Application Kit C++ Class Library

ApplicationKit utilises, as far as is possible with current C++ compilers, the Standard Template Library (STL), and most other features of the (Draft) ANSI C++ standard. It uses Motif version 2.0 widgets.

Origin of Class Library

Requirements

The ApplicationKit class library requires the following :-

• GNU g++ (Ver 2.7.2) compiler and STL implementation (OR an equivalent compiler/STL that supports at least as much of ANSI C++ as g++ does).
• X11R6 (though X11R5 will probably work fine).
• Motif 2.0 (SOME of the classes require Motif 2.0 widgets - notably akComboBox).
• XPM (though, if you've got Motif 2.0, XPM will come with it).
• akSound requires Linux (1.2+) since it is kernel-specific.

ApplicationKit Contents

The class library provides :-

1. A main routine for the application, catering for the initialisation of X, and setting up of the event loop.
2. A framework providing the application main windows, dialog windows as well as an abstract class from which to derive ALL GUI components.
3. A dialog management facility providing easy generation of INFO, ERROR, WARNING, WORKING, MESSAGE, QUESTION, and FILE-SELECTION dialogs.
4. A document viewing system for On-Line Program Help.
5. A large range of data-entry prompts, ranging from data entry fields prompting for string/int/double data, to Option Menus, Combo Boxes and Radio Boxes.
6. A system providing 'Bubble Help' for GUI component functionality.
7. Several utilities, including a UNIX process interface, an audio file play interface, and a clock

akComponent - A representation of a GUI component, provides storage of base widget and widget name, as well as manage/unmanage facilities, widget destruction capability, and the ability to specify and retrieve resources. Additionally, provides a 'Bubble Help' facility. Used as the base class for all AppKit AppKit components. akApp - A representation of an application. Handles initialisation of X, and event loop, as well as allowing iconification and setting the applications 'state'. akWindow - A representation of a top-level window. Stores shell widget and its child. Registers the main window with the application. Provides manage/unmanage and iconify functions, as well as 'state' setting functions. Shell created is 'applicationShell'. akDialog - A representation of a dialog window. Provides a template dialog and requires all derived classes to have a 'createWorkArea' function to generate the work area of the dialog. Additionally, buttons can be added to the messagebox area. Intended to be on the screen for a short period of time. Provides the same general facilities (manage/unmanage/busy/ready etc) as akWindow.
• akMain - The application's main routine. Calls the akApp's functions to initialise X, and to start the event loop. This means that an application WILL NOT have its own main routine, just a function that creates a akApp object and akWindow object as globals. It relies on the user creating a akApp object and at least one akWindow object globally. For example, have a file containing the following :-

  
  #include "akApp.h"
  #include "HelloWindow.h"
  
  // Instantiate an application object and a top level shell
  
  akApp		*helloApp = new akApp("Hello","1.00","A test application");
  akWindow	*window	  = new HelloWindow("Hello");
  

  Note that when deriving from the akWindow class, it is instantiated as a global (i.e BEFORE main is called) so anything in its constructor will be executed. However, C++ doesn't guarantee the order of initialisation of global items, and so the constructor for the akWindow-derived class shouldn't rely on anything else (e.g iostream) already having been initialised. You can, of course, enforce things be initialized in the order you require by setting the order of the #include statements etc.

The dialog components are split into two parts - manually instantiated dialog components, and globally managed dialogs. The 'global' dialogs are created when the akApp is instantiated - so the programmer just has to call the dialog managers post member function to display the dialog.

akMessageDialog - A message dialog component. 'Message' dialogs can be any one of ERROR, WARNING, INFORMATION, WORKING, MESSAGE or QUESTION. Several convenience functions are provided to tailor the dialog to the exact user requirements. akFileDialog - A file-selection dialog component. Several convenience functions are provided to tailor the dialog to the exact user requirements. akMessageDialogMgr - A dialog caching function for 'message' dialogs. Similar to akMessageDialog above except that this is a global object and users simply call the 'post' function to display them. As a result, dialogs from this object are typically quicker to generate, but have the disadvantage of less flexibility in the dialog's characteristics. akFileDialogMgr - A file-selection dialog caching function. Provides for simple generation of file selection dialogs. akPromptDialog - A prompt dialog component. Contains a prompt for a character string and has OK and CANCEL buttons.

These classes are used together to provide a basic (text-only) on-line help system from a 'reduced-set' HTML document.

akDoc - A representation of a document. It consists of several sections, a filename, and a title. Each section consist of a title and some text. It is based around a HTML document but only using certain HTML tags. akDocView - a Motif scrolled text widget based visual representation of the document It also provides a list of sections to allow jumping between sections. It is derived from the akWindow class.

The constructor creates the components but DOES NOT manage them. Call the "manage" function to make the components visible.

• akPrompt - an abstract class providing the mechanism for a data-entry prompt. akPromptInt - a data-entry field prompting for an integer value. akPromptInts - a data-entry field prompting for (multiple) integer values. akPromptIntRange - a data-entry field prompting for an integer value within a range. akPromptDble - a data-entry field prompting for a double-precision value. akPromptDbles - a data-entry field prompting for (multiple) double-precision values. akPromptDbleRange - a data-entry field prompting for a double-precision value within a range. akPromptString - a data-entry field prompting for a character-string value. akPromptPassword - a data-entry field prompting for a character-string value such as a password, where the entered text is replaced by *'s. akPromptFile - a data-entry field prompting for a filename. It additionally includes a 'Select' button which brings up a file selector to ease the input of the filename. The 'Select' button gives 'Bubble Help'. akOptionMenu - an option menu prompt. Requires option names, as well as an optional callback (with clientData) to be called when an option is selected. akCheckBox - a check box prompt. Requires option names, as well as an optional callback (with clientData) to be called when an option is changed. As many options as required can be selected at once. akRadioBox - a radio box prompt. Requires option names, as well as an optional callback (with clientData) to be called when an option is changed. Only one option can be selected at any one time. akComboBox - a combo box prompt. Requires option names, as well as an optional callback (with clientData) to be called when an option is changed. A single option can be selected.

The constructor creates the components but DOES NOT manage them. Call the "manage" function to make the components visible.

akButton - a push button displaying a string or a pixmap (XBM or XPM)

Interface classes to commonly required facilities.

akPixmap - a representation of a pixmap (XBM or XPM). Also caters for stippling of the pixmap (to create an insensitive version). akLabel - a label displaying a string or a pixmap (XBM or XPM). akMessageLine - a message line object to relay information back to users about program status. akMessageArea - a message area object to relay information back to users about program status. akClock - a clock object that displays the date/time in a similar way to the 'xclock' program, only in an XmLabel widget. akCopyright - a standard "GNU-copyright-based" copyright window. User is allowed to supply a pixmap to display in the window, together with the company name and year of the copyright. The Application Name and Title are also displayed (from akApp object). The copyright message is taken from the GNU Public License. akProcess - an interface to a UNIX process. Sets up pipes to/from the process and sends the output back to a callback hook function. akSound - an interface to an audio sound. Reads in a sound file (in certain supported formats), and plays it through the audio device. Sound is played in a separate thread so as not to slow down the application. Currently set up to be Linux specific and only handles WAV and VOC files.

Future Work

The ApplicationKit class library requires the following work :-

• Change akMessageArea to work from an ofstream.
• Add a scrolled text class using an XmCSText widget - working from XmString's
• Change akDocView to work from this XmCSText based class, and add support for BOLD,ITALIC,UNDERSCORE tags.
• Add a way of aligning prompts - for example, aligning the prompt label 'end' and field 'start' of several prompts in a rowcol.