KiXforms

Bert

Hi Shawn,

I have some compatibility- and other problems with KiXforms build 45.
I was using build 42 and want to go to build 45 to be able to change the backcolor of a combobox.

I have the following problems:

1.
The default behaviour of the Label object has been changed.
In build 42 when no Height and Width was given as a parameter to the constructor the Height of the label was big enough for one line of text even if a big font (70) was used. In build 45 the Height seems to be allways 23, which means I can see only a very small part of the top of capital characters in a big fontsize.
In build 42 the Width of the label was big enough to contain the entire text.
In build 45 the Width is only 100.

Many of my forms which uses Label objects with default Width and Height don't display correct anymore.

2.
When in build 42 a label was disabled, the text was displayed in the grey shadowed way.
In build 45 you can only get this behaviour when you explicitly set the forecolor to "black" of another color.

3.
When the backcolor of a combobox is changed only a thin line surrounding the editable part of the combobox changes to the new color.
One way to overcome this is to disable and enable the combobox or to Refresh the combobox.

4.
Labels show intermittently some strange icons centered to the middle of the label. I have seen a black/white "no-entrance" icon, a speaker-icon, some sort of folder-icon and part of my cursor. When it is a cursor it disappeares en re-appeares when moving the cursor.

5.
Creating and displaying object in a form is noticibly slower in build 45 than in build 42.
Using Beginupdate and Endupdate overcomes this slow buildup on the screen a little.

6. The default height of a label seems to a little bigger than in build 42. A label close on top of another object is now overlapping the other object by a few pixels.

Problems 1 and 4 keeps me from using this version of KixForms.

I would like to suggest the following default behaviour for the Label object.
When no Width is given in the Contructor the Width should be wide enough to contain the entire text. When the text is multiline, by having @CRLF or CHR(10) of CHR(13) or a combination embedded, the width should be no bigger than the widest line of the text.
When no Height is given in the Constructor the height should be high enough to contain all the lines of the text.
When a Width is given and no Height then the label object should wrap the text and make the label high enough to contain all the lines.

A programmer could allways test the Height and Width and change it to some maximum value if the default is too big.

Thanx,

Jochen

Bert · Posted: Wed Dec 29, 2004 4:59 pm Post subject:

Hi Jochen,

My project is a 5000 line Wizard engine to be used in automated installations.
The wizard is driven by a .INI file which contains the instructions to display screens and perform actions.
This wizard is already used in distribution kits.
When one distribution kit with the new KiXforms is used than all older distributions will not work properly anymore.

The strange behviour only happens once and awhile. When I have two wizard screens filled with fields and labels I can switch 20 or 30 times between screens without any problem and than suddenly I see an tranparent icon on my label.
The last time it was the icon of McAfee Mshield ( the shield with the red "noentrance" plate). The Mshield icon was in the icon-tray but without the red plate. So I think it was picked up out of the application somehow.

It is very difficult to make a small part of the wizard working because it is very complex and dynamic.
However here is a small part of the project which displays an object to enter a folder with browse and test buttons and a label.

Bert · Posted: Thu Dec 30, 2004 10:16 am Post subject:

Hi,

Here is a part of the form which shows the problem.
As you can see there is an icon visible on the last but one label.

The label, textbox and button are created with the following code.

Jochen · Posted: Thu Dec 30, 2004 10:27 am Post subject:

$olabel[$field].enabled = 1

Does this mean teh Labels are 'disabled' on creation ??

Sceptic

Shawn · Posted: Thu Dec 30, 2004 1:22 pm Post subject:

Bert,

I just posted a new DEV BUILD to address the icon thingy, please give a go and advise ...

-Shawn

Bert · Posted: Wed Jan 05, 2005 11:20 am Post subject:

Bert · Posted: Wed Jan 05, 2005 11:41 am Post subject:

Shawn · Posted: Wed Jan 05, 2005 1:19 pm Post subject:

Bert,

The new builds are posted here:

http://www.kixforms.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=503

-Shawn

Jochen · Posted: Wed Jan 05, 2005 2:50 pm Post subject:

Bert,

yeah, that might be, yet I can't see any sense in disabling a Label, from a logical point of view (what is it good for at runtime of the programm)
Well, it discovered a drawing bug that crept in somewhere in development Very Happy

Shawn,

I hope this development build fixes only, not changing default behaviour !?

Bert · Posted: Wed Jan 05, 2005 3:06 pm Post subject:

Jochen,

When a field is disabled in the wizard I want a visible feedback to the user so I want the label, the field and the buttons shown in the special grey/shadowed way.

You can see disabled labels and buttons when you look at IE settings 'Connection' tab, the 'Lan settings' dialog when the 'Use proxy server...' checkbox is unchecked.

An alternative would be to hide all disabled elements as other installation wizards sometimes do.

Bert · Posted: Wed Jan 05, 2005 3:23 pm Post subject:

Shawn,

DEV BUILD 46 seems to solve the ghost-icon problem. I have not seen the problem switching some 100 times my wizard screens.

Thanx

Jochen · Posted: Wed Jan 05, 2005 3:35 pm Post subject:

ja,

got it now, thanx for explanation Bert.