Default Window Styles

[Robert Houle]

Paul,

I'm really enjoying FireFly. For the most part I don't have any problems, except for a couple of areas.

Problem area #1 - First Form

When I start a new project and create Form1 ... FireFly defaults to "WS_POPUP". Is this correct? Shouldn't it default to: WS_OVERLAPPED

WinHelp32 states:
"An overlapped window is a top-level window that has a title bar, border, and client area; it is meant to serve as an application's main window. It can also have a window menu, minimize and maximize buttons, and scroll bars. An overlapped window used as a main window typically includes all of these components."

"A pop-up window is a special type of overlapped window used for dialog boxes, message boxes, and other temporary windows that appear outside an application's main window. Title bars are optional for pop-up windows; otherwise, pop-up windows are the same as overlapped windows of the WS_OVERLAPPED style."

The reason is.. I'm trying to get Winlift working with FireFly and Patrice has told me that I must create only one main window in each application (I had used the default WS_POPUP) and the rest must be child popups.

I haven't solved the riddle yet, I'm still getting forms that don't re-display properly, but I think I'm getting closer.  :?


--Bob

[TechSupport]

Hi Bob,

Yes, you have a point. The reason that I chose to use WS_POPUP was that the majority of Forms that you create will use that style as the default. I guess that I did it this way for convenience and leave it to the programmer to make the adjustments if necessary.

Personally, I would be surprised if the WS_POPUP style did not suffice for your "main" window. Hey, I've been wrong before - I'll be wrong again.

Do your Forms re-display properly when not using WinLift?

[Bob Houle]

Yes, they 'appear' to, but I haven't looked into it in any great detail. But Patrice is the one who turned me on to the idea that you can only have ONE main window.
I'm still having a problem with Winlift, but it's such a great program, I'm going to try very hard to work the way it likes.  

PS - I like the idea of creating many small programs to show beginners how to do small things, rather than one or two large complex programs that only confuse new users. I'll see what I can come up with (I'm a beginner, too). A "place" to download samples would be a nice feature of this web site, since downloading FireFly source can be huge and quite complex (many files), but a simple zip file that users could upload would be the best.

Go Canucks,
--Bob

[TechSupport]

Hi Bob,

I will be placing all code and articles at http://www.planetsquires.com/firefly_network.htm

That way we can assemble everything in one place for ease of retrieval.

Go Bruins,

[TechSupport]

The new version, 1.03, now does indeed create the first default form with the Overlapped style.