[ Outline ] · Standard · Linear+ Compiling with CodeBlocks?, Is it my stupidness or a bug? ;)

[frozen]

Hi there!

I want to start programming GUI-programs. After a lot of searching I decided to try VCF although it currently doesn't seem to have a linux version available. I saw that this is being worked on, so it's not a showstopper. I just want something free being able to run on windows, linux and mac systems..
Most other available GUI-Toolkits looked very complicated to me.. Downloading and compiling dozens of different libraries seems a pain to me..

So I found VCF and thought: Wow! This looks great! But why the §$%$%& are no binarys available??? Ok, no problem, I'll compile them myself.. Codeblocks seems to be supported, even easily.. It says: "Open AllProjects Workspace and build the workspace".. Great! Thats easy! Thats what I thought...

I downloaded VCFSrcOnlyInstaller-0.9.0.exe, started it, disables everything that looked like VC and after short time it was installed.. Great! Changing to this directory, opening the vcfAllProjects.workspace, clicking "Build workspace" - and dozens of errormessages... All complaining about files not found...

..\..\..\src\vcf\FoundationKit\FoundationKit.h:82: vcf/FoundationKit/VCF.h: No such file or directory

49 others follow..

Ok, path not set? Nope, it was set..
Error in the build options? None obvious for me.. I tried adding the path to the include directory myself in case the environment variable might not be resolved but to no avail..
I tried the following path:
J:\Programme\VCF-0.9.0\
edit: J:\Programme\VCF-0.9.0\src\ also didn't work.. That's so frustrating...

I hope someone can give me a hint.. I guess it's rather my fault..

Additional information:
Code::Blocks version is 1.0 revision 2796
Operating system is w2k

frozen

[Fraggle]

Yeah, the docs encourage you to use a nightly rather than RC2 because, well, the nightlies are just miles better! They work better too...

Feel free to ask stupid questions (especially if you can't find the answer in the docs or don't understand the docs), so the documentation can be improved so the next noob has an easier time!

[frozen]

Feel free to ask stupid questions (especially if you can't find the answer in the docs or don't understand the docs), so the documentation can be improved so the next noob has an easier time!

That's what I thought...

My very first (stupid?) question:

Please look at this code:

CODE

Panel* panel = new Panel();
panel->setBounds(&mainWindowBounds);

Container* container = panel->getContainer();
if ( NULL != container ) {
   Label* label = new Label();
   label->setCaption("Testtext");
   container->add( label );
   }

mainWindow->add(panel, AlignBottom);

I took it from the documentation and changed it a little bit. It's listed in the doc in 3.3.8.1
I inserted the shown code below line 88 of helloworld2.cpp but it doesn't show the labeltext..

panel->setBounds(&mainWindowBounds); was inserted, because without this, it would only show small signs that the panel indeed was inserted, but it was very very small, maybe 1 px or so..

Commenting out the if and replacing the container->add( label ); with mainWindow->add( label ); works though, at least the label is shown..

So I suppose something is wrong with the container?

BTW, is VCFBuilder available as binary somewhere? It would even compile it, but it seems, Code::Blocks is not supported.. Dev-cpp isn't too.. And thats all IDEs I can use to compile...

Thanks for your help!

frozen

[vortic]

CODE

Panel* panel = new Panel();
panel->setBounds(&mainWindowBounds);

Container* container = panel->getContainer();
if ( NULL != container ) {
   Label* label = new Label();
   label->setCaption("Testtext");
   container->add( label );
   }

mainWindow->add(panel, AlignBottom);

You have not specified a size for your label, therefore it has a size of 0, or maybe just 1 pixel as you say for your Panel. The discussion below applies to a Panel as well, or any other visible Control.

You can either spcify its width, height, both width and height, or when you add the label to the Panel, specify AlignClient for alignment.

If you add a control with AlignBottom or AlignTop alignment, you need to specify the height of the Control you are adding.

If you add a control with AlignRight or AlignLeft alignment, you need to specify the width of the Control you are adding.

If you add a control with AlignClient alignment, you don't need to specify any size of the control you are adding, because it will be automatically resized to take up any available space on the container you are adding it to.

As some examples:

CODE

if ( NULL != container ) {
 Label* label = new Label();
 label->setCaption("Testtext");
 container->add( label, AlignClient );
}

or

CODE

if ( NULL != container ) {
 Label* label = new Label();
 label->setCaption("Testtext");
 label->setHeight( 40.0 );
 container->add( label, AlignBottom );
}

or

CODE

if ( NULL != container ) {
 Label* label = new Label();
 label->setCaption("Testtext");
 label->setBounds( 40, 40, 80, 100 );
 container->add( label );
}

[frozen]

Thanks, this does the job.. Rather not too intuitive, at least for me...

Is it somehow possible, to find out, what size is needed, so that the whole content fits in?

For example if the labels caption is "1" it should have a width and height (size) fitting just this character and if it has the caption "The number is: 1" it should have a much larger width so that the whole text fits.. Something like label->setBounds(label->getNeededSize()); ?

[vortic]

Is it somehow possible, to find out, what size is needed, so that the whole content fits in?

Yes. You need access to a GraphicsContext, and I *think* you want the GraphicsContext onto which the Label is being painted. I'm not sure where your code above is at, but if it is in your MainWindow constructor:

CODE

if ( NULL != container ) {
 Label* label = new Label();
 label->setCaption(L"Testtext");

 GraphicsContext* ctx = this->getContext();  
 label->setBounds( 40, 40, ctx->getTextWidth( L"Testtext" ), 100 );
 
 container->add( label );
}

To make sure it is actually making the Label the correct width, try it with this code, which paints the background of the Label an orange color.

CODE

if ( NULL != container ) {
 Label* label = new Label();
 label->setCaption(L"Testtext");

 GraphicsContext* ctx = this->getContext();  
 label->setBounds( 40, 40, ctx->getTextWidth( L"Testtext" ), 100 );

 label->setTransparent( false );
 //label->setUseColorForBackground( true );//EDIT: This call is not needed.
 label->setColor( Color::getColor("orange"));
 
 container->add( label );
}

[vortic]

Is it somehow possible, to find out, what size is needed, so that the whole content fits in?

Yes. You need access to a GraphicsContext, and I *think* you want the GraphicsContext onto which the Label is being painted.

I'm not sure, but you probably want the GraphicsContext of the Label itself. So, replace this->getContext() with label->getContext();

If you are going to use anything but the default font and size for your text, set that before you set the Bounds, and it might work.

Maybe ddiego can comment on that.


Edit:
Ok, so I tried with a non-default font to see. You need to set the GraphicsContext instance currentFont_ member first if you use a non-default font. I tried with a 24pt Arial font like so:

if ( NULL != container ) {
  Label* label = new Label();
  label->setCaption(L"Testtext");

  Font myFont( "Arial", 24 );
  label->setFont( &myFont );

  GraphicsContext* ctx = label->getContext();
  ctx->setCurrentFont( &myFont );
 
  label->setBounds( 40, 40, ctx->getTextWidth( L"Testtext" ), ctx->getTextHeight( L"Testtext" ) );

  label->setTransparent( false ); 
  label->setColor( Color::getColor("orange"));
 
  container->add( label );
}

[frozen]

Ok, so I tried with a non-default font to see. You need to set the GraphicsContext instance currentFont_ member first if you use a non-default font. I tried with a 24pt Arial font like so:

Thank you very much! This fits best to my intention.
Windows allows the selection of different schemes how things are shown. I don't know how it is called exactly in english Windows systems, I guess it's something like "Windows classic (extralarge)" or so. If a user (with bad eyes maybe) selects this extralarge theme I was afraid all my GUIs might not be readable at all because of overlapping controls. The example where you can select these themes shows what I mean. I want my program to be able to react on such themes by changing the size of the controls so that everything stays readable.

If there was an even easier way to do this, this would be great..

Maybe I should post other questions as a new thread? I guess the information from this one might be interesting for others too..

Again: Thank you very much!!

frozen