• Dialog.h

    agp.cooper • 02/16/2025 at 08:29 • 0 comments

    Buttons GUI

    I am going to take one of my programs (csv2dxf.c) and replace Zenity with my Dialog.h header file.

    Lets call my GUI "Buttons", as it is conceptually a grid of buttons but with differing properties. The main constraint is that the grid is fixed width and fixed height.

    So the following image is a two column by ten row grid. Each cell is 160 pixels wide by 50 pixels high.

    Obviously I can merge cells such as the title and sub-titles.

    Here is how the grid is defined:

    //  Here is our basic cell grid defintions  --------------------
#define cellWidth                   160
#define cellHeight                   50
#define cellColCnt                    2
#define cellRowCnt                   10
#define cellCnt                      20

    Cells 

    Cells are defined by a structure:

    //  The master cell structure  ---------------------------------
enum modes {hidden,label,input,cancel,okay,toggle,button};
struct CELL {
int Id;
int Forward;
enum modes Mode;
int Width;
int Height;
int PosX;
int PosY;
bool Selected;
int ButtonClr;
int PaddingWidth;
int PaddingClr;
int SideWidth;
int SideLightClr;
int SideDarkClr;
int FontSize;
char FontName[64];
char Label[32];
} cells[cellCnt];

    Note button types or modes are defined in the enum structure.


    Button Style and Colours

    The defaults for every cells are:

    //  Default cell properties  -----------------------------------
#define cellMode                 hidden
#define cellSelected              false
#define cellButtonClr       (160)*65793
#define cellPaddingWidth              5
#define cellPaddingClr (256-32/2)*65793
#define cellSideWidth                 5
#define cellSideLightClr (160+64)*65793
#define cellSideDarkClr  (160-32)*65793
#define cellFontSize                 15
#define cellFontName       fontName9x15
#define cellLabel               "Label"

    I have used a grey for my buttons but it is configurable.

    Fonts

    Fonts are based on what is available under the X11 system. There are 948 fonts on my system but I only bound 18 fonts named in the font alias file. The font alias file is for backward compatibility. The aliases map to real font names.

    For example:

        "variable"

    maps to

    "    -*-helvetica-bold-r-normal-*-*-120-*-*-*-*-iso8859-1"

       which maps to

    "-adobe-helvetica-bold-r-normal--0-0-0-0-p-0-iso8859-1"

      which maps to

     "-urw-nimbus sans l-bold-r-normal--0-0-0-0-p-0-iso8859-1"

    Not all fonts work, but those with character set "iso8859-1" appears to be good.

    One problem is that the X11 system uses bit maps and therefore don't re-scale well. 

    const char *fontNameFixed    = "fixed";   //  Same as 6x13
const char *fontNameVariable = "variable";//  Helvetica Bold 13
const char *fontName5x7      = "5x7";
const char *fontName5x8      = "5x8";
const char *fontName6x9      = "6x9"; 
const char *fontName6x10     = "6x10";
const char *fontName6x12     = "6x12";
const char *fontName6x13     = "6x13";
const char *fontName6x13bold = "6x13bold";
const char *fontName7x14     = "7x14";
const char *fontName7x14bold = "7x14bold";
const char *fontName8x13     = "8x13";
const char *fontName8x13bold = "8x13bold";
const char *fontName8x16     = "8x16";
const char *fontName9x15     = "9x15";    //  Nice fixed default
const char *fontName9x15bold = "9x15bold";
const char *fontName10x20    = "10x20";   // Good Sub-tile
const char *fontName12x24    = "12*24";   // Good title

    Layout

    Best to draw a grid for your GUI numbering the cells from 0 to cellCnt-1 by column and then row:

    Cell 0: TitleCell 1: Title continued
    Cell 2: Sub-titleCell 3: Sub-title continued
    Cell 4: LabelCell 5: Input
    Cell 6: LabelCell 7: Input
    Cell 8: Sub-titleCell 9: Sub-title continued
    Cell 10: LabelCell 11: Input
    Cell 12: LabelCell 13: Input
    Cell 14: LabelCell 15: Input
    Cell 16: LabelCell 17: Input
    Cell 18: CancelCell 19: Okay

    Overwrite the button defaults as required.

    Here is the first row:

    // Row 1: Title
cells[0].Mode=label
strcpy(cells[0].Label,"      CSV to DXF");
strcpy(cells[0].FontName,fontName12x24);
cells[0].FontSize=24;
cells[0].Width=2*cellWidth;
cells[1].Mode=hidden;
...
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