HBox

classes

SEE ALSO

VBox

VBox

classes
   dialog         intercept      priority       save           
   dismiss_action  map           ref            unmap

SYNTAX

HBox()
HBox(frame)
VBox()
VBox(frame)
VBox(frame, 0or1)

DESCRIPTION

A box usually organizes a collection of graphs and command panels, which would normally take up several windows, into a single window. Anything which can have its own window can be contained in a box.

As with all classes, a box must have an object reference pointer, and can be manipulated through this pointer. You must use the .map command to make a box appear on the screen.

A VBox with a second arg of 1 makes a vertical scrollbox.

HBox() tiles windows horizontally.

VBox() tiles windows vertically.

The default frame is an inset frame. The available frames are:

0
inset (gray)
1
outset (gray)
2
bright inset (light gray)
3
none (sea green)

EXAMPLES

objref b
b = new VBox(2)
b.map
creates an empty box on the screen with a light gray inset frame.

intercept

VBox

SYNTAX

box.intercept(1)
box.intercept(0)

DESCRIPTION

When the argument is 1, all window creation is intercepted and the window contents are placed in a box rather than independently on the screen.

EXAMPLES

execute following example 
objref vbox, g
vbox = new VBox()
vbox.intercept(1)	//all following creations go into the "vbox" box
g = new Graph()
xpanel("")
x=3
xvalue("x")
xbutton("press me", "print 1")
xpanel()
vbox.intercept(0)	//ends intercept mode
vbox.map()		//draw the box and its contents

map

VBox

SYNTAX

.map("label")
.map("label", left, top, width, height)

DESCRIPTION

Make a window out of the box. Left and top specify placement with respect to screen pixel coordinates where 0,0 is the top left. If you wish to specify the location but use the natural size of the box then use a width of -1.

EXAMPLES

objref b
b = new VBox(2)
b.map		//actually draws the box on the screen
creates an empty box on the screen with a light gray inset frame.

BUGS

The labeling argument does not produce a title for a box under Microsoft Windows.

unmap

VBox

SYNTAX

b.unmap()
b.unmap(accept)

DESCRIPTION

Dismiss the last mapped window depicting this box. This is called automatically when the last hoc object variable reference to the box is destroyed.

If the box is in a dialog the argument refers to the desired return value of the dialog, 1 means accept, 0 means cancel.

save

VBox

SYNTAX

box.save("proc_name")
box.save("string")
box.save(str, 1)
box.save(str, obj)

DESCRIPTION

Execute the procedure when the box is saved.

The default save procedure is to recursively save all the items in the box. This is almost always the wrong thing to do since all the semantic connections between the items are lost.

Generally a box is under the control of some high level object which implements the save procedure. box.save("string") writes string\n to the open session file. box.save(str, 1) returns the open session file name in str.

ref

VBox

SYNTAX

.ref(objectvar)

DESCRIPTION

The object is referenced by the box. When the box is dismissed then the object is unreferenced by the box. This provides a way for objects that control a box to be automatically destroyed when the box is dismissed (assuming no other objectvar references the object). When .ref is used, the string in .save is executed in the context of the object.

Note: When objects are inaccessible to hoc from a normal objref they can still be manipulated from the interpreter through use of their instance name, ie the class name followed by some integer in brackets. As an alternative one may also use the dismiss_action to properly set the state of an object when a box it manages is dismissed from the screen.

dismiss_action

VBox

SYNTAX

.dismiss_action("command")

DESCRIPTION

Execute the action when the user dismisses the window. Not executed if the box is not the owner of the window (ie is a part of another deck or box, intercept ). Not executed if the window is dismissed with an unmap command. For the window to actually close, the command should call unmap on the box.

dialog

VBox

SYNTAX

b = box.dialog("label")
b = box.dialog("label", "Accept label", "Cancel label")

DESCRIPTION

Put the box in a dialog and grabs mouse input until the user clicks on "Accept" (return 1) or "Cancel" (return 0).

The box may be dismissed under program control by calling b.unmap(boolean) where the argument to unmap is the desired value of the return from the dialog.

priority

VBox

SYNTAX

box.priority(integer)

DESCRIPTION

When a session file is created, the windows with higher priority (larger integer) precede windows with lower priority in the file. This allows windows that define things required by other windows to be saved first. For example, a CellBuild window has a larger priority than a PointProcessManager which needs a section declared by the cell builder. A MulRunFitter has even lower priority since it may refer to the point process managed by the manager. Default priority is 1.

The priority scheme, of course, does not guarantee that a session file is consistent in isolation since it may depend on windows not saved.

Priority range is -1000 to 10000

Some existing priorities are: 

SingleCompartment 1000
CellBuild 1000
PointProcessManager 990
Electrode 990
PointGroupManager 980
NetworkReadyCell 900
ArtificialCell 900
NetGUI 700
SpikePlot 600
Inserter 900
RunFitter 100
FunctionFitter 100
MulRunFitter 100

neuron/general/classes/vbox.hel : 5490 Jan 29