3D
3D Photo Gallery (Part 1)
3D Photo Gallery (Part 2)

Audio
Poor Man's MIDI
Make A Metronome
iPod Tricks (Part 1)
iPod Tricks (Part 2)
iPod Tricks (Part 3)
Laugh Track Machine
Audio Player with Reverb
Shepard Melody
RB Phone Home
Build a Drum Machine

Custom Controls and Windows
Double Click Listbox
Draggable Metal Window
Double Click Canvas
Custom Buttons
Custom Buttons Part II
iTunes-style Listboxes
Custom Controls


General RB
Scrolling Windows
Using Mesage Dialogs
Case-Sensitive Word Finder
Introduction to Stacks
Wiggle Window
JPEG in PDF
Listbox Checkboxes
Background Applications
Listbox Auto-Find
Virtual Volumes
Time Tracker
Software Distribution (Part 1)
Software Distribution (Part 2)
Software Distribution (Part 3)
Software Distribution (Part 4)
Exceptions
Tips and Tricks
Text Clippings Made Easy

Graphics
Drawing a Simple Gradient
The SpriteSurface: Space Game
Image Spinner
Cropping Graphics (Part 1)
Cropping Graphics (Part 2)
Cropping Graphics (Part 3)
Cropping Graphics (Part 4)
Shimmer Graphics
Lissajous Figures
Simple Screen Capture
Vector Graphics
Kaleidoscope Images
Stegonography
Spirals!
Image Table
RB Magnifying Lens
Screen Capture
Color Picker Tutorial

Hacks
Ghost Grab
Speedy Mouse Extension
iTunes Plugins
iTunes Skinner

Mac OS X
Global Hot Key Event (Carbon Events)
Login Welcomer (Carbon Events)
Add/Remove Buttons
Resizable Sheets
Mac OS X Preferences Window
Using Sheets in REALbasic
Build a Bundle (Part 1)
Build a Bundle (Part 2)
Dock Your Passwords
Mac OS X Debugging
REALbasic Mac OS X Icon Tutorial
Animate Your Dock
RB and the Command Line

Menus
Window Menu
Templates Menu
Listbox Menu

Novelty
Guessing Game
Calendar Trivia
Tile Mixer
Zip Code Finder
Happy Valentine's Day
Merlin Simulator (Part 1)
Merlin Simulator (Part 2)
Merlin Simulator (Part 3)
Buzzword Machine
AppleSoft BASIC

Printing
Print to PDF

Registration
Registration Code Validation
Network Registration Codes

Resources
Picture Extractor (Part 1)
Picture Extractor (Part 2)

Serial
Caller ID (Part 1)
Caller ID (Part 2)
Caller ID (Part 3)

Speech
Speech Recognition

Socket Communication
Easy Peer-to-Peer File Sharing
MacPAD Version Checking
Display Web Image In Canvas
HTML IMG Tags
Version Tracking
Even Smarter Instant Messaging
Web Tiler
JavaScript and REALbasic
Stock Ticker (Part I)
Stock Ticker (Part 2)
AIM Mate

XML Manipulation
Simple XML Introduction

Video
Big Brother Video Capture

Note: All articles without a byline were written by Erick Tejkowski. When cleaning the site I removed them because the code differed from page to page, and I have yet to put them back in.

REALbasic for Dummies
by Erick Tejkowski

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Generate Kaleidoscope Desktop Images 06-04-02

Just because "Dan the Desktop Man" is out of town doesn't mean we can't see some new desktop images. This week we'll build a project that generates random kaleidoscope-style images. This project lets you set colors, shapes, and image size to produce a wide variety of desktop images.

Build the Interface

Before you get started on this project, download the Flicker Free Canvas we used in earlier projects. Then, launch REALbasic and open Window1. Unstuff the flickerFreeCanvas and drag it in your REALbasic project.

Next, add the following controls:

Control Type	Control Name	Other Properties
Canvas	Canvas1	Super=flickerFreeCanvas
PushButton	PushButton1	Caption=Go
PushButton	PushButton2	Caption=Save
PopupMenu	PopupMenu1	InitialValue:Squares Circles
PopupMenu	PopupMenu2	InitialValue:Random Reds Greens Blues Reds and Greens Greens and Blues Reds and Greens
Timer	Timer1	Mode=0; Period=20

Arrange the interface however you desire. A sample might look like this:

Source Code

Before adding code, we need to do two things: define a property and add a file type. Double click any part of the Window1 interface to open its Code Editor. Then, select Edit-New Property. Create a Picture property like this:

To add the file type, select Edit-File Types and add "pict" to the fray:

OK, now we're ready for some code. Navigate to the Action event of PushButton1 and add this code:

  
  if me.caption = "Go" then
    me.caption = "Stop"
    
    p=newpicture(canvas1.width,canvas1.height,32)
    if p<>nil then
      p.graphics.foreColor=rgb(0,0,0)
      p.graphics.fillrect 0,0,p.width,p.height
    end if
    
    Timer1.mode = 2
  else 
    Timer1.mode = 0
    me.caption = "Go"
  end if
  

This code create a new image, toggles Timer1, and changes the caption on PushButton1.

Next, navigate to the Action event of Timer1 and enter this code

  
  dim rx,ry,rs as double
  dim square as boolean 
  
  if popupMenu1.listindex=0 then
    square=TRUE
  else
    square=FALSE
  end if
  
  if p<>nil then
    //split the canvas(and picture) into four quadrants
    // 1 | 2
    //------------
    // 3 | 4
    
    // find a random "size" value
    rs = rnd * ((p.height/4)+1)
    
    //get a random point in the top left quadrant
    //to begin drawing
    
    // find a random x value
    rx = rnd * ((p.width/2)-rs+1)
    
    // find a random y value
    ry = rnd * ((p.height/2)+1)
    
    select case popupMenu2.listindex
      'Random
      'Reds
      'Greens
      'Blues
      'Reds and Greens
      'Greens and Blues
      'Reds and Greens
    case 0
      p.graphics.foreColor=rgb(rnd*255,rnd*255,rnd*255)
    case 1
      p.graphics.foreColor=rgb(rnd*255,0,0)
    case 2
      p.graphics.foreColor=rgb(0,rnd*255,0)
    case 3
      p.graphics.foreColor=rgb(0,0,rnd*255)
    case 4
      p.graphics.foreColor=rgb(rnd*255,rnd*255,0)
    case 5
      p.graphics.foreColor=rgb(0,rnd*255,rnd*255)
    case 6
      p.graphics.foreColor=rgb(rnd*255,0,rnd*255)
    end select
    
    
    if square then
      //SQUARES
      //draw a shape in quadrant 1
      p.graphics.fillrect rx,ry,rs,rs 
      //draw a shape in quadrant 2
      p.graphics.fillrect p.width-rx-rs,ry,rs,rs 
      //draw a shape in quadrant 3
      p.graphics.fillrect rx,p.height-ry-rs,rs,rs 
      //draw a shape in quadrant 4
      p.graphics.fillrect p.width-rx-rs,p.height-ry-rs,rs,rs 
    else 
      //CIRCLES
      //draw a shape in quadrant 1
      p.graphics.filloval rx,ry,rs,rs 
      //draw a shape in quadrant 2
      p.graphics.filloval p.width-rx-rs,ry,rs,rs 
      //draw a shape in quadrant 3
      p.graphics.filloval rx,p.height-ry-rs,rs,rs 
      //draw a shape in quadrant 4
      p.graphics.filloval p.width-rx-rs,p.height-ry-rs,rs,rs 
    end if
    
    
    canvas1.mPicture = p 
    canvas1.redraw
  end if
  

This code does the actual drawing. It splits the image up into four sections. A random size and position is then selected and a shape is drawn in each quadrant of the image according to these random numbers.

Finally, navigate to the Action event of PushButton2 and add this code:

  dim f as folderItem 
  
  if timer1.mode<>0 then
    PushButton1.push 
  end if
  
  f=GetSaveFolderItem("pict","ResEx Kaleidoscope Desktop.pct")
  if f<>nil then
    f.saveaspicture canvas1.mPicture 
  end if
  
  

This code lets you save the image as a PICT file when you're finished.

Conclusion

That's all for this week. You can download the project or the built applications (for OS 9 or OS X) to try things out. So, get to work creating some fun desktop images and send them to Dan. See you next week! 666 Killer No demons here... just a virus. If you've ever been bitten by the 666 virus (or one of its variants), Toon Van Acker has some relief for you. After discovering that the virus had left a copy of itself in any app in use, he coded a fix for it in REALbasic. Check out 666 Killer

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