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8-8-03
Wiggle Window by
Erick Tejkowsi
Should you accidentally enter the wrong password while logging onto an OS X machine, you'll
notice that the login window wiggles back and forth a few times. In fact, it looks like the
login window is shaking its head "NO!" at you. This week we'll look at how to implement this
functionality with REALbasic. It turns out that it's very simple to accomplish, so let's get started.
Build the Interface
Launch REALbasic and open the default Window1. To this window, add a PushButton and a Timer. Set the Mode
property of the Timer to 0 (zero). You can arrange the window however you wish. Mine looks like this:
Add the Code
Open the Code Editor for Window1 and add two properties to the window:
- origx as integer
- wiggle as integer
Next, enter this code in the Action event of PushButton1.
Finally, add this code to the Action event of Timer1.
By clicking the PushButton, you reset some variables that keep track of the position of the window
as well as the number of wiggles. Then, the timer starts firing. As the timer fires, it increases the wiggle counter
and alternates the position of the window between its two positions. Once the counter exceeds 5, the timer stops. Simple, eh?
Conclusion
That's all there is to it. As usual, you can
download the code for this week's project here. See you next time!
8-6-03
REALbasic News
by Erick Tejkowsi
REALbasic Developer Turns One!
Launched last summer at Macworld
Expo New York, REALbasic Developer magazine is publishing its seventh issue,
celebrating its one year anniversary.
REALbasic Developer is a bimonthly 52-page periodical of tutorials for
users of REALbasic, the popular development system for Macintosh,
Windows, and soon for Linux.
Beginning with the August/September 2003 issue, REALbasic Developer is
enhancing support for Windows development and will be adding more
Windows-specific columns in the future.
The latest issue features articles on REALbasic's upcoming Linux
support, new REALbasic 5 commands, 3D mesh transformations, and a
tutorial on how to add a "recent items" menu to any application. Plus
there are bimonthly columns on database development, beginning with
REALbasic, user interface, 3D graphics, and much more.
Code Cleaner 1.6.3 and SelfUpdater
Owen Yamauchi has announced a minor update to CodeCleaner (version 1.6.3),
the tool that makes your code look good.
Version 1.6.3 includes the following changes:
- Fixed a DIM merging bug. (thanks to Joerg Pressel for pointing it out)
- Fixed a bug that occurs on startup that can cause code to "vanish"
He also posted SelfUpdater, a tool that allows developers to drag-and-drop self-updating capability into their applications.
LetsSee
Irony software has announced LetsSee version 2.1 for OS X.
LetsSee is a graphics browser that gives you fast and easy access to your
favorite pictures and movies. It is made with REALbasic.
Undo Toolkit
Version 1.1.1 of Undo Toolkit is out. Undo Toolkit allows you to add unlimited undo and redo to your REALbasic project with just one line of code per control.
Undo is a pretty handy feature, indeed!
Palm Goodies
Jan Erik Mostrom has released some Palm-related applications that are made with REALbasic. Rather than
further screw up the HTML characters in their Swedish names (as i've already done with his name), you can check them out yourself.
7-30-03
REALbasic News
by Erick Tejkowsi
About Window for OS X
Seth Willits has posted a
Dual-Form Standard OS Appearance OS X About Window.
This lets you quickly and easily create a standard OS X About box (like the ones you see in Cocoa apps).
Another About Box
Scott Forbes has also released his OS X About Box code.
AquaAboutBox 1.1.1
cheerfully steals the HTML and "Select All" features
from the "OS X About Window" project from Seth Willits
Undo Toolkit
Scott Forbes has been busy this week. He also posted
Undo Toolkit 1.1.
Undo Toolkit allows you to add unlimited undo and redo to your REALbasic project
with just one line of code per control. Just change each control's "super" to its
Undo Toolkit counterpart, add one line to set the EditUndo menu text,
and you've implemented a fully featured undo system in a fraction of the time.
Undo Toolkit is an open source project available under the GNU General Public License.
rb.Extreme
Nate Smith has announced rb.Extreme, a new online community for REALbasic developers.
Developed from the ground up using tools built with REALbasic,
rb.Extreme provides a collaborative learning and trading space for
REALbasic developers.
The main interaction areas include a Question and Answer [Q&A] Forum and
a Tutorials database. Contributors are rewarded by a point system.
Both worthy answers to questions and tutorial donations are rewarded
with "extreme.Points." Those points can be traded in for advertising
space, merchandise and more. Unlike other point-based communities,
rb.Extreme does not consume points from users asking questions.
rb.Extreme is being unveiled as a free community, and will stay a free
community. The search engine, tutorials database and other resources
will always be accessible to REALbasic developers.
Use Palm files with REALbasic
BitJuggler software has announced the release of
PDB Data 1.0.1.
The cPDBData and cPDBRecordListItem classes can be used to parse and modify Palm PDB files.
Note, however, that you must understand the PDB file format in order to use these classes!
CodeCleaner
Owen Yamauchi has posted version 1.6.1 of CodeCleaner,
the popular utility that allows REALbasic developers to
perform various cosmetic modifications to their code.
It is the fastest, most reliable and most feature-packed release yet.
7-16-03
REALbasic News
by Erick Tejkowsi
WizardWindow 1.0.2
BitJuggler Software announced the release of WizardWindow 1.0.2.
WizardWindow is a simple template for building wizards for OS X that look similar to the OS X Installer program.
You may use it freely in your projects at no charge. WizardWindow requires OS X and REALbasic 5.0 or greater.
SoundOutputStream
Mars Saxman has posted an interesting new plugin containing a SoundOutputStream class. This
is a mechanism to play back a MemoryBlock full of sound samples. It supports
32-bit float, 16-bit integer, and 32-bit integer sample formats and can play
in mono or stereo. This might be useful for sound editors, games, and some audio synthesis
applications. The plugin is available for Mac Classic, Mac Carbon, and Windows. It is
free.
Wanted: VB/RB Columnist
REALbasic Developer magazine is seeking an expert in Visual Basic who'd
like to write a bi-monthly column focusing on guiding Visual Basic users
making the transition to REALbasic.
The columnist should be familiar with REALbasic and have good
communication skills, though previous writing experience is not
necessary. The specifics of the column are to be determined, but columns
are either one or two pages (700 or 1600 words) per issue. They'd like to
launch the column as soon as possible (hopefully for the October issue).
If you're interested, please contact REALbasic Developer
SuperSlider 1.1
Domain Softworx has announced the release of SuperSlider 1.1,
an update to the popular Canvas subclass which offers a slider control that is up to spec with Apple's Aqua Human Interface Guidelines.
Free Tunes Tool
Tunes Tool, one of the first iTunes controllers made, has now been discontinued and made open source.
You can find more information on the announcement in the ChiperSoft webboard.
Free Utilities
Dave DeLong posted an update to his Conversion program (now version 1.0.3 and Made with REALbasic).
Version 1.0.3 features a simple tutorial, fixed problems, a new disk space converter, and Copying.
He also released a little app that he calls Launcher.
Launcher is a small global floating window with 10 (11 including the prefs button) bevel-ish buttons
that have an icon that quickly links you to a favorite application, file, or folder.
Both of these are freeware, and both of these are for OS X only.
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