> > >>> i dont have to worry about it as i am using FLUID and can > >>> design things WYSIWYG, but what about people involved at > >>> later stages? > > > They can use FLUID and design things WYSIWYG too. > > > > The power of any code generating tool is generally lost when > > you start to hand-edit the generated code. There are *very* > > few exceptions to this (Dreamweaver does a pretty good > > job with hand-edited HTML but that's about it). The best way > > is to just keep using the same toolchain. > > I found that I went through three phases: > > 1. use fluid to design everything - but the disadvantage is that > all sizes and offsets are fixed, and it can be tedious to move > things around afterwards, and extensive code editing in fluid > can be a little tricky > > 2. use fluid to get a basic layout, and then hand craft equivalent > code that parameterizes everything and readjusts for different > font sizes, etc - but this is an awful lot of work > > 3. use fluid to create abstract base classes for GUI components, > with named member widgets and empty callbacks, and then subclass > these using a standard editor/environment of your choice. This > keeps the fluid files relatively simple, but adds complexity in > the class hierarchy. > > The problem I always found with raw fluid was that sometimes you had > to add a lot more widgets to a window or dialog than you had planned > for at the beginning. Therefore things had to be moved or shrunk to > fit everything in, and it can take many iterations to get it right, > even with the "live mode" in fluid to help you check. > > I've always been curious to know how people design in changes for > different languages and/or character sets. Text in English, Greek > and Japanese all have different "extents", so how do people design > a generic interface that can be used for all. > > D. > > To be honest i have not had any success with it at all as yet, its a totally new thing to me, i suppose i am at a point between your stage two and three with it, i used some generated code and then made a few adjustments in my actual IDE editor, also i more or less just use it to show me what the coords are of my various widgets and ideas of class definitions then like you say i code that up in my own style.
i would really like to know how i can tap into the productivity of Fluid but at present its just weird seeing the code indented and written in a style that i am not used to reading for example, that i can get used to but i can't understand what the real working cycle is like with Fluid or similar designers, i don't think you are supposed to write all your e.g. callback code in using the little dialog boxes etc, i imagine that the interface is all that is designed then you export the files and open them in the editor you normally work with and flesh out the code there. But then that conflicts with this idea of never fiddling with the auto generated code, i can see how 'just don't edit it' works, but then are you supposed to work your own code in and around the auto generated stuff? or is it all supposed to fit in some mighty design that means you build the interface in fluid and then forget about it and don't even look at the code, just derive from or access the widget elements entirely using the code interfaces thus generated in your own source files? Thats probably beyond my composition skills on first thoughts _______________________________________________ fltk mailing list [email protected] http://lists.easysw.com/mailman/listinfo/fltk
