XForms: Pseudo Dialog Boxes and Object Locking...

Jathan W. Manley (jwmanley@mtu.edu)
Wed, 05 Nov 1997 00:20:13 -0500

To subscribers of the xforms list from "Jathan W. Manley" <jwmanley@mtu.edu> :

Hello All,
I'm rather new to xforms and X windows programming and I am using X
Forms to write an interactive checkers game for X. I was wondering if
someone could push me in the right direction on a number of things.

Pseudo Dialog Boxes:
I would like to display a message in the middle of my application
window without creating another form. I know I can group all the
objects and do a show and hide on them, however, I would like to suspend
all interaction with the rest of my application. Is there an easy way
to do this? Can I make a file selector appear in the application window
instead of in it's own window? (I just am having some problems with
fvwm2 autoraise hiding the file selector and other dialogs if you slide
your mouse out of the dialog window)

Object Locking:
I am curious if there is a way to lock an object or group of objects
like you can a form. I am using pixmap buttons to represent a
checkerboard on screen. Sometimes drawing into the board takes some
time and I'd like to be able to give the user feedback. However, in
order to do a single display of the newly drawn board, I must lock the
main form. Then I can't display any feedback without creating a dialog
(or something similar). If I could lock the group of pixmap buttons
explcitly, then I could give the user feedback in my main form.

If I haven't provided enough info please let me know.

Also, It seems that pixmaps are really slow to draw. Is this inherent
in the pixmap format, or is xforms just somewhat inefficient? I am
including the pixmaps as char ** in the binary of my application and
using fl_set_pixmapbutton_data(...) to change them.

TIA for any input,
Jathan W. Manley
Computer Science Undergrad
Michigan Technological University
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