locana_gui_mswin32.rb - locana GUI Binding for Microsoft Windows 32

Author: Michael Davis, mdavis@locana.org

Copyright: (C) 2000, 2001, 2002 Seva Inc. and Seva Software - www.sevasoftware.com

Home page: www.locana.org

License: Same as Ruby

This is the mswin32 GUI Binding for Microsoft Windows 32. This module allows you to build user interfaces (GUIs) that run in windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000. See locana.rb for more details.

In order to use the mswin32 GUI Binding I had to create a DLL containing several small C functions. The DLL is pre-built for you and should be automatically installed by install.rb. Here are the installation procedures in case you decide to install it directly:

• cd to the directory where locana in installed
• cd ruby_ext/mswin32
• ruby extconf.rb
• make
• make install

Status

• Only .bmp files can be used in the Limage object. Gif and jpg files are not working.

To do

• Add support for gif and jpg files
• Expand Locana_gui::font_names() to return a complete list of installed fonts.

History

• 11/6/2003 - Changed how modal windows are handled to eliminated the changing of the windows stacking order when closing a modal window.
• 8/24/2003 - Completely redesigned the GUI binding interface. It now provides basic methods and Locana draws all the widgets. Also re-engineered this GUI binding to use a DLL rather than requiring you to compile a needed library. This was necessary to get Locana to run on XP because something in cygwin/Ruby/XP/Win32API appears to be broken. The positive aspect of this change is that windows users should be able to use locana without installing cygwin or some other unix type compiler to build needed stuff.
• 8/19/2002 - Added support for :box_pos => :right.
• 6/20/2002 -
  • Determine the pixel_width and pixel_height of object is now done using the font. This is a little faster and appears to be more accurate than rendering the object and asking windows for the size of the object.
  • Fonts are now stored in a class variable for all objects rather than in an instance variable for each object. This reduces the number of fonts that need to be created for windows.
  • Fixed several issues with buttons with borders and fonts.
  • Added LGobject.font_names() to return a list of font names.
• 6/10/2002 - Buttons now inherit color from their parent. Bug fixes to get colors, justify, and font to work with buttons.
• 6/7/2002 - Added support for select_text so you can highlight text in the textbox, editbox, and password classes.
• 5/31/2002 - Moved the @parent attribute to the Lobject object and eliminated the need for @parent_attr.
• 5/14/2002 - More accurate at calculating the height/width of objects with borders and scroll bars.
• 2/25/2002 - Changed strings to symbols. Added support for :on_exit, on_enter, :on_change, :on_next_object, :on_click, and :on_prev_object events. Determining the pixel width and height of objects is much more accurate now.
• 1/30/2002 - First official release.
• 1/29/2002 - Completed enough to work with the Locana GUI builder.
• 1/07/2002 - Started.