Zugg Software :: View topic

Posted: Fri Jul 09, 2004 3:27 am

I've uploaded the latest version of the Zeus pre-order package.

Please remember to create a NEW TOPIC to report bugs in this version.

Here are the big new features in this version:

1) Completely updated <MEMO> component. This is now a full-powered word-processing editor component. There are *many* built-in Actions that utilize this control. The demo application "editor.zml" has been rewritten to show off some of these Actions. In addition to the as-you-type spellchecking from the previous component, this component supports Rich text, HTML, Full table editing, Images, font and paragraph styles, and much much more. It's designed to operate the same as Microsoft Word. It even supports read/write of Word DOC files. The HTML Import still needs some work: it supports everything except CSS. But any non-CSS HTML should import fine. It also doesn't support certain image alignments that wrap text, such as align=left.

2) New <RULER> component. Used with the <MEMO> component, this provides a Word-like user interface for modifying margins and tab stops in the editor.

3) New <COMBOBOX> component. Used to create pull-down combo-boxes. Several different pre-built styles are available, including a "font list" that can be tied to the editor for easy font selection from the toolbar.

4) New <COLORBTN> component. A color selection button like those found in MS Office. It can be tied to various actions to set various colors of other components from the toolbar.

5) New <PAGES> component. A collection of "tabs" for multi-page user interfaces.

6) New <TAB> component. A tab from a <PAGES> component. Tabs can be colored! The editor.zml demo uses the <PAGES> and <TAB> components to create a multi-tabbed editor for editing multiple files at the same time. It colors each tab in red when a change has been made to the file, and puts the name of the file in the tab caption. Tabs can also have different styles (such as the SlantRight style used in the demo).

7) New <TABS> component. A set of <TAB>s without the separate pages. This is used when you just want a list of tabs on the screen but do not want to have a separate user interface page for each tab. You'd typically respond to the _OnClick event for the <TAB> to determine which tab was clicked and take appropriate action in your script. Supports alignment at Top, Bottom, Left, or Right.

8) New <SPINEDIT> component. A component for entering numeric values. Can be tied to other component properties (such as the Font.Size used in the editor.zml demo). Supports the mouse wheel for fast changes to the number.

9) Fixed bug in <GRID> component when handling empty collections (like mail folders with no messages).

10) Tried some tricks to prevent JIT debuggers from flagging script errors that should be ignored.

I hope you like the editor demo. It's a very functional multi-file editor with support for many different file types. I even added a file type called "ANSI Color files" that allows you to read *.txt and *.log files created with zMUD that have ANSI colors embedded in them. You can now read one of these files and then export it to HTML to put a log file on the web if you'd like.

Take a look at the actual editor.zml source code file to see how some of this stuff works. You'll be amazed at how much stuff is predefined for you and how easy it is to make such a powerful editor component.

I'll be using this editor component in eMobius as the email creation component. So, play around with it and see if there is anything that doesn't work the way you'd like for email editing.

Have fun!

(Oh, to download the new version, go to www.emobius.com )

Posted: Fri Jul 09, 2004 3:34 am

Here is a screenshot of the editor.zml demo application with a page from the zuggsoft.com web site loaded into it:

and just to show off Smile

here is the same program with the readme.txt file modified (to make the tab red) and the built-in Aqua theme selected instead of the default WinXP theme:

Posted: Fri Jul 09, 2004 4:52 pm

Btw, I'm going to be gone until Sunday night, so I'll reply to any posts in the forum either Sunday night or Monday morning. Have fun playing with the editor over the weekend!

Wizard Joined: 10 Oct 2000 Posts: 1551 Location: Australia

Wowser, looking good Zugg :)

Now make the POP client *prod prod* :)

SubAdmin Joined: 18 Nov 2001 Posts: 5182

Way to go Zugg.

Posted: Mon Jul 12, 2004 6:54 pm

I'm getting there Rainchild Wink

Everything you have seen so far are direct steps on the way towards the email client. Obviously this editor demo is the editor that will be used for creating email messages, replying to old messages, etc. The previous mailview.zml demo is the code that will be used to import Outlook email and also the code for viewing folders and messages etc.

The next step along the development path is to add the database integration (MDAC/ODBC etc). So, you'll see another demo release with some sort of database demo in it. After the database integration is done, then I'll be working on the actual email protocols such as POP and IMAP (actually, I'll probably be doing IMAP first). Somewhere around that time is when you'll likely see the first actual version of eMobius itself.