wxRapid - A GUI editor

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upCASE
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wxRapid - A GUI editor

Post by upCASE »

Hi all!
I'm proud to announce the first development release of my GUI editor wxRapid.
Here's a little screenshot:
Image

You can grab a copy of it here: http://www.upcase.de/stuff/wxRapid.zip
It's in an early stage, so don't expect everything to work as you'd like it :D
There are some bugs in some of the widgets, but the most basic stuff should work. A simple project example is included. It should generate a small XRC based app.

Feel free to post comments :D
OS: OpenSuSE, Ubuntu, Win XP Pro
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AkiraDev
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Post by AkiraDev »

Hi upCASE!

These are really good news! Already took it for a testdrive. The use of the wxMDIChildFrame was clever ;).
Is there also a Linux executable available? I'd like to test it there.

Regards
Back, just not as often

Windows Vista SP1, Ubuntu 8.04
MinGW 3.4.5, GCC 4.2.1
Code::Blocks
wxWidgets 2.8.9
NinjaNL
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Re: wxRapid - A GUI editor

Post by NinjaNL »

upCASE wrote:Hi all!
I'm proud to announce the first development release of my GUI editor wxRapid.
Looks good.
upCASE wrote:It's in an early stage, so don't expect everything to work as you'd like it :D
There are some bugs in some of the widgets, but the most basic stuff should work.
Menu's and Toolbars don't seem to work. I would have considered these to be basic (needs).

Otherwise it looks promising, I look forward to giving it a decent test drive later.
Follow the development of my screenplay authoring program at http://wxscreenplaywriter.blogspot.com/
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Post by tbreina »

Outstanding!

I know that CodeBlocks is looking for a RAD. I wonder if they would want to use yours as a base? Is it written in C++/wxWidgets? Is the source code available?

-Tony
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Post by mandrav »

tbreina wrote:Outstanding!

I know that CodeBlocks is looking for a RAD. I wonder if they would want to use yours as a base? Is it written in C++/wxWidgets? Is the source code available?

-Tony
Yes, upCase is a regular over at our forums and we 've talked about it.
We decided it's better to continue building it as a stand-alone app (as it was started) and make it a MIME-plugin for Code::Blocks (the easiest type of integration).

He is doing a great job on it! 8)

Yiannis.
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Post by Jorg »

Looks great UpCase I will try it later on and let you know what I find out ;-)

Regards,
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buildere
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Post by buildere »

mandrav wrote:
tbreina wrote:Outstanding!

I know that CodeBlocks is looking for a RAD. I wonder if they would want to use yours as a base? Is it written in C++/wxWidgets? Is the source code available?

-Tony
Yes, upCase is a regular over at our forums and we 've talked about it.
We decided it's better to continue building it as a stand-alone app (as it was started) and make it a MIME-plugin for Code::Blocks (the easiest type of integration).

He is doing a great job on it! 8)

Yiannis.
Just a question: What happened with the wxFormBuilder integration effort? I know both wxFormB and wxRapid could work as plug-ins (so both can coexist), and also wxRapid looks quite good, but ... I think wxFormBuilder has achieved quite good things, like it's own plug-ins interface and XML format.
Is there no communication between CodeBlocks guys and Jose Hurtado? I also noticed he moved his project to sourcefourge.

Anyway, good job upCASE! :D
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Post by arucard »

to upCASE:
I see the picture with the designated frame and wonder how is it done. I think what and which wx-classes do you have used for showing the frame and gray background. I am asking because I am trying to code similar kind of designer and fighting with these problems:
- if I use mdi architecture I cannot design menus because the menu of the designated child appears in the parent window menu. I cannot design wizard-dialogs too
- if I use frame, dialog etc. with STAY_ON_TOP or FLOATING_ON_PARENT (to see the window properly) then I have problem with covering other windows like propertygrid and tree if the designated window is too big (I need scrollbars)
- if I use some kind of panel for the designated window then I cannot move it because it hasn't any titlebar

If you have solved this problem somehow let me know please
wxWidgets 2.8.4, winxp, VC2003 and above
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Post by NinjaNL »

I noticed that even though I added many controls to the basic form, I can still shut the program down without being prompted to save my work.

This is the case for both the Xbox and the File-Quit option.

Although there is a menu option to save (I assume this means the project) and Save XRC, there is no prompt to save a "dirty" project.
Follow the development of my screenplay authoring program at http://wxscreenplaywriter.blogspot.com/
upCASE
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Post by upCASE »

Hi!
NinjaNL wrote: Menu's and Toolbars don't seem to work. I would have considered these to be basic (needs).
Right. I spend a lot of time getting sizer support to work and left these for later implementation. In fact these are the next things on my list. :D
tbreina wrote:Is it written in C++/wxWidgets? Is the source code available?
Yes it's written in wxWidgets. The source is currently not available, but once I'm done I'll release it.
arucard wrote:I see the picture with the designated frame and wonder how is it done. I think what and which wx-classes do you have used for showing the frame and gray background.
It's a wxMDIChildFrame. The menu problem you mentioned hasn't been solved. I think I'll go with a custom editor for the menu. Maybe I can hack the wxWidgets code to get it working with MDI frames.
NinjaNL wrote:Although there is a menu option to save (I assume this means the project) and Save XRC, there is no prompt to save a "dirty" project.
Correct. It's in an early stage and I spend more time on getting things to work then on useability :D
This will definitly have to be implemented in the upcoming next version.
OS: OpenSuSE, Ubuntu, Win XP Pro
wx: svn
Compiler: gcc 4.5.1, VC 2008, eVC 4

"If it was hard to write it should be hard to read..." - the unknown coder
"Try not! Do. Or do not. There is no try." - Yoda
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Post by jhurtado »

buildere wrote: Just a question: What happened with the wxFormBuilder integration effort? I know both wxFormB and wxRapid could work as plug-ins (so both can coexist), and also wxRapid looks quite good, but ... I think wxFormBuilder has achieved quite good things, like it's own plug-ins interface and XML format.
In this moment, wxFormBuilder Team (oh yes!, now we are two developers :-)) is not working on codeblocks integration, but recently I switch to codeblocks ide for wxFB development and I really like it. It seems to be that C::B Team are working on RAD plugin (wxSmith?) from scratch.

Anyway, wxFB development continues, there are a lot improvements that there will be on next development release (I hope that it is closed to first beta version).

Good luck.

Regards,

Jose Antonio.
upCASE
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Post by upCASE »

Hi!
I just updated the release of wxRapid for you to play with over the weekend if you like :D

The link (as usual): http://www.upcase.de/stuff/wxRapid.zip

A new screenshot:
Image

Here are some of the new features:
1. "Dirty" projects prompt you for saving them before opening a new project or closing the app.
2. There's a project options dialog now.
3. Once properly setup, code generation will generate the code based on the project options and only save changed code.
4. There's a menu editor! Menus will be displayed in the frame using the wxMenuToolbar class from the code dump.
5. wxDockIt is used to make the toolbox dockable.
6. Some improvements done to the property grid.
7. "Import project" will try to import wxRapid, XRC and wxGlade files.

What's still not working:
Apart from some bugs I didn't find, toolbar generation still isn't working. Under some circumstances, loading a menu from a project file fails. No work has been done on getting all widgets to display and work properly, but that's next on my list.

With the next release I hope to have all widgets working, toolbar generation, C++ code generation and maybe "Tab ordering" (but I'm not sure wether I'll implement that).

Anyway: Have fun with wxRapid!
As usual: If you'd like to comment -> Post here. I wont be online until monday, but anyway :D

Have a nice weekend!
OS: OpenSuSE, Ubuntu, Win XP Pro
wx: svn
Compiler: gcc 4.5.1, VC 2008, eVC 4

"If it was hard to write it should be hard to read..." - the unknown coder
"Try not! Do. Or do not. There is no try." - Yoda
Aardbei
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Post by Aardbei »

Nice, looks very good!

Here's a bunch of comments (I'm just writing down everything I've found, you might know about all or most of them already):

- It would be a good idea to add the ability to cancel the 'Project Options'-dialog :shock: the 'x' is disabled and there's only an OK button; how can I cancel the dialog without creating a new project? (if that would be possible, see below)
Image

- Another idea would be to automatically add the project name to the output path (so you won't have to type it twice), like it's done in some other programs (afaik MSVC.Net does that as well).

- When creating this new project, it's not entirely clear why it doesn't let me create the project (with all the entry fields filled), it only displays a dialog with this message:
Image
I had to manually kill wxRapid and still haven't figured out why I can't create that project (and leave the dialog without creating a project that doesn't want to be created - argh, man.. that's really a hair pulling situation! :P :oops: )

- Dragging and dropping the sample project onto the main frame doesn't work, would be very nice if it did

- After starting wxRapid, try clicking with the right (!) mouse button inside the (empty) widget overview (on the right side of the main frame): *crash*

- The "Preview XRC Code" menu option makes the program crash if there's no frame (for previewing)

- You can also crash the program by dragging the Demo.project file onto wxRapid.exe and closing down the program again: *crash*

- "Project options" is missing a captial "O" for "Options"
- "Preview XRC code" is missing a capital "C" for "Code"
- "Frame stuff" is missing a capital "S" for "Stuff"

- Oh, and this:
Image

..but I guess that's a matter of taste, or perhaps you just haven't noticed it because you're using that nice OSX-theme :)
Personally I can't stand bevel explosions (in any program). Even so much that it makes me use other programs (even if the program itself is very good).


That's all bugs I could find for now, keep up the good work, I'm looking forward to see what this program will become :)
Last edited by Aardbei on Fri Jun 03, 2005 10:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.
krysa
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Post by krysa »

I'm not going to name a lot of bugs (that, i'm sure, you already know about). Instead, i must say, this realy annoys me a lot - ICON! You realy need an icon for wxRapid! I created shortcut on my desktop an it looks realy crapy! You should realy think about starting a contest like "who will make better icon (logo? other art?) for wxRapid?". No prize - just for fun! ;)
Platform: MSW (Windows XP Pro)
Compiler: msvc 13.10.3077 (Free Toolkit)
wxWidgets: v2.6.0
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Post by Jorg »

Well if UpCase is anything like me, I don't care about the icon and artwork until my functionality is in place ;-)

By the way Aardbei in which prg did you write that text? I assume you use a tablet pen? I am a bit of a cartoonist myself, and I am just curious ;-)

- Jorgen
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