On to Menu class

I decided to begin the work on the Menu class. After going over the code I considered it not to be as hard as I thought to be.

I created the MENUITEM and OWNERITEM classes and added the constants needed by the API. Next I will go into the C code to add the stuctures for the new classes and then I'll prepare a testcase. Finally I'll begin the work on the class, method by method, like always.

After the menu class,,, I don't know, maybe someone will join me.. it feels pretty lonely here.

Little time

I'm picking up on the work on my RC model airplane. I have been working on it for years and from time to time I get the itch and I work on it. Besides that, I don't really do any computer work on weekends.

That said, I would say that there has been little progress on the launcher. It now shows the splash window and that's cool but as expected it fails. To test it I dowloaded the Eclipse 2.0.1 runtime for windows. After looking at the directories, I created the necessary ones following the naming convention and copying the necesary DLLs and JAR files from the port. I realized that the ant that I use doesn't create the swt.jar and in my opinion it should everytime we build the classes.

Since I'm stuck on the launcher and to be honest, I got bored, I decided that I'm going back to the Java code. Since I have no idea where to start with the Menu class, I'll just do some preparatory work, adding the constants, creating a testcase and adding the classes stubs to the project. I'll have more fun that way. At least I'm going to be feeling like I'm adding something new to the code.

I donwloaded a progress bar control that I found in a russian site, with examples. It looks cool and complete. Maybe that code can be added to the port since we don't have any progress bar code so far.

Launcher success

Yesterday I fixed the sources of the launcher2 program. First I dicovered that the library was a utility library done by the developer to simplify the development. Since adding that library was more trouble for me, I decided to replace the library with the code.

You get more lines but what the hell. After a successfukll compilation I included the ico file into the executable.

Finally I decided to go ahead and try the program. I searched the hard drive for a startup.jar file. The one that came up was one included with the sources I recieved. I moved the file into the exe directory and tested. The result... a java screen (awt I think) displaying the parameters passed onto the program and a nice message saying that everything was going OK.

I copied the original startup.jar file from the Eclipse distribution into the same directory, overwriting the one I used first to see if the results were the same.
Well the results were not the same. This time I got a message saying that the instalation directory wasn't found. A .workspace directory was created and a log file was written saying that the Eclipse structure wasn't found.

I'll experiment creating a Eclipse structure and trying then to see what happens.

The only problem that really bugs me it's the fact that I can't debug the C code under VAC++ 4.0. I'll be asking around about this.

Launcher

I recieved the sources back from Lee Riemenschneider and I began looking at the way to integrate them on the project. This is going to be an on going task, since I keep changing my mind. I created the directory structure needed and I created a VAC 4.0 project just to test the compilation.
After a couple of changes to the code it finally compiled. Trying the exe gives me controlled errors indicating the lack of startup.jar on the same directory. So those were really good news since it meant that I was on the right track. Today I realized that I was using the sources of the launcher for the Eclipse 1 project. I changed it but I came across a problem with an included library. The program calls a MMLoadBitmap function and I haven't found where it is yet.

My idea is to get the source compile, then add the icon resource then make the program load the splash window, after that I'll try getting everything in place to do a test with a startup.jar

Going forward

I decided to go over the code and finish uncomplete code. I have worked on the Display and Control classes, implementing code that was left commented by the former developer. I also added comments to some other methods pointing out the API calls that should be implement on those particular cases.

I also got the sources of the launcher and I created the basic stucture of dirs to begin the porting work. I have no idea how hard it will be but the sources are supposed to compile under VAC++ 3.08 so I hope it won't be too complex.

Group done,,... next ...????

Ok, I finished implementing the Group class. I completed the getClientArea method. That solved the problem of displaying a group without any text on it.

I also discovered that the problem with the setText method wasn't there . The problem seems to be associated with the PSZ class. When I create a PSZ using an empty string,, it crashes and burns (on any setText method). I tried a couple of short solutions but they didn't work. I guess I'll try a stronger medicine.

Now about the future. I have no idea where to go now. I know I don't have the skills to solve the problems with the tabfolder class and to implement the Menu class. I'm thinking on working on the launcher app. As soon as I get the sources back I'll include them in the repository.In the mean time I could just look around the code and finish unimplemented functions (there are all over the place)