GUI ScreenIO for
Windows|
GUI ScreenIO for
Windows |
A well-designed Windows application should be so easy to use that a manual isn't really needed; a good menu and thoughtful design of the user interface goes a long way toward achieving this.
All Windows applications share certain common elements. Some of them appear below in this example from the GUI ScreenIO panel editor:
All Windows applications have a title bar that usually displays the name of the application; here, “GUI ScreenIO Panel Editor”.
At the right-hand end of the title bar are three boxes used to minimize (remove the window from the screen and “park” it in the Windows taskbar, out of the way) or maximize (expand the window to fill the screen) the window. The “X” box closes the application.
Beneath the title bar is a menu which lists all of the actions available at any given time.
All Windows applications should have a menu, since it's an essential part of the interface; it explicitly shows the user what facilities are available.
A toolbar containing buttons is generally found beneath the menu. Toolbar buttons generally just provide an alternative means of selecting actions that are also available on the menu.
Note: GUI ScreenIO does not presently allow you to include toolbars in your application.
The status bar resides at the bottom of the window. The status bar can be divided into cells, which display a variety of information; in this sample, they show the dimensions and the COBOL name (CB1) of the checkbox control. In most applications, the status bar is used to display error or informative messages.
The border can be used to adjust the size of the window by “dragging” it with the mouse. All Windows have a border.
The rest of the window is called the “client area”. The client area is where your control are placed.
The client area does not include the space occupied by the menu, borders, status bar, or other visual elements, so its maximum size will be somewhat smaller than the physical size of a display.
The objects in the client area, and the client area itself, are measured and positioned in dialog box units. A dialog box unit is, approximately, 1/4 of an "average" character wide, and 1/8 of an "average" character in height. This allows windows and their contents to scale in proportion and look "right" regardless of the target system's screen resolution and font settings. This is a Windows convention, used in all Windows applications, not just GUI ScreenIO, and it works very well.
If, however, you place two systems side-by-side and they are running different resolutions and font settings, it is possible that the same window will be proportioned a bit differently, because of rounding errors in scaling dialog box units to the physical resolution and character settings of the target system. This is normal.
Controls are standard Windows elements that are used to display your text and data.
Checkboxes are used to display on/off conditions; when selected, a checkbox displays a check mark; when off, it’s empty.
A groupbox is just a visual element. It groups a set of related controls; in this case, a pair of radiobuttons. Groupboxes are otherwise inactive.
Radiobuttons are like checkboxes except that they are used to implement mutually exclusive choices. You create a radiobutton for each choice, and then associate them into a group. When you run your program, Windows only allows one button to be selected within any given group. If you select another button in the group, the first one is automatically deselected.
A static text control just displays text that would not normally be updated at runtime.
An edit control is used to accept and/or display textual data, including numeric data.
GUI ScreenIO provides a number of other Windows controls, but these are the most common.
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