Re: [Jgeneral] Form Editor & wd commands
Dear Chris Please could you take my email address off this email list - i am not part of the group. Thanks so much. Marion on behalf of j.cor...@iafrica.com - Original Message - From: "chris burke" To: "general" Sent: Sunday, April 16, 2023 3:20:41 PM Subject: Re: [Jgeneral] Form Editor & wd commands The main benefit of the J6 form editor was that it made it easy to lay out controls. Each control needed a position and size, given as xywh values, and it would have been tedious to create and update those values manually. J8 wd uses Qt which has its own layout manager. We no longer give xywh values, but instead give high level instructions as to how controls should be laid out, and let Qt do the rest. As a result, the old form editor is really not needed. I did a lot of form design using J6 and earlier, and much prefer the new way. I would encourage you to experiment more with the new wd and post any problems you have to the forum. The Help|Studio|Qt Demos should be a good starting point. As regards using another program to build a GUI, yes this is certainly possible. J can be called from other programs, so you could have J for calculations and another program for the GUI. On Sun, Apr 16, 2023 at 6:09 AM adam dunne wrote: > > I am an old fan of J who stuck with J602 because of theForm Editor when it > was dropped in J7 & later updates. > I have now returned to using J after a long absence. > Installed J 9.4 two days ago. > > Frankly I find wd cmds bewildering & would far prefer to use the old Form > Editor. > However I note J602 is archived and can no longer be installed. > > You still have Form Editor documentation both in WIki & Labs in spite of no > one being able to use it anymore. > > Frankly I think the whole thing is a mess and the original decision to > drop the form editor was flawed. > > Can I use visual basic or visual studio to create a GUI instead? > -- > For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm -- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm -- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
Re: [Jgeneral] Form Editor & wd commands
You can try the jnet frontend which uses the legacy wd commands. The j602 form scripts can be run directly or with minor changes. Jnet ide addon can be installed via jal. It runs on windows only. You can play with the demo. On Sun, 16 Apr 2023 at 9:09 PM adam dunne wrote: > I am an old fan of J who stuck with J602 because of theForm Editor when it > was dropped in J7 & later updates. > I have now returned to using J after a long absence. > Installed J 9.4 two days ago. > > Frankly I find wd cmds bewildering & would far prefer to use the old Form > Editor. > However I note J602 is archived and can no longer be installed. > > You still have Form Editor documentation both in WIki & Labs in spite of no > one being able to use it anymore. > > Frankly I think the whole thing is a mess and the original decision to > drop the form editor was flawed. > > Can I use visual basic or visual studio to create a GUI instead? > -- > For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm > -- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
Re: [Jgeneral] Form Editor & wd commands
IIRC dissect runs on 6.02 and 9.4. You can look at it for examples of how to migrate. Henry Rich On Sun, Apr 16, 2023, 10:21 AM chris burke wrote: > The main benefit of the J6 form editor was that it made it easy to lay > out controls. Each control needed a position and size, given as xywh > values, and it would have been tedious to create and update those > values manually. > > J8 wd uses Qt which has its own layout manager. We no longer give xywh > values, but instead give high level instructions as to how controls > should be laid out, and let Qt do the rest. As a result, the old form > editor is really not needed. > > I did a lot of form design using J6 and earlier, and much prefer the new > way. > > I would encourage you to experiment more with the new wd and post any > problems you have to the forum. The Help|Studio|Qt Demos should be a > good starting point. > > As regards using another program to build a GUI, yes this is certainly > possible. J can be called from other programs, so you could have J for > calculations and another program for the GUI. > > On Sun, Apr 16, 2023 at 6:09 AM adam dunne wrote: > > > > I am an old fan of J who stuck with J602 because of theForm Editor when > it > > was dropped in J7 & later updates. > > I have now returned to using J after a long absence. > > Installed J 9.4 two days ago. > > > > Frankly I find wd cmds bewildering & would far prefer to use the old Form > > Editor. > > However I note J602 is archived and can no longer be installed. > > > > You still have Form Editor documentation both in WIki & Labs in spite of > no > > one being able to use it anymore. > > > > Frankly I think the whole thing is a mess and the original decision to > > drop the form editor was flawed. > > > > Can I use visual basic or visual studio to create a GUI instead? > > -- > > For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm > -- > For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm > -- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
Re: [Jgeneral] Form Editor & wd commands
The main benefit of the J6 form editor was that it made it easy to lay out controls. Each control needed a position and size, given as xywh values, and it would have been tedious to create and update those values manually. J8 wd uses Qt which has its own layout manager. We no longer give xywh values, but instead give high level instructions as to how controls should be laid out, and let Qt do the rest. As a result, the old form editor is really not needed. I did a lot of form design using J6 and earlier, and much prefer the new way. I would encourage you to experiment more with the new wd and post any problems you have to the forum. The Help|Studio|Qt Demos should be a good starting point. As regards using another program to build a GUI, yes this is certainly possible. J can be called from other programs, so you could have J for calculations and another program for the GUI. On Sun, Apr 16, 2023 at 6:09 AM adam dunne wrote: > > I am an old fan of J who stuck with J602 because of theForm Editor when it > was dropped in J7 & later updates. > I have now returned to using J after a long absence. > Installed J 9.4 two days ago. > > Frankly I find wd cmds bewildering & would far prefer to use the old Form > Editor. > However I note J602 is archived and can no longer be installed. > > You still have Form Editor documentation both in WIki & Labs in spite of no > one being able to use it anymore. > > Frankly I think the whole thing is a mess and the original decision to > drop the form editor was flawed. > > Can I use visual basic or visual studio to create a GUI instead? > -- > For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm -- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
[Jgeneral] Form Editor & wd commands
I am an old fan of J who stuck with J602 because of theForm Editor when it was dropped in J7 & later updates. I have now returned to using J after a long absence. Installed J 9.4 two days ago. Frankly I find wd cmds bewildering & would far prefer to use the old Form Editor. However I note J602 is archived and can no longer be installed. You still have Form Editor documentation both in WIki & Labs in spite of no one being able to use it anymore. Frankly I think the whole thing is a mess and the original decision to drop the form editor was flawed. Can I use visual basic or visual studio to create a GUI instead? -- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm