[PD-dev] popup bug with minimization

[B. Bogart]

Hey all,

Upon extending popup to include an argument to specify the vertical size I
realized an anoying bug requiring advice.

The bug is that when the patch window is minimized the popup (and entry)
objects all disapear! Then can still be selected when the window is
un-minimized but the widgets themselves are gone. PD returns a string
like:

windowname already exists in parent.

I've put debug messages in all my PD functions and I can't find what
function is trying to do the improper thing. The message just seems to
come up after the getrectfn completes.

I'm looking to gcanvas for inspiration but I can't quite figure out what
function gets called when a window is unminimized.

Any suggestions of where to look? I used Guenter's "button" as an example
and built from there. Looking back it would be really nice to have a
standard example of a gui external. Of course this does bring up issues
when/if the g_canvas interface changes, but I also think it would be
valuable to encourage the development of GUI externals. Of course I'd
rather use toxy to make gui externals but have had issues that keep toxy
from being able to do what I need (specifically GOP support and the
ability to specify the exact pixel size of the widget container in the
patch.)

It also occured to me looking at the code again that I should change the
displace function so that rather than re-creating the widget it simply
moves the widget in the canvas via canvas coords. Anyone see any issues
caused by this? It may also help with the movement of other gui externals
if they are not already using this function.

Thanks all for help.

PS: I'm now again in a situation where I'll be able to play with toxy
more, and I would really love to be able to recreate "popup" and "entry"
as a patch & widget file if I was able to use it in the same way I
currently am (sized precisely and used in a GOP abstraction)

Not to put any cogs in the gears but I think I would be most happy if I
could put something like the following into a .wid file and use the widget
in toxy:

# Define widget variables:

set wid #provided by toxy
set wid_struc($wid.container) # provided by toxy
set wid_struc($wid.alias) popup # name of object to call
set wid_struc($wid.tag) "popup1"
set wid_struc($wid.width) 100
set wid_struc($wid.height) 25
set wid_struc($wid.relief) raised
set wid_struc($wid.bgcolour) black
set wid_struc($wid.name) "my popup"
set wid_struc($wid.num_options) 5


# Create the Widget

menubutton $wid_struc($wid.container).w -relief $wid_struc($wid.relief)
-background $wid_struc($wid.bgcolour) -text  $wid_struc($wid.name)
-direction flush -menu $wid_struc($wid.container).w.menu

menu $wid_struc($wid.container).w.menu -tearoff 0

for {set i 0} {$i < $wid_struc($wid.num_options)} {incr i} {
  $wid_struc($wid.container).w.menu add command -label "test" -command
{outlet_symbol(test)}
}

Where toxy provides:

The uniqe $wid value
A parent to bind the widget to with:
.c create window x_pos y_pos -width $wid_struc(width) -height
$wid_struc(height) -anchor $wid_struc(anchor) -window
$wid_struc(container) -tags {something-from-toxy $wid_struc(alias)}

Perhaps some of the wid_struc variables could be accessible with via
properties dialog.

Anyhow I'm a very familar tcl/tk programmer and found toxy a little
difficult to get my head around. I think it could be a lot easier to use
it to build widgets. I do think toxy is the future of GUI design for PD!

Enough of me.

Ben