IceDesign GUI designer

[ChrisR]

Thanks Kuron,
I hope indeed that it will be a nice trip with my wife and that we will have a good time to discover beautiful things and wonderful people.
But, still a little apprehension as I get closer to the starting date.
It's still 6 months, without seeing my childrens, 1 who works and the 2 others in end of studies internship.
It would have been good with them but there was the Covid.
We will enjoy the trip, even without them and they will enjoy having the parents away

[ChrisR]

IceDesign has been updated in version 1.9.0

• To save time for the code generation using large strings, I added several ExString for fast handling of large strings
  To give an idea of the gains, here are the times measured here for 2 interfaces, for the code generation + PBEdit_SetGadgetText()
  
  14 ms (PB Strings + ExString) vs 72 ms (PB Strings) : for a large interface with 1 Panel, 10 tabs and 236 Gadgets and all settings options enabled (Resize All, Bind All Gadgets in an Include File, MultiLanguage,...)
  
  4 ms (PB Strings + ExString) vs 6 ms (PB Strings): for an interface with 1 Panel, 3 tabs and 20 Gadgets and all settings options enabled
  
  No surprise, the more Gadgets in the interface, the more time is saved.

• Fix a slight memory leak, the undos were added for PBEdit_SetGadgetText(), it is removed now, no need for Undo function here in my case, in read-only mode

• JellyButtons: Apply a CustomIntensity Filter for the toggle buttons in pressed state, to have more contrast between the 2 states
  
  
  
  As with many filters, there may be good contrast for some colors and less for others.
  If needed, you can play with the default intensities. Hardcoded in CustomIntensityFilterCB() procedure with default values: IntensityBlue.f = 1.4, IntensityGreen.f = 0.95, IntensityRed.f = 0.85
  You can also change the filter by using the constants below (at the top of JellyButtons.pbi)
  

  Code: Select all

  ;- Choices for Toogle Button Pressed image
  #imgPressedCustomIntensity = #True    ; #True | #False
  #imgPressedIntensity       = #False   ; #True | #False
  #imgPressedBrightness      = #False   ; #True | #False
  #imgPressedColorRotation   = #False   ; #True | #False
  #imgPressedFlipColor       = #False   ; #True | #False

• Correct small typos in the French translation

[Kuron]

Thank you for one last update before you leave! God Speed!

[Kurzer]

Hello ChrisR,

after a very long time I now take a closer look at your great GUI designer. I am considering replacing the aging PureFORM designer of the former user Gnozal. The designer that comes with PB unfortunately doesn't appeal to me, so it's not an option for me.

First of all: Great respect for your achievement! The program and the functions are looking really good.

I have two questions... which might be answered somewhere in the 32 pages of this thread, but I hope you forgive me for not reading all the posts.

- Is the program designed so that you only work on one window at a time per loaded project? So with a multi-window project you also have multiple ICE project files. Is that correct?

- How can I tell ICE-Design that I am using a portable installation of PureBasic? In the corresponding field in the settings I MUST use the file requester to select the path to the PureBaisc.exe, but I have no possibility to specify "/PORTABLE" as a parameter. As a result, Purebasic is started not in portable mode, it does not find its *.prefs file and possibly creates registry entries (what I actually want to prevent with the portable version of PB). Here it would be good, if one could give a own parameter for the PureBasic.exe call.

[dmontaine]

Just an FYI that ChrisR is on a long trip with his wife (with no programming), so don't expect an answer for several months.

[Kurzer]

Dmontaine, thanks for this important hint.

[Bitblazer]

Ice Design demo folder - demo multi window

ps: from your signature ""Never run a changing system!" - i never realised how this "mockery" of a well known principle in IT, has become an early warning about AI in 2023

[Amon]

I just bought this. Wow, it's the best form designer I've used and it doesn't come with DRM like another form designer I paid for.

[Kuron]

@ChrisR Hoping you and wifey are enjoying your vacation Know you may not see this for some time...

@Amon I've been here since 2004. Hands down this is the best GUI designer ever released for PB, IMHO. Ticks all the boxes for me and I am picky. Good to see you here.

[ChrisR]

IceDesign has been updated in version 1.9.1

• Add Recent files Menu list, previously opened forms, up to 9 recent files. Toolbar button next to the Open button.
  
  

• Enable drag & drop IceDesign Form file (.icef) to open it. Note that you cannot drop the file into the drawing area.

• Add a checkbox, next to "PureBasic Path", to be able to use IceDesign with a PureBasic Portable version.
  To avoid opening an installed version in portable mode, it is only offered if the session history database (History.db) is found next to the exe.
  
  

• Fix "Include Add Item Example" in Settings not being saved, restored properly due to a typo.
• The "Backgound Image", probably rarely used, have been moved to the bottom of the settings.
  ...

[Caronte3D]

Thanks, ChrisR and welcome back

[ChrisR]

Thanks and hello Caronte3D

I just saw a small error sorry, it's updated.

[Kuron]

Thank you, Chris.

[radsoft]

Hello all,

Thank you ChrisR for the latest update.

After adding my code to an IceDesign form to use as a single form application, I usually need to modify the form in IceDesign and then of course I'm back to square one with adding my own code code to the new IceDesign generated code.

So far, I'm opening my previous version in another tab and manually copying code over to the new tab but I can see this being difficult to keep track of in a larger project and even more tricky when I get to doing multi-form projects.

I'm wondering if any IceDesign users can guide me on best practice to handle this situation please. I'd appreciate any of your ideas. Are there any recommended settings in IceDesign that I should use to make this easier?

Thanks in advance.

[ChrisR]

Hi radsoft,
This is a fairly general request that concerns not only IceDesign, but also other designers such as Pureform, PureVision, DialogDesignOR or others, except Rad tools.
I don't think there is A better way to handle the situation, it depends on the projects (small/large, number of windows...), the developer's habits,...

It's probably best to separate all the forms from the rest of the project, event loop... and just assemble them in your main source file with XIncludeFile.
The different forms will thus be more or less independent from the rest of the project. They can be modified more easily, with less impact on the rest of the project.

To help in IceDesign, you can enable "Add Compiler IsMainFile" option (=> CompilerIf #PB_Compiler_IsMainFile).
It allows you to test each window individually, without impact if called from your main file.

2 other options may also be interesting, "Bind All Gadgets Event" and "Bind Event in an IncludeFile".
It lets you manage all event-handling for windows, menus and gadgets in separate source files.
In ~the same way as mk-soft's EventDesigner V3 does.

It would be interesting to have other views, to know the organization that one or the other recommends, uses.