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* P r o g r a m O p e r a t i o n *
Starting up :
There are 2 main binaries - c:GUI and GUI4CLI (which can be
in c: or in Guis:, depending on the installation).
You should *always* start Gui4Cli by runing c:GUI.
It will look for Gui4Cli in both places and load it.
It will also make sure that Gui4Cli inherits your cli paths.
> run gui -or- > run gui SomeGuiName.gc
One of the best ways to start-up Gui4Cli is to have "GUI" as
the default tool of the icon of a gui. Double clicking the
icon will automatically start-up Gui4Cli and run the gui.
Where it lives :
When Gui4Cli starts up, it may or may not be given a gui
(script file) or guis to execute. In any case, it will load
itself and install an APPMENU Item, by the name of
"Gui4Cli...". This will appear in the Tools menu of the
Workbench.
This is your anchor to the world. When you choose this menu
item, an easy-requester will appear, allowing you to Quit, Load,
Open, Unload Guis, or run the Prefs gui (Gui4Cli.gc)
The requester :
If you choose Quit, all windows will be closed, all GUIs
unloaded and the program will quit.
Load will take you to the default directory where your GUIs are,
so you can choose one and load it. - If no directory has as yet
been given, you will be asked for Volume GUIs: (you *should*
make this assign - believe me..)
Open and Unload will take you to a directory called ENV:Gui4Cli,
where the names of the loaded GUIs are listed, and you can
choose one.
If you choose "Prefs" Gui4Cli will run the gui Guis:Gui4Cli.gc
(if it exists). This is a normal gui which provides an easy
way to set various things (tabs/grid sizes etc). You can, if
you want, change this gui. The settings can be saved.
The preferences file :
There is a special file called GUIs:Gui4Cli.prefs which is a
normal gui file, generated by the Gui4Cli.gc gui (when you save
the preferences) - or you can also create it yourself, manually.
When Gui4Cli starts up, it will look for this file and if found,
it will run it. It is a good place to keep all the startup
settings you want, such as TAB/Grid sizes, sound effects etc..
Method of Operation :
A GUI can be loaded into memory and be or not be open. You can
have as many GUIs as you want loaded into memory, and as many of
these as you want, open at the same time.
Thereafter, every time you run GUI (or even Gui4Cli itself), it
will look for a running instance of Gui4Cli and if it finds one,
it will send it a message to load the program you have specified,
or clicked on.
This means that you will only have one running Gui4Cli, with
many GUIs loaded and some or all of them open.
If you need another instance of Gui4Cli, you have to specify
another PORT name in the tool types, or as a CLI option. In this
case, another APPMENU item will be created with the name of the
PORT you have specified and through this other GUIs can be run
separately.
In effect, you can have unlimited, easily constructed GUIs
running on your Workbench or on other Public screens.
Gui4Cli >--o---> A Gui --------->o--> Event 1 -->o--> Command 1
| | O--> Command 2
| | O--> Command n..
| |
| |
| O--> Event 2 -->o--> Command 1
O---> another | O--> Command n..
| gui |
| |
| |
| O--> Event n..
| .
| .
O---> unlimited
. guis..
.
This is what it looks like in concept.