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Thread: UI development

  1. #1

    Question UI development

    Quote Originally Posted by ErosOlmi View Post
    if you right click on line
    #resource ".\Resources_Test001.rc"
    
    you should get menu with "Open <resouce file name>"
    If you choose it a resource editor should open and you can edit/create forms
    .RC file is a common development file format used in some programming languages like C
    Forms and controls names defined in .RC file are than recognized at runtime by thinBasic engine and you can use in script.
    Not all controls are still developed, only few of them.

    I'm still try to find right direction.
    But better to spin off and talk into another thread.
    Eros,

    if I may ask, can you please develop the I'm still try to find right direction. part ?
    ThinBasic 1.11.6.0 ALPHA - Windows 8.1 x64

  2. #2
    thinBasic author ErosOlmi's Avatar
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    Well, my main big idea was to develop a form designer using thinBasic programming language.
    But at the moment it is a too big project for an interpreter.

    I tried to develop a compiled visual designer (the one you get in thinAir under Tools\Visual designer menu) but the effort to maintain it is quite big.

    So I tried to find visual designer able to produce a file I can interpret on the fly by thinBasic UI module and I found that a resource editor able to save .RC files could be the way to have something usable and help programmers.
    I think it is not bad if I will be able to introduce all most common controls.

    In any case my original idea to have a visual designer developed directly using thinBasic is still there.
    www.thinbasic.com | www.thinbasic.com/community/ | help.thinbasic.com
    Windows 10 Pro for Workstations 64bit - 32 GB - Intel(R) Xeon(R) W-10855M CPU @ 2.80GHz - NVIDIA Quadro RTX 3000

  3. #3
    I found that a resource editor able to save .RC files could be the way to have something usable and help programmers.
    The little I've catch in the resource sample seems very helping. As you know I'm preparing the 'bricks' for my file manager project while wait-times during BTB development. I think GUI will come toward the end. If I may help during this project, ask.

    I think it is not bad if I will be able to introduce all most common controls.
    I agree, it will be useful if we do not encounter blockage.
    ThinBasic 1.11.6.0 ALPHA - Windows 8.1 x64

  4. #4
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    I have always wanted to add a window editor to LzRPA.

    This plan may be implemented next year.

    The difficulty is indeed not small, but it can solve the problem of coordinate measurement.



    But DirectUI is very popular now, and traditional UI has no advantage compared to this, which is a big problem.

    In order to enhance user interface development capabilities, ThinBasic should also introduce DirectUI in a timely manner



    E.g:

    http://www.xcgui.com/

  5. #5

    Another option

    Eros,

    There may be another option for a Designer for ThinBasic .

    I am working on a project to turn my EZGUI Visual Designer into a universal Visual Designer for other programming languages. My idea is to build a plugin engine into the Designer, where a programming language can be defined in a Template plugin (DLL) for any programming language. The Designer would load the plugin and then many of the decisions and code generation would be done by the plugin, while the Designer would handle everything else.

    My Visual Designer is built upon a Visual Design engine built into my EZGUI framework, so it does many things that are not easily accomplished otherwise. Building a Visual Designer is not easy. For example, just for comparison, consider Firefly or some other Visual Designers. Try to select a dozen or so controls at one time and drag them and see what happens. Try it with 100 controls and try to drag them. You will see a terrible flicker and the process is very slow. The reason is they often drag the actual controls and that makes a mess.

    My EZGUI engine in my designer allows you to select literally hundreds of controls at one time and drag them all seamlessly and without flicker. It uses its own drag rectangle engine which is capable of doing this.

    If you would be interested in this, I may be able to create a version which can be freely distributed with freeware languages. I do plan on a commercial version, but that simply would have all the "bells and whistles" in it.

    One language that I am interested in developing a designer for is Python. ThinBasic would be a nice language to work with too.

    You can email me for more info at: support@cwsof.com

  6. #6
    thinBasic author ErosOlmi's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by xLeaves View Post
    I have always wanted to add a window editor to LzRPA.

    This plan may be implemented next year.

    The difficulty is indeed not small, but it can solve the problem of coordinate measurement.



    But DirectUI is very popular now, and traditional UI has no advantage compared to this, which is a big problem.

    In order to enhance user interface development capabilities, ThinBasic should also introduce DirectUI in a timely manner



    E.g:

    http://www.xcgui.com/
    Interested but didn't find english material.
    It seems DirectUI is a Microsoft product but didn't find resources to study.
    Do you have any link?

    Thanks a lot.
    Eros
    www.thinbasic.com | www.thinbasic.com/community/ | help.thinbasic.com
    Windows 10 Pro for Workstations 64bit - 32 GB - Intel(R) Xeon(R) W-10855M CPU @ 2.80GHz - NVIDIA Quadro RTX 3000

  7. #7
    thinBasic author ErosOlmi's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Chris Boss View Post
    Eros,

    There may be another option for a Designer for ThinBasic .

    I am working on a project to turn my EZGUI Visual Designer into a universal Visual Designer for other programming languages. My idea is to build a plugin engine into the Designer, where a programming language can be defined in a Template plugin (DLL) for any programming language. The Designer would load the plugin and then many of the decisions and code generation would be done by the plugin, while the Designer would handle everything else.

    My Visual Designer is built upon a Visual Design engine built into my EZGUI framework, so it does many things that are not easily accomplished otherwise. Building a Visual Designer is not easy. For example, just for comparison, consider Firefly or some other Visual Designers. Try to select a dozen or so controls at one time and drag them and see what happens. Try it with 100 controls and try to drag them. You will see a terrible flicker and the process is very slow. The reason is they often drag the actual controls and that makes a mess.

    My EZGUI engine in my designer allows you to select literally hundreds of controls at one time and drag them all seamlessly and without flicker. It uses its own drag rectangle engine which is capable of doing this.

    If you would be interested in this, I may be able to create a version which can be freely distributed with freeware languages. I do plan on a commercial version, but that simply would have all the "bells and whistles" in it.

    One language that I am interested in developing a designer for is Python. ThinBasic would be a nice language to work with too.

    You can email me for more info at: support@cwsof.com

    Ciao Chris,

    that's why I gave up in creating my personal visual designer. I started but soon discover I had to study and develop too much.
    So I thought my time would better being spent in developing thinBasic language.

    You idea of a plug in for every language is very intriguing.
    If you already have an interface I can study, I can start making some test in creating a plugin.

    Thanks
    Eros
    www.thinbasic.com | www.thinbasic.com/community/ | help.thinbasic.com
    Windows 10 Pro for Workstations 64bit - 32 GB - Intel(R) Xeon(R) W-10855M CPU @ 2.80GHz - NVIDIA Quadro RTX 3000

  8. #8
    Another thing that would be nice is if the ThinBasic editor could be put into a DLL. Then I could have the Designer load a thinbasic plugin for info about code generation and controls and also load a prebuild code editor which the Designer could display. That way it could all appear to be integrated.

  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by ErosOlmi View Post
    Interested but didn't find english material.
    It seems DirectUI is a Microsoft product but didn't find resources to study.
    Do you have any link?

    Thanks a lot.
    Eros
    Dear ErosOlmi:

    I have a few selections here, but I haven't thought of the final use. I hope that this project will be finally completed and announced here.

    XCGUI: A DriectUI library made by a Chinese developer (although multi-language support is complete, but lacks English documentation), the function is perfect, and the library is free, but the visual editor is charged, and it can achieve very good interface effects. But the cost of visual editors means that it is difficult to promote them on a large scale.
    http://www.xcgui.com

    HTMLayout / Sciter: An HTML5 interface library, it's all good, but it's too big (7MB +), and not everyone is willing to make the software increase so much for a simple interface.
    https://sciter.com/

    Dear imgui: A game GUI, but it is good enough to be used for software development. The problem is that it needs to be written with an OpenGL or DirectX front-end package, and it is C ++ and must be packaged.
    https://github.com/ocornut/imgui

    Win32SDK: I put this at the back. It is completely incomparable with other interface libraries in the selectable category, but at least ThinBasic already has a UI library using this technology.

  10. #10
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    If you want to choose to use RC files, you can try RedED developed by Ketlio. This project has been embedded in FbEdit and RadASM. If this solution does not reach the level of VB, it will not make much sense to implement it. After all, users cannot be proficient in Win32SDK. a large technical categories, many programmers have not crossed this threshold.

    At present, I tend to choose dear imgui. This solution does not rely on a visual editor (similar to a stream layout), and it works well. It does not require developers to have much knowledge, but in general, if I am a Novice users, what I need is an event-driven visual editor, not a user interface library like this that needs to get started.

    1.jpg

    dear imgui

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