I'm teaching myself EiffelBuild and EiffelVision2 and have a few newbie
questions related to widget positioning and constants. First, I'm using
EiffelBuild 6.4.7.9451 and EiffelStudio 6.4 on Ubuntu Linux. I've
created a little interface with
* a MAIN_WINDOW
* a VERTICAL_BOX
* 2 FIXED containers inside the VERTICAL_BOX
* a LABEL and a TEXT_ENTRY inside each FIXED container
The idea is to create a window resembling a standard logon dialog. This
is just for practice, to get familiar with the concepts.
I created constants for the width and height of the main window, and set
the width of all components except the LABELs and TEXT_ENTRY primitives
to that constant. I notice that when I set the 'minimum width' and
'maximum width' of the MAIN_WINDOW and the other components to the width
constant, EiffelBuild fills in the value of the contant (300 in my
case). (I don't want the window to be resizable, so the min and max
width and height values are the same, and I deleselected 'User can
resize'.) If I change the value of the width constant, I have to
re-select it as the 'minimum width' of the MAIN_WINDOW; it isn't
automatically reset with the new constant value.
I also created constants for the minimum height of the FIXED boxes (1/2
the value of the MAIN_WINDOW height) and width of the LABEL and
TEXT_ENTRY widgets. I've discovered that if I use the same constant for
the minimum height value of the LABEL and TEXT_ENTRY widgets as the
FIXED box that contains them, then EiffelBuild fills in the constant
value in the 'minimum height' field. However, if the height constant of
a LABEL is less than the height constant of the FIXED box, and I select
this lesser constant, then EiffelBuild retains the constant's identifier
in the 'minimum width' field, and does not fill in the value. I'd prefer
to have all the constants retained the same way, so that resizing would
be easier--just adjust a few constants, rather than all the dimension
values of a window.
Can someone explain when the value of a constant is retained in an
EiffelBuild object dimension and when not?
Also, am I creating this window correctly? I'd be grateful for any
suggestions.
David Jenkins
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