Free Positioning

[StevenJMUK]

Does anyone know of a GUI Editor for wxWidgets that allows free positioning of Controls (Like in VB)? I've been playing with wxFormBuilder, but it does not seem to allow it.

[Jorg]

The whole idea behind wxWidgets is that you can code your app to be cross platform. If you program absolute positions, then you will get in trouble, even on one platform with different themes.

Having said that, I think there is a form designer in wxDev-Cpp that allows absolute positioning. Have you tried that ?

Regards,
- Jorgen

[phlox81]

wx is not VB.
I was used to code in MFC, and also the sizers were some kind
of silly and unneeded to me, so I thought I don't need them,
I could program without for years...

But actually, once you think about sizing etc. you get to the
point, where you see the big advantage which sizers offer,
and, that a "Handmade" form really can't compete with it.
It takes some time to get used to it, but I think its worth it.

[StevenJMUK]

It's not just VB though. Every GUI editor I've used allows for absolute positioning. The whole .NET windows forms thing uses absolute positioning, although there are sizer type controls as well.

I suddenly find myself in an unfamiliar land, frustrated that I can't put things where I want them.

I started looking at WxWidgets because I have grown tired of using proprietary tools and the risk factor they represent. e.g. The company I work for has lots of VB6 code, which is a disaster now that Microsoft has discontinued the language. I think the combination of C++ and WxWidgets is the perfect non-proprietary match.

Does anyone have some links to explain the evils of absolute positioning?

[benedicte]

I don't think I'm a geek, but the first argument for me would be localization:
When you translate your app, all strings do not have the same display size. Then, if you have absolute positionning, you may cut words, and the application does not look so nice.

Of course, 99% of applications are available in English, only. But I really think that for localized apps, the UI is very important. You don't let the user believe the translation is only a matter of strings.

[jhurtado]

If you have fixed positions and you increase the default font size then your UI won't be displayed correctly (I had this problem with Delphi).

See wxFormBuilder tutorial, there is a small example of sizer philosophy.

[tierra]

The second evil is that it encourages non-flexible window and dialog design where users aren't free to resize windows when they should be able to and there's no good reason why they can't forcing them to use scrolled windows more often slowing down productivity.

[buildere]

It's not just VB though. Every GUI editor I've used allows for absolute positioning. The whole .NET windows forms thing uses absolute positioning, although there are sizer type controls as well.

I suddenly find myself in an unfamiliar land, frustrated that I can't put things where I want them.

I started looking at WxWidgets because I have grown tired of using proprietary tools and the risk factor they represent. e.g. The company I work for has lots of VB6 code, which is a disaster now that Microsoft has discontinued the language. I think the combination of C++ and WxWidgets is the perfect non-proprietary match.

Does anyone have some links to explain the evils of absolute positioning?

I don't want you to encourage to keep using absolute positioning but as someone mentioned, wx-devcpp lets you design like that. At least that's a good start if you feel uncomfortable. Once you familiarize with wxWidgets you can start learning sizers (wich wx-devcpp also lets use use).

[StevenJMUK]

I think I'm figuring it out now. It requires some planning and top down thinking to get the layout you want.

>Then, if you have absolute positionning, you may cut words, and the >application does not look so nice.

Tell me about it. My company's main product is available in German and the words are always enormous and mess up our layouts. I'd be interested to see how wxWidgets deals with varying word lengths in buttons etc.

[benedicte]

Our application is available in English, French and Spanish, and all the dialog boxes are resized automatically using sizers.

When you design your layout, sizers are positionning controls with relative positions (all in a vertical/horizontal layout, in a grid,... left/center/right aligned...).
Once the window is created in the app, all the controls have their size/position set so as to respect the sizers constraints and to be fully visible. Then, the top level container (dialog box, frame, panel, ...) is resized, then displayed.

If you wish to have an idea of all this can be used, I suggest you to play a bit with a resource designer (such as wxDesigner, or DialogBlocks) and design resizable dialogs. By resizing the dialog, you can imagine how localized strings would impact the controls positions.

[PhoenixPl]

If you want to be able to freely position your controls you can use:

wxDevCpp - http://wxdsgn.sourceforge.net/(I was using it but it seams to crash very often)

Code::Blocks - http://www.codeblocks.org/ (it has a lot of good futures and has support for diffrenet compilers - use nightly builds)

VisualWx - http://visualwx.altervista.org/ (good support for controls, but doesn't have class browser, code completion)

[lowjoel]

In our case, it does seem that alphas are actually more stable than releases... lol I don't have time for nightly builds, but I do put up pretty regular ones (no worse than once a fortnight). Check http://joelsplace.sg/projects/