Name: | Render |
Version: | 1.0 |
ID: | ID_RENDER |
Status: | Beta |
Category: | GUI |
Date: | October 2001 |
Author: | Rocklyte Systems |
Copyright: | Rocklyte Systems (c) 2000-2001. All rights reserved. |
Short: | Manages the display and positioning of 2-Dimensional rendered graphics. |
The Render class is the primary tool that is used for interface construction. On its own the Render class does very little in terms of creating graphics, but it has the sole responsibility of managing 2-Dimensional graphics space and keeping everything organised for the display.
Graphically, each Render object represents a rectangular area of space on the display. The biggest Render object, often referred to as the 'Master' represents the screen space, and is as big as the display itself, if not larger. Render objects can be placed inside the master and are typically known as children. You can place more Render objects inside of these children, causing a hierachy to develop that consists of many objects that are all working together on the display.
In order to actually draw graphics onto the display, classes that have been specifically created for drawing graphics must be used to create a meaningful interface. Classes such as Box, Image, Text and Gradient are able to create an assemblance of imagery that has meaning to the user. The interface is then enhanced through the use of user-interactive classes such as OnClick, Movement and Pointer. With a little effort and imagination, a customised interface can thus be assembled and presented to the user without much difficulty on the part of the developer.
While this is a simple concept, the Render class is at the base of its foundation and is one of the largest and most important classes in the system. It provides a great deal of functionality which cannot be summarised in this introduction, but you will find a lot of technical detail on each individual field in this manual. The DML Whitepaper has a good summary as to the basic use of the Render object. It is also recommended that you refer to the DML scripts that come with Athene if you require a real-world view of how the class is typically used.
The Render class supports the following actions:
Activate Shows a Render object on the display. ClosingTag Activates a Render object. Draw Redraws the contents of a Render object. Focus Informs a Render object that it has received the user focus. Hide Hides a Render object from the display. LostFocus Informs a Render object that it has lost the user focus. Move Moves a Render object to a new display position. MoveToBack Moves a Render object to the back of its container. MoveToFront Moves a Render object to the front of its container. Resize Resizes a Render object's dimensions. SaveImage Saves the graphical image of a Render object. Scroll Tells a Render object to scroll its contents. Show Shows a Render object on the display. UserClick Informs a Render object that the user has clicked on it. UserClickRelease Used to inform a Render object when a user click has been released. UserMovement Used to notify Render object's of user movement in and out of their graphical areas.
The Render object consists of the following public fields:
AmtColours Tells you the total amount of colours available to the Render object. Bitmap Readable field that returns a pointer to the drawable Bitmap. BitsPerPixel Tells you the number of bits-per-pixel used by the Render object. Bottom Returns the bottom-most coordinate of a Render object. BottomLimit Prevents a Render object from moving beyond a given point at the bottom of its container. BottomMargin Manipulates the bottom margin of a Render object. BytesPerPixel Tells you the number of bytes-per-pixel used by the Render object. Children A sorted list of Render objects that have been declared as children of the parent. Colour String-based field for setting the background colour. ColourRGB RGB-based field for manipulating the background colour. Drag This object-based field is used to control the dragging of objects around the display. Flags Special flags. Frame Manipulates the frame number that the Render object has on display. Height Defines the height of a Render object. Hide Set to TRUE to hide the Render object from the display. InsideHeight Reflects the amount of space between the vertical margins. InsideWidth Reflects the amount of space between the horizontal margins. LeftLimit Prevents a Render object from moving beyond a given point on the left-hand side. LeftMargin Manipulates the left margin of a Render object. Mask String-based field for setting the masking colour of the rendered graphic. MaskRGB RGB-based field for manipulating the masking colour of the rendered graphic. MaxHeight Prevents the height of a Render object from exceeding a certain value. MaxWidth Prevents the width of a Render object from exceeding a certain value. MinHeight Prevents the height of a Render object from shrinking beyond a certain value. MinWidth Prevents the width of a Render object from shrinking beyond a certain value. Movement Limits the movement of the Render object to vertical or horizontal shifts. Resize This object-based field is used to control graphics resizing. Right Returns the right-most coordinate of a Render object. RightLimit Prevents a Render object from moving beyond a given point on the right-hand side. RightMargin Manipulates the right margin of a Render object. RouteFocus Diverts render focussing through a specific path. StickToBack Set to TRUE if you want the Render object to stick to the back of its container. StickToFront Set to TRUE if you want the Render object to stick to the front of its container. Sticky Set this field to TRUE to prevent the Render object from being moved around. TopLimit Prevents a Render object from moving beyond a given point at the top of its container. TopMargin Manipulates the top margin of a Render object. UserFocus Refers to the Render object that has the current focus. VisibleHeight Reflects the visible height of a rendered area within its container. VisibleWidth Reflects the visible width of a rendered area within its container. Visible Indicates the visibility of a Render object. Width Defines the width of a Render object. XClient Special field used for X11 based Athene systems. XCoord Determines the horizontal position of a Render object. XOffset Determines the horizontal offset of a Render object. YCoord Determines the vertical position of a Render object. YOffset Determines the vertical offset of a Render object.
Action: | SaveImage | |
Short: | Saves the graphical image of a Render object. | |
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Action: | Scroll | |
Short: | Tells a Render object to scroll its contents. | |
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Field: | AmtColours | |
Short: | Tells you the total amount of colours available to the Render object. | |
Type: | LONG | |
Status: | Read | |
|
Field: | Bitmap | |
Short: | Readable field that returns a pointer to the drawable Bitmap. | |
Type: | *Bitmap | |
Status: | Read | |
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Field: | BitsPerPixel | |
Short: | Tells you the number of bits-per-pixel used by the Render object. | |
Type: | LONG | |
Status: | Read | |
|
Field: | Bottom | |
Short: | Returns the bottom-most coordinate of a Render object. | |
Type: | FLOAT | |
Status: | Read | |
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Field: | BottomLimit | |
Short: | Prevents a Render object from moving beyond a given point at the bottom of its container. | |
Type: | FLOAT | |
Status: | Read/Write | |
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Field: | BottomMargin | |
Short: | Manipulates the bottom margin of a Render object. | |
Type: | FLOAT | |
Status: | Read/Write | |
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Field: | BytesPerPixel | |
Short: | Tells you the number of bytes-per-pixel used by the Render object. | |
Type: | LONG | |
Status: | Read | |
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Field: | Children | |
Short: | A sorted list of Render objects that have been declared as children of the parent. | |
Type: | struct RenderChild * | |
Status: | Get | |
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Field: | Colour | |
Short: | String-based field for setting the background colour. | |
Type: | STRING | |
Status: | Write | |
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Field: | ColourRGB | |
Short: | RGB-based field for manipulating the background colour. | |
Type: | RGB | |
Status: | Read | |
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Field: | Drag | |
Short: | This object-based field is used to control the dragging of objects around the display. | |
Type: | OBJECTID | |
Status: | Read/Write | |
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Field: | Flags | |||||||||||||
Short: | Special flags. | |||||||||||||
Type: | LONG/FLAGS | |||||||||||||
Prefix: | RNF | |||||||||||||
Status: | Read | |||||||||||||
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Field: | Frame | |
Short: | Manipulates the frame number that the Render object has on display. | |
Type: | LONG | |
Status: | Read/Write | |
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Field: | Height | |
Short: | Defines the height of a Render object. | |
Type: | FLOAT/PERCENTAGE | |
Status: | Read/Write | |
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Field: | Hide | |
Short: | Set to TRUE to hide the Render object from the display. | |
Type: | BOOLEAN | |
Status: | Init | |
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Field: | InsideHeight | |
Short: | Reflects the amount of space between the vertical margins. | |
Type: | FLOAT | |
Status: | Read | |
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Field: | InsideWidth | |
Short: | Reflects the amount of space between the horizontal margins. | |
Type: | FLOAT | |
Status: | Read | |
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Field: | LeftLimit | |
Short: | Prevents a Render object from moving beyond a given point on the left-hand side. | |
Type: | FLOAT | |
Status: | Read/Write | |
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Field: | LeftMargin | |
Short: | Manipulates the left margin of a Render object. | |
Type: | FLOAT | |
Status: | Read/Write | |
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Field: | Mask | |
Short: | String-based field for setting the masking colour of the rendered graphic. | |
Type: | STRING | |
Status: | Write | |
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Field: | MaskRGB | |
Short: | RGB-based field for manipulating the masking colour of the rendered graphic. | |
Type: | RGB | |
Status: | Read/Write | |
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Field: | MaxHeight | |
Short: | Prevents the height of a Render object from exceeding a certain value. | |
Type: | FLOAT | |
Status: | Read/Write | |
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Field: | MaxWidth | |
Short: | Prevents the width of a Render object from exceeding a certain value. | |
Type: | FLOAT | |
Status: | Read/Write | |
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Field: | MinHeight | |
Short: | Prevents the height of a Render object from shrinking beyond a certain value. | |
Type: | FLOAT | |
Status: | Read/Write | |
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Field: | MinWidth | |
Short: | Prevents the width of a Render object from shrinking beyond a certain value. | |
Type: | FLOAT | |
Status: | Read/Write | |
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Field: | Movement | |
Short: | Limits the movement of the Render object to vertical or horizontal shifts. | |
Type: | LONG/FLAGS | |
Prefix: | MOVE_ | |
Status: | Write | |
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Field: | Resize | |
Short: | This object-based field is used to control graphics resizing. | |
Type: | OBJECTID | |
Status: | Read/Write | |
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Field: | Right | |
Short: | Returns the right-most coordinate of a Render object. | |
Type: | FLOAT | |
Status: | Read | |
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Field: | RightLimit | |
Short: | Prevents a Render object from moving beyond a given point on the right-hand side. | |
Type: | FLOAT | |
Status: | Read/Write | |
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Field: | RightMargin | |
Short: | Manipulates the right margin of a Render object. | |
Type: | FLOAT | |
Status: | Read/Write | |
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Field: | RouteFocus | |
Short: | Diverts render focussing through a specific path. | |
Type: | OBJECTID | |
Status: | Read/Init | |
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Field: | StickToBack | |
Short: | Set to TRUE if you want the Render object to stick to the back of its container. | |
Type: | BOOLEAN | |
Status: | Write | |
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Field: | StickToFront | |
Short: | Set to TRUE if you want the Render object to stick to the front of its container. | |
Type: | BOOLEAN | |
Status: | Write | |
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Field: | Sticky | |
Short: | Set this field to TRUE to prevent the Render object from being moved around. | |
Type: | BOOLEAN | |
Status: | Read/Write | |
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Field: | TopLimit | |
Short: | Prevents a Render object from moving beyond a given point at the top of its container. | |
Type: | FLOAT | |
Status: | Read/Write | |
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Field: | TopMargin | |
Short: | Manipulates the top margin of a Render object. | |
Type: | FLOAT | |
Status: | Read/Write | |
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Field: | UserFocus | |
Short: | Refers to the Render object that has the current focus. | |
Type: | OBJECTID | |
Status: | Read | |
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Field: | VisibleHeight | |
Short: | Reflects the visible height of a rendered area within its container. | |
Type: | FLOAT | |
Status: | Read | |
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Field: | VisibleWidth | |
Short: | Reflects the visible width of a rendered area within its container. | |
Type: | FLOAT | |
Status: | Read | |
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Field: | Visible | |
Short: | Indicates the visibility of a Render object. | |
Type: | BOOLEAN | |
Status: | Read | |
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Field: | Width | |
Short: | Defines the width of a Render object. | |
Type: | FLOAT/PERCENTAGE | |
Status: | Read/Write | |
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Field: | XClient | |
Short: | Special field used for X11 based Athene systems. | |
Type: | LONG | |
Status: | Read/Write | |
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Field: | XCoord | |
Synonyms: | X | |
Short: | Determines the horizontal position of a Render object. | |
Type: | FLOAT/PERCENTAGE | |
Status: | Read/Write | |
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Field: | XOffset | |
Short: | Determines the horizontal offset of a Render object. | |
Type: | FLOAT/PERCENTAGE | |
Status: | Read/Write | |
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Field: | YCoord | |
Synonyms: | Y | |
Short: | Determines the vertical position of a Render object. | |
Type: | FLOAT/PERCENTAGE | |
Status: | Read/Write | |
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Field: | YOffset | |
Short: | Determines the vertical offset of a Render object. | |
Type: | FLOAT/PERCENTAGE | |
Status: | Read/Write | |
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