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Re: Styles and Widgets [message #8526 is a reply to message #8521]

Thu, 15 March 2007 14:59

mirek
Messages: 14261
Registered: November 2005

Ultimate Member

WebChaot wrote on Thu, 15 March 2007 07:39

Hi Mirek!

Thanks for your answer. I'm not sure, if it brings light into dark or only new questions Wink

>>> Well, the important thing to understand about chameleon is that it is using "Value" to represent visual appearance.

Maybe thats my problem: How can a function be a value and how it works?

Well, that is why I state it as "important thing to understand" Smile

OK, start with something simple (and follow my mental process when designing the whole thing):

It can be Image. Image can be scaled to cover the target rectangle.

Step 2: It will not always look nice. Therefore define rectangular area within Image that is scaled competely; rest is border that is scaled in one dircetion only or not at all (think about how XP button looks like.

Step 3: Value is able to store anything. So if you need to paint something else (like use host platform theming API), create a special value type that contains parameteres describing what to paint. Then register your chameleon routine (ChRegister) that detects such values and provides custom painting.

See that Chameleon example again now please.... OTOH, even Step 2 already provides anything you ever needed to skin your application.

Mirek

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