Surely, from the Forms point of view (sorry about the pun) it's
all there. Use Ctrl-V to insert ANY View interactively, or 
form.Insert (view, l, t, r, b) to do it programmatically.
(Try dropping the Tools->Insert Clock onto a Form.)
 
As for standard elements (Boxes, lines, ??) if these are inert
graphical entities they would be very easy to write (sorry Bart!).
If they are intelligent (eg support Guards etc) then they are more work,
but not excessively so.
 
Would the BB list like to make a (short) list of the most desired elements,
with their wanted properties (eq variable colours, variable line weights, etc?
 
Robert

-----Original Message-----
From: Wijck, Bart van [mailto:Bart_van_Wijck@nl.compuware.com]
Sent: 03 September 2003 13:23
To: 'Erik Spaans'; blackbox@oberon.ch
Subject: RE: adding text and beyond

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Erik,
 
An interesting idea to enhance the forms editor like this. Less expicitly I remember copying the scrolling ticker view (see Obx examples) and pasting it onto a form. The line happily kept on moving within the form, so I presume it remains under the control of the program. It would be more obvious to have an explicit insert function in the forms editor where a link could be made with a view variable of a module. 
Good point also about lines and boxes. At present one would have to create the correct size line or box views and paste them into a form (not very practical). Surely some simple layout objects which one can resize, change line and fill colour etc. could be added to the forms editor without much ado.
 
All this gives the typical BlackBox feel: Tantalizingly close, but ... . I hope something will come of it beyond the scripture "You can extend the forms editor yourself".
 
Regards, Bart

-----Original Message-----
From: Erik Spaans [mailto:erik.spaans@12move.nl]
Sent: Tuesday, September 02, 2003 11:27 PM
To: blackbox@oberon.ch
Subject: adding text and beyond

Thanks Gerard and everyone else who responded. Setting par.label := <some
variable> in a field guard linked to the caption was the answer. I made a
mistake somewhere the first time.

The forms editor allows inserting of a) a set of standard controls, b)
variable text (see above) and c) pictures. Is it difficult to enhance or
extend the forms editor to insert any view  which is under control of a
program? It's the same principle. That way instead of a specific set of
options just about anything becomes possible (a moving graph, an animation,
3D). 
Another very simple enhancement could be the inserting of a few pre-defined
standard elements like lines and boxes to layout the form more clearly.

This would not just spruce-up the forms editor. It makes view programming a
lot easier by just programming the component views and letting the 'forms'
editor do the assembly. In turn it would make the whole potential of
BlackBox much more visible.

Perhaps most significant is that it could make BlackBox a lot more fun!
Quickly creating colourful & 'dynamic' forms could be just the right
advertisement.  

Erik

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