
> components and re-layer them according the their position, in
> approximate "reading" order; top-left to bottom right, in rows. This
> command will probably go on the menu eventually.  NB - none of these
> buttons currently works in multi-component mode, but they will.
> 
> Arrow keys & Buttons to 'nudge' components.
> 
> The arrow keys can be used to reposition a component, as
> before. However, they now have the added feature that
> 
>  - Ctrl-arrow will move in that direction by the currently specified
>     grid step, and align to the grid even if the "Align to grid"
>     option is not enabled.
> 
>  - Shift-arrow will move by the grid step distance, but without
>    rounding to the grid
> 
>  - Shift-Ctrl-arrow will move by the square of the grid size (and
>    round to the basic grid). Good accelerator for big moves - beware
>    you can jump right off the window if you're not careful.
> 
> As mentioned above, occasionally (or perhaps often), one or more of
> the placed components gets in the way of key events ['buttons start
> tabbing, calendar starts moving the selected date, etc.]. Therefore
> there are now button on the property window to move the selected
> component or components. these are in the box labeled "NUDGE" at the
> bottom-left.
> 
> Clicking on each arrow button here moves the component in the obvious
> direction. The number inside these buttons controls how far the
> components are moved; 1 moves by 1 pixel, 2 by a grid-step, 4 by the
> square of a grid-step. (3 is the same as 2 for now). These moves
> always honour the Align to Grid setting.  [NB - this may change -
> either to be simply pixel distance, or a drop-down choice for the 1 vs
> grid vs grid*grid to allow all the choices available by the arrow
> keys.]
> 
> Various operations are enabled when in multi-component mode. Remember 
> that the *order* the components were selected (visible by order they are 

> listed in the component box) is significant for many of these.
> 
> Align operations.
> 
> The box labeled "ALIGN" contains six buttons, which align the
> components up with the first selected on. They can be aligned by left
> side, right side, top, bottom (four buttons grouped to the left). Or
> the centres of the components can be aligned, either vertically or
> horizontally (i.e. into a column or into a row).
> 
> 
> Distribute operations.
> 
> The box labeled "DISTRIBUTE" has four buttons; two on the left for
> distributing horizontally and two on the right for vertical
> distribution.
> 
> The top button on each side distributes the components "edge-to-edge";
> i.e. the first component does not move, the second one is placed to
> the left (or below) such that the edges line up, then the third, etc.
> 
> The lower button distributes them with even-sized gaps from
> "first-to-last"; i.e. the first and last components do not move, the
> others are distributed between them such that the gaps between the
> edges are equal sized (or as close as possible). Note that if the
> components add up to larger than the total distance between first and
> last, then they will overlap (i.e. the 'gap' can be negative), but it
> will still be evenly shared between them.
> 
> Equalize operations.
> 
> The box labeled "EQUALIZE" has three buttons, which set the width
> (the height, or both) of all other components selected to match the
> first component.
> 
> Other changes and bug-fixes included.
> 
> 1. Flaky behaviour on re-sizing a component.
> 
> Moving the cursor rapidly back inside a Textfield (or TextArea, or
> ...) while re-sizing it would cause it to change to almost random
> size.
> 
> 2. Flaky "move" - double-click.
> 
> Double-clicking within a Button component prior to moving it would
> cause the mouse to become "locked" into that component. So you could
> click outside the component, and it would nevertheless move with the
> mouse; also you were unable to select another component, or the
> menu. Could be solved by clicking in another window (though not
> another window of this program), and then clicking back in this
> window.
> 
> I've got a "fix" for this in place - though I don't understand why it
> works. (I discovered that all subsequent mouse events were reporting
> the "getEventObject()" wrongly, and having a handler for doubleClick -
> even one that does nothing - seems to solve it.
> 
> You shouldn't - but might - see a dialog that says
>     "You double-clicked - please don't"
> This means that work-around didn't work - just click OK to the dialog
> and you'll be able to continue.
> 
> 3. Calendar component "hops"
> 
> There is code to ensure that components with a border allow for that
> when calculating moves; without this a click on the component would
> "hop" it by the border width. This hadn't been done for Calendar
> components, and has now.
> 
> [ Mac users - please let me know if I guessed right for the offset 
needed ]
> 
> 4. Static line and gauges/sliders ignored layout setting.
> 
> The setting for layout (either horizontal / vertical) was being ignored.
> 
> 
> 
> Clearly still missing .....
> 1. re-layer for multiple components
> 2. delete multiple components (but Cut is done already)
> 3. select multiple components by rectangular marquee
> 3a.  lasso ??   rectangular add/remove from existing selection, ....
> 4. select multiple components by regular expression
>       (useful if you use systematic names, and want to pick them all 
....)
> 5. undo (at least for the multiple-component operations).
> Do be careful; you can mess up really fast with multiple component 
> operations !
> 6. Temporary hide/show of selected components.
> (Take a look at the property window in the resource editor - it's a
> pain to work on because the single-component mode fields overlap the
> multi-component mode buttons.
> 
> 
> -- 
> Alex Tweedly       http://www.tweedly.net
> 
> 
> 
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> 
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