wxruby users - Dec 2006 - wxruby2-preview Gauge and wx-sugar with SplitterWindow

First of all, just wanted to say big thanks for all the great work on 
wxruby2 .. I''ve been a user of 0.6 for a long time and its proved very 
useful over the years.  It''s great to finally have a multi-platform,
gem
installable ui toolkit that doesn''t suck!

Secondly, thanks also for wx-sugar.  I was drowning in sizers and started 
to write my own layout library ... but yours is likely to be far better so 
I''ve ditched mine and I''m using sugar from now on.

However, I have a couple of issues ... (in both cases, apologies if I''m
just not using it correctly)

(1) setting foreground and background colours on a Gauge.
- on wxruby2-preview (0.0.36) windows, the colours seem to be ignored, 
i.e. no matter what you change it to, its always blue on grey.
- on wxruby2-preview (0.0.37) OS X, the background does change but not the 
foreground - is this an OS restriction? i.e. is the bar always blue in OS 
X?

(2) expanding SplitterWindow''s content in wx-sugar
Basically, I need a SplitterWindow with a ListBox and a TextCtrl, the 
following snippet creates just that, but the contained controls do not 
expand to fit the splitter''s panels (they just appear small). 
I''ve tried
setting the minsize and proportion when adding them to the panel, i.e 
@errors = p1.add(ListBox.new(p1), :minsize => true), but then they just 
disappear altogether.  Where am  going wrong?

    arrange_vertically
    splitter = SplitterWindow.new(self)
    splitter.minimum_pane_size = 10
 
    p1 = splitter.add(Panel.new(splitter)) do | p1 |
      @errors = p1.add(ListBox.new(p1))
    end
 
    p2 = splitter.add(Panel.new(splitter)) do | p2 |
       @log = p2.add(TextCtrl.new(p2, :style => TE_MULTILINE | 
TE_READONLY))
    end

    splitter.split_horizontally(p1, p2)
    add(splitter, :proportion => 1)

Many thanks,

Paul


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Hi Paul
> (1) setting foreground and background colours on a Gauge.
> - on wxruby2-preview (0.0.36) windows, the colours seem to be ignored, 
> i.e. no matter what you change it to, its always blue on grey.
> - on wxruby2-preview (0.0.37) OS X, the background does change but not 
> the foreground - is this an OS restriction? i.e. is the bar always 
> blue in OS X?
I''m not so sure for Windows, but certainly on OS X I would be very 
surprised if you were allowed to change the colour of the Aqua-style 
gauge. Underneath wxruby it''s implemented by calls to the standard API 
and from Apple''s interface builder there''s no setting to alter
this colour.

I''d probably see this as a platform-native feature - maybe have another
look at what you''re trying to convey by using a non-standard gauge 
colour. Perhaps we could suggest a more familiar UI
metaphor?
> (2) expanding SplitterWindow''s content in wx-sugar
> Basically, I need a SplitterWindow with a ListBox and a TextCtrl, the 
> following snippet creates just that, but the contained controls do not 
> expand to fit the splitter''s panels (they just appear small). 
I''ve
> tried setting the minsize and proportion when adding them to the 
> panel, i.e @errors = p1.add(ListBox.new(p1), :minsize => true), but 
> then they just disappear altogether.  Where am  going wrong? 
You are telling the splitter window to expand within the frame, by using 
:proportion => 1 at the end, but you also need to tell the ListBox and 
TextCtrl to expand within their containing Panels. Otherwise they will 
appear at the small default size. eg:

    arrange_vertically
    splitter = SplitterWindow.new(self)
    splitter.minimum_pane_size = 10
    p1 = splitter.add(Panel) do | p1 |
      # arrange ...
      p1.arrange_vertically do
        # ... and expand
        @errors = p1.add(ListBox, :proportion => 1)
      end
    end
  
    p2 = splitter.add(Panel) do | p2 |
      # ditto
      p2.arrange_vertically do
        log_style = TE_MULTILINE|TE_READONLY
        @log = p2.add(TextCtrl[:style => log_style], :proportion => 1)
      end
    end

    splitter.split_horizontally(p1, p2)
    add(splitter, :proportion => 1)

I ''sugared'' your code generally to illustrate that you can
just use the
class name (or klass[]) within a call to ''add'' because the
parent is
implied. But only the calls to arrange_vertically and the :proportion=> 
1 arguments actually needed for your purpose.

cheers
alex

Hi Alex,

Thanks for the quick response ...
> I''m not so sure for Windows, but certainly on OS X I would be very
> surprised if you were allowed to change the colour of the Aqua-style 
> gauge. Underneath wxruby it''s implemented by calls to the standard
API
> and from Apple''s interface builder there''s no setting to
alter this
colour.
> I''d probably see this as a platform-native feature - maybe have
another
> look at what you''re trying to convey by using a non-standard gauge
> colour. Perhaps we could suggest a more familiar UI metaphor?
You can definitely change the gauge background/foreground colours in 
windows wxruby 0.6.0, but not in wxruby2preview.  For OS X, I agree that 
it goes against the apple UI guidelines and so seems reasonable not to 
work. 

I also agree that its probably not the right UI metaphor and have 
subsequently ditched the gauge.  I''m basically trying to implement a
solid
red/green status bar, like junit (http://www.junit.org/).  Following 
advice from the OS X junit (see: 
http://java.sun.com/developer/technicalArticles/JavaLP/JavaToMac2/),
I''ve
since tried to implement this using a TextCtrl.  This works fine on 
windows, but on OS X the background is always white.  Should this work, or 
can you suggest another component type that can be coloured in this way?
> You are telling the splitter window to expand within the frame, by using 
> :proportion => 1 at the end, but you also need to tell the ListBox and 
>TextCtrl to expand within their containing Panels. Otherwise they will 
> appear at the small default size. eg: .....
(snip)

Thanks for the arrangement advice, this works just great now.  Also, I 
didn''t know about the ability to just use the class name,
that''s really
nice.  I''d hate to have to write a UI without wx-sugar now ;)

A couple more questions for you ... 

- TextCtrl on windows supports the TE_RICH and TE_AUTO_URL styles, but I 
cannot seem to extract the url from the generated evt_text_url event.  Is 
this not supported or am I just not asking the right question of it?

- I''m a big fan of automated UI testing (i.e. driving the UI from some 
robot API). I appreciate this is potentially a whole new project, but does 
wxwidgets provide a method of clicking buttons, typing into components ... 
if so, would it be technically possible to expose this in wxruby.

Cheers,

Paul


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Authority for the conduct of its investment business in
the United Kingdom.

BNP Paribas Securities Services London Branch is authorised 
by CECEI & AMF and is regulated by the Financial Services 
Authority for the conduct of its investment business in 
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BNP Paribas Fund Services UK Limited is authorised and 
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Hi Paul
> You can definitely change the gauge background/foreground colours in 
> windows wxruby 0.6.0, but not in wxruby2preview. 
OK, I didn''t know that. Feel free to file a bug for
it.
> I also agree that its probably not the right UI metaphor and have 
> subsequently ditched the gauge.  I''m basically trying to implement
a
> solid red/green status bar, 
I wondered if it was something like that. Eclipse + RDT uses it for the 
unit testing runner. I actually think it reasonable UI device but 
unfortunately as the link you sent points out it''s a Swing
thing.
> I''ve since tried to implement this using a TextCtrl.  This works
fine
> on windows, but on OS X the background is always white.  Should this 
> work, or can you suggest another component type that can be coloured 
> in this way?
Are you using set_background_colour or set_default_style? I know that 
set_style doesn''t respect the background colour of a TextAttr on OS X, 
on 10.3 at least.

My investigations suggest that WxWidgets wraps different native OS X 
controls on different versions, including one that doesn''t support bg 
colour on text. This is a thorn in my side as I need this for an app - 
so it''s something I''m pursuing.

In the meantime, possible workarounds might be to place StaticText on a 
Panel (which definitely can be coloured on OS X), or (really nasty) to 
use a single-cell Grid and hide the column and row
headers.
> A couple more questions for you ...
I''ll reply in new threads...

Alex

> OK, I didn''t know that. Feel free to file a bug for it.
Done ... #7386
>I wondered if it was something like that. Eclipse + RDT uses it for the 
>unit testing runner. I actually think it reasonable UI device but 
>unfortunately as the link you sent points out it''s a Swing thing.
:)
>Are you using set_background_colour or set_default_style? I know that 
>set_style doesn''t respect the background colour of a TextAttr on OS
X,
>on 10.3 at least.
I''m using set_background_colour...
>In the meantime, possible workarounds might be to place StaticText on a 
>Panel (which definitely can be coloured on OS X), or (really nasty) to 
>use a single-cell Grid and hide the column and row headers.
I''ve tried the Panel option and whilst its definitely colour-able its 
causing some other problems in my app.  I''ll try and create a simple
test
case before elaborating further on that, and I''d also like to test it
on
the new 0.0.38 build.

The Grid option does sound rather nasty, but I''ll give it a go ... 
- how do I hide the column/row headers?
- how can I make the single cell grow to fit the entire grid space?
- I''d prefer to use the TextCtrl on windows and whatever works on OSX,
is
there some way to establish at runtime which platform the app is running 
on?



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Authority for the conduct of its investment business in
the United Kingdom.

BNP Paribas Securities Services London Branch is authorised 
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Hi
> The Grid option does sound rather nasty, but I''ll give it a go ...
Haven''t tested the below today, but from
memory:
>
> - how do I hide the column/row headers?
set_col_label_size(0)
set_row_label_size(0)
> - how can I make the single cell grow to fit the entire grid space?
set_col_size(0, get_size[0])
> - I''d prefer to use the TextCtrl on windows and whatever works on
OSX,
> is there some way to establish at runtime which platform the app is 
> running on? 
Test the value of Wx::PLATFORM - should be one of ''WXMSW'',
''WXGTK'', ''WXMAC''

cheers
alex