Clarion 7 RTL and Drivers

In the Next C7 RTL Update

We've been tweaking the C7 RTL with an eye towards improved visuals.  Nothing can be more aggravating than a UI that flickers when some user initiated action, an event, or code causes a repaint.  To that end in the next build we'll be releasing changes in the RTL to optimize the redrawing of controls and suppress background flicker on activating or resizing of a window.  This change isn't like the UI enhancements we previously implemented to theme all controls, or the fancy new Menu styles, this one is about what you don't see.

The Listbox is about the most ubiquitous control in any Clarion application.  We have already made some great enhancements to the C7 List control to make it more visually appealling (the functionality was almost unmatched already), but here is another visual improvement.  We've added a new feature to improve the visual appearance of listboxes at the core of which are two new properties: PROPLIST:BarFrame and PROPSTYLE:BarFrame.

PROPLIST:BarFrame is an indexed property which defines the color of
the "frame" of the selection bar for a given column, example usage is:
 
  ?List {PROPLIST:BarFrame, 1} = 0C66A32h   ! 1st Column frame color
  ?List {PROPLIST:BarFrame, 2} = COLOR:Red  ! 2nd Column frame color

The property sets the listbox's default color for the selection bar's frame used
for columns/fields where this color is not already set explicitly in the format string.

Another new property; PROPSTYLE:BarFrame, this sets the color of the selection bar's frame to the given style, usage example is:

  ?List {PROPSTYLE:BarFrame, 1} = COLOR:Blue

If either PROPLIST:BarFrame or PROPSTYLE:BarFrame is set and a default
frame color is not set, the RTL calculates a color using the selection bar's background color.
If the frame color is used for the selection bar, the focus rectangle is not drawn if the listbox has focus.

Here are a few screenshots so you get an idea of the visual effect you can achieve.




We have also fixed an error with an incorrect calculation of header height for themed listboxes
on rescaling, for example on changing of the PROP:LineHeight property. 

These changes will be released in the next update due out this week.

posted on Monday, January 28, 2008 7:12 PM by Robert Zaunere