Tips &Tidbits

By Scott T Boyd, Editor

Got a developer tip you’ve been keeping to yourself but really need to share? Think you have a better trick up your sleeve? Send us your tips and tricks, especially programming-related tips, but don’t hold back if you’ve got programmer’s user tips.

Tip Of The Month

TCL 2.0 Startup Splash Screen

Version 2.0 of the TCL introduced a new method in CApplication called ShowSplashScreen(). This method is called at startup in CApplication::DoRun(), prior to the program handling any AppleEvents. Although the Visual Architect can be used to create the code neccessary for a splash screen, it is much simpler for you to write your own by hand, especially if all you want to do is display a PICT resource for a number of seconds. This is especially true if you want to add a splash screen to projects you are converting from 1.1.3.

To use the code below, override ShowSplashScreen() in your own CApplication derived class, and then make sure the source file contains all of the code outlined below. Features of the code are: TCL 2.0 use of constructors with default arguments; moving the window offscreen prior to calling Select() & Prepare(), thus preventing the user at staring at a blank window for a second before the CPicture object can be drawn; ‘paranoid’ memory cleanup to make absolutely certain there are no memory leaks.

/* 1 */
// TCL INCLUDES 
#include   <CDecorator.h>
#include   <CPicture.h>
#include   <CWindow.h>
// EXTERN GLOBALS 
extern   CDecorator   *gDecorator;

void myCApplication::ShowSplashScreen(void)
{
const short kProcID = dBoxProc,          // Window Manager window type 
= 1
                      kPicResID = 2000,// PICT resource ID
                      kPICTx = 250,// Width of PICT in pixels
                      kPICTy = 130;// Height   "
const longkDuration = 120;// Delay for @ 2 secs ( = 120/60 )
CDirector    *myDir = NULL; // TCL based object pointers...
CWindow      *myWindow = NULL;
CPicture     *myPicture = NULL;
Rect         aRect = {0, 0, kPICTy, kPICTx};
long         finalTick = 0;

myDir = new CDirector(this);// Create Bureaucrat & Window
myWindow = new CWindow(&aRect, false, kProcID, false, false, myDir);
myPicture = new CPicture(myWindow, myDir);   // Create CPicture object
myPicture->FitToEnclFrame(true, true);
::SetRect(&aRect, 2, 2, -2, -2);   // Shrink enclosure by 2 pixels
myPicture->ChangeSize(&aRect, false);
myPicture->UsePICT(kPicResID);// Grab PICT from resource
myWindow->MoveOffScreen();  // Get ready for drawing
myWindow->Select();
myPicture->Prepare();
gDecorator->CenterWindow(myWindow);// Need window on screen to draw PICT
myPicture->Draw(&aRect);       // Rect param is not really needed
::Delay(kDuration, &finalTick);  /* Delay long enough for user to read 
screen  */
myDir->CloseWind(myWindow); // Close window & tidy up memory
TCLForgetObject(myDir);
if (myPicture != NULL)
  TCLForgetObject(myPicture);
}

- Andrew Nemeth, Warrimoo Australia

Drop Everything

AppMaker (from Bowers Development) is a great development tool, but you can only drop AppMaker files on AppMaker (with System 7). You can change AppMaker drop other files (such as ResEdit and Resorcerer files) onto AppMaker’s icon to open them:

1) Open AppMaker with a resource tool, such as ResEdit.

2) Open the FREF resource, and open resource ID 203.

3) Change the file type from '????' to '****'.

4) Save your changes, and rebuild your desktop.

That’s it. You should be able to now drop any file onto AppMaker’s icon, and AppMaker will open it. If it doesn’t work, double-check the FREF (and possibly the BNDL) resources.

- Bill Modesitt, Maui Software