Hi All, I seek general guidance about an aspect of app I''d like to write in Ruby/FXRuby. Imagine something like a "point picker" written in Ruby. There''s a little window that has a "crosshair" button (or something) and an area for displaying coordinates. I''d like to drag from the crosshairs off to anywhere on the screen. As the mouse is dragged, I want to display the coordinates. I don''t have my heart set on any particular UI gesture. For example, if the user could click on the crosshairs, then click somewhere else, that''d be fine, too. The main issue is that I want to watch mouse events even when the cursor is not over the FXRuby window. Is this possible? I''ve fooled around a little bit with the win32/api stuff trying to install a mouse hook, to no avail. Thanks in advance for any suggestions/guidance anyone has to offer. Especially welcome would be, ''You dufus! The FxFranastat widget does exactly that!" :-) Cheers, --Bob
On Jun 15, 2008, at 11:54 PM, Bob Whiteside wrote:> I seek general guidance about an aspect of app I''d like to write in > Ruby/FXRuby. Imagine something like a "point picker" written in > Ruby. There''s a little window that has a "crosshair" button (or > something) and an area for displaying coordinates. I''d like to drag > from the crosshairs off to anywhere on the screen. As the mouse is > dragged, I want to display the coordinates. > > I don''t have my heart set on any particular UI gesture. For example, > if the user could click on the crosshairs, then click somewhere else, > that''d be fine, too. > > The main issue is that I want to watch mouse events even when the > cursor is not over the FXRuby window. > > Is this possible?Yes, and there''s already a widget that does most or all of what you want: the FXPicker widget. The FXPicker is like a button, but when you click it, it goes into "pick" mode and the cursor changes shape to crosshairs. Then you can move the cursor around the screen, and the picker will send a SEL_CHANGED message as it moves, telling you its new location on screen. You exit "pick" mode when you click on the button again. Unfortunately, it looks like there''s a bug with FXPicker in the current release of FXRuby, so I''ll try to get out a bug fix release soon to take care of that. Hope this helps, Lyle --- "FXRuby: Create Lean and Mean GUIs with Ruby" Now available from the Pragmatic Bookshelf! http://www.pragprog.com/titles/fxruby
Hi Lyle, On Sun, Jun 22, 2008 at 3:51 PM, Lyle Johnson <lyle at lylejohnson.name> wrote:> > Yes, and there''s already a widget that does most or all of what you want: > the FXPicker widget. The FXPicker is like a button, but when you click it, > it goes into "pick" mode and the cursor changes shape to crosshairs. Then > you can move the cursor around the screen, and the picker will send a > SEL_CHANGED message as it moves, telling you its new location on screen. You > exit "pick" mode when you click on the button again. > > Unfortunately, it looks like there''s a bug with FXPicker in the current > release of FXRuby, so I''ll try to get out a bug fix release soon to take > care of that. > > Hope this helps, > > LyleThanks so much for the response, Lyle. Yes, that''s exactly the widget I was seeking. I''ve been trying to learn my way around through the widget set, but I''d not noticed that one. It''s not an emergency for me, and I''m pleased to await the update release. BTW, your book is *really* nicely done. I''m incredibly pleased with my purchase of it. Thanks for the incredibly nice work you''re letting me take advantage of. Cheers, --Bob
On Jun 23, 2008, at 7:36 PM, Bob Whiteside wrote:> Thanks so much for the response, Lyle. Yes, that''s exactly the widget > I was seeking. I''ve been trying to learn my way around through the > widget set, but I''d not noticed that one. It''s not an emergency for > me, and I''m pleased to await the update release.OK. I''m looking into a couple of other recently reported problems to see what else I can squeeze into this release.> BTW, your book is *really* nicely done. I''m incredibly pleased with > my purchase of it. Thanks for the incredibly nice work you''re letting > me take advantage of.Thanks, I''m glad you''re enjoying it! --- "FXRuby: Create Lean and Mean GUIs with Ruby" Now available from the Pragmatic Bookshelf! http://www.pragprog.com/titles/fxruby
On Mon, Jun 23, 2008 at 6:37 PM, Lyle Johnson <lyle at lylejohnson.name> wrote:> > OK. I''m looking into a couple of other recently reported problems to see > what else I can squeeze into this release. >Do you happen to know whether the FXPicker consumes the foreign mouse click, or sends it on through in addition to reporting it back to the widget? Oh, I guess I should learn to examine the Fox site to learn such thing. Cheers, --Bob