OS/2 Shareware BBS: 10 Tools/10-Tools.zip/template.zip/README

Text File | 1998-04-20 | 9KB | 176 lines

    SAMPLE PRESENTATION MANAGER APPLICATION TEMPLATE
    ================================================

The sources contained here are designed to serve as a template for
your PM application.  These source files contain the overhead
routines necessary to create a PM application as well as stubs
for the basic menu items that all applications should have.  The
source files are organized so that only a few of the files need to
be modified; most of the source files can be left alone.  All of
standard initialization and general functionality routines are placed
in separate source files.  Since most applications will not need to
change these routines, these files do not need to be changed.


    ORGANIZATION OF SOURCE FILES
    ============================

Here is list of the source files included in the template application
and their general purpose.  All filenames have been limited to four
characters so that you may add a prefix to the filenames to designate
which ones have been modified for your application.

    main.h - application constants
    xtrn.h - external variable and function declarations
    help.h - help panel ids
    dlg.h  - dialog box constants and item ids.  This file is designed
             to be used with the Dialog Editor.

    main.c - main function, main window procedure, basic menu handler
    init.c - initialization and Exit List processing routines
    file.c - routines for processing File menu items
    edit.c - routines for processing Edit menu items
    user.c - functions for processing menu items and messages
             specific to the application
    dlg.c  - application specific dialog boxes
    help.c - help manager functions
    pnt.c  - routines for painting the main window

    main.rc - main resource file containing menus, string table, etc.
    help.rc - resource file for help panels

    template.ipf - main help text file, contains the link to the others
    file.ipf - help text file for the file menu items
    edit.ipf - help text file for the edit menu items
    menu.ipf - help text file for the application defined menu items
    dlg.ipf  - help text file for the dialog boxes
    help.ipf - help text file for the help menu

    template.mak - make file for the sample application
    template.def - module definition file for the sample application


Also included are two blank headers for use in your source files.

    funchead.c - blank header used before each function
    head.c     - blank header used at the beginning of each source file


    ORGANIZATION OF THE SAMPLE TEMPLATE
    ===================================

Most of the general setup and overhead code is located in the main.c
file.  Since this code is standard for all PM applications, you
will probably not need to modify main.c at all.  Main.c
contains the window procedure for the main window (MainWndProc())
as well as the routine for processing the WM_COMMAND message
received by the main window (MainCommand()).  MainWndProc() handles
all the messages that every window must handle.  MainCommand()
handles all of the WM_COMMAND messages posted by all of the standard
menu items and by calling the appropriate routine to process the
command.  There is one routine for each standard menu item and
they are located in separate source files, one file for each menu.

While these two routines handle all of the standard messages and
menus, some additions will be required to one or both when you add
your own menus or other features. Rather than have you modifying the
file that shouldn't need to be changed, the parts you can modify have
been moved into their own file, user.c.

User.c contains the user defined version of the window procedure
(UserWndProc()) and the WM_COMMAND message handler (UserCommand()).
These two routines are called by the main routines if the message was
not one of the standard messages or menu.  For example, the user window
WM_COMMAND processor is called if the message was not posted by one of
the standard menu items.  By placing UserWndProc() and UserCommand()
into their own file, you can now add the processing necessary for your
application in a spot isolated from the standard processing code.



    USING THE SAMPLE TEMPLATE
    =========================

If you compile and link the sample application now, it will create an
application that will run.  Although the application will not do
anything, it is worth building the application in order to test your
build environment and to see what a basic PM application looks like.

The sample application has only three menu items, File, Edit, and Help.
The File menu contains commands for use on documents, e.g. opening a
document or saving it to disk.  The Edit menu contains commands for
processing data in a document, namely cutting, copying, and pasting
data to and from the clipboard.  The Help menu contains the standard
commands for interfacing with the help manager.

The routines for processing the standard menu commands are located in the
*.c source files, where * is the name of the menu (e.g. File.c for the
File menu).  The source file contains one routine for each
menu item and the routine is named with the menu item name prefaced
by the menu name.  For example, the routine that processes the New
menu item of the File menu is FileNew().  The routines currently
perform any actions which most applications will also take and then
leave it up to you to add any application specific code.  The
FileOpen() routine, for instance, calls the standard File Open dialog
to retrieve a file name and opens the file for reading.  All you need
to do is supply the code to read in the file.  You will need to
supply routines to process all of the menu items whose commands are
in these files.  Consult your CUA Style Guide if you have any questions
as to the function of these menus.

You will also need to add any other menus which your application will
use.  First add the menu item id values in the main.h file.  Next add
the menu resource to the main.rc file.  Now, add the code to process
the WM_COMMAND messages posted by the menus to the UserCommand() routine
in user.c.  Add the menu item id values to the switch statement and
include any menu item processing code there.

Should you wish to process any of the messages sent to the main
window which are not processed by the standard window procedure, you
can add these to the UserWndProc() routine in user.c.  Add the
message id to the switch statement along with the routines for
processing the message.  Make sure that the default case calls
WinDefWindowProc().

Any other initalization, such as command line processing, can be done
by adding code to the Init() routine in init.c.  If there is additional
processing you want done when the main window is created, add these
routines to the InitMainWindow() function of init.c.

Remember to add the source text for new help screens for any menu items
you add (to menu.ipf) and for any new dialog boxes you create (to dialog.ipf).

Finally, change the the name of the source files you modified to reflect
the name of your application.  If you use this template for more than
one application, you will need an easy way to tell which source files
belong to which application.  Embedding the identification of the
application within the name of a source file will help you keep
track of which application that source file is a part.  Now if you use
this template for more than one application you will be able to
discern the sources for each application, even if you have copies
of the sources to more than one application on the same disk.

To tag the source files with an identifier for each application but
still retain the identity of the source file, you should implement
a prefix_suffix naming scheme for your source files.  The prefix
should be a three letter abbreviation for your application name
while the suffix should be the current name of the file.  All
source files of the same application will then begin with the same
three letters.  Yet they will still contain the original name of
the file so that the contents of the file can easily be determined
by name.  For example, suppose you have two applications,
APP1.EXE and APP2.EXE.  You would know that the files AP1_INIT.C and
AP1_DLG.C both are part of application 1.  You also know that
AP1_PNT.C and AP2_PNT.C contain the paint routines for each
application.

The make file and module definition file should be changed to use the
name of your application, not just an abbreviation.  Using the
above example, your make file for application 1 would be APP1.MAK and
the module definition file would be APP1.DEF.

Remember to change all references to files in your make file to
match the name changes you make.  If you change header file names,
also be sure to change all #include statements in the source
and resource files that refer to those header files.