A Window is not a flea.

[mronck]

Nevertheless I am busy with moving windows around my Alpha Five working area like... the whole day. They move like fleas.
Point is, I am using 2 screens. Not special, who doesn't. But every window A5 opens seems to come out on a spot I don't like somewhere in the middle of course. Hence, I need to pick every window up and move it to the center of one of my screens (when I am going to spend a bit more time in a window, I don't do that for 2 seconds of course).

This moving windows around however grows very old very soon. So I am looking at a way to tell Alpha Five where it should open its windows. I mean for the windows of Alpha Five itself of course, not the app you make. Is there some setting anywhere to tell A5 where it should open it's windows standard? If it only remembered where the last same window was opened that would be super. But I can't find any of it as a setting in View>Settings. Am I looking at the wrong place, or is there nothing available to do this?

The standard settings in Windows itself are also not very satisfying. Hmmm. What to do?

[Clunes]

Re: A Window is not a flea.

I am presuming that when you use two screens, which i don't, alpha sizes the window as though it was one? If that is correct then you could put a script to fix that in the on init event to the window.

Without having two screens myself, i am not sure, but there are functions that capture the screen width and height etc. Start position of the window is placed according to changes. You can find most of this out in design and open,(i think it is called as i am not near my computer) object explorer. This shows you all your settings. I would also post this question in the forum based on your version of alpha

[mronck]

Re: A Window is not a flea.

Hi Mark, thanks for reaction, though I did not speak about the application windows that we ourselves create, but the Alpha system windows. There is no "on init"-event for those (nor any other event).

[Clunes]

Re: A Window is not a flea.

Ok. Please tell me what version of alpha and when i get home ( SAT) I will look at a script that may work 4 u

[mronck]

Re: A Window is not a flea.

Looking forward to such a thing Mark: I use version 11, build 3211-4072.

[Dezza]

Re: A Window is not a flea.

G'day Marcel,

Smack bang in the middle of the screen is the common default but isn't handy over two monitors.

If the graphics card inside the unit is based on an NVidia chipset, check the nView Desktop Manager software. If i recall right (casting my mind back a few years ago now) there's a option along the lines of "Reposition dialog boxes on" which lets you choose where dialog boxes appear. Refer / download the manual from the manufactures website if you're unsure.

ATI based chipsets should have a similar option

Alternatively if it's a desktop, another option is to whack in graphics card with 3 outputs and it will be on the middle scree

[mronck]

Re: A Window is not a flea.

Hi Dezza. I suspect you are right. However, unfortunately my Nvidia GeForce 6800 Card manager software does not have that option or any similar option. It's pretty simple and only has a few tasks that you can manage and neither one of them is offering any feature to reposition dialog boxes or anything close. I have checked the version of the manager, there are no current updates for it so I do have the most recent one.
Indeed there always is an option to invest in a 3 monitor card. Hmmm. If there is no real other option.... maybe. Let's see what else comes up, although I am not sure there are any.

[2ninerniner2]

Re: A Window is not a flea.

I believe that the issue at hand is how A5 is constructed, that is, it is a Multiple Document Interface. As such, it matters not where the parent window is displayed, on either of the how many monitors one may have ( I have three with the noted NVIDIA card, etc.), it will show up where it was last "left".

One cannot take or move any of the child windows (Web Control Panel, Control Panel, etc.) out of the parent window to a spot of one's choosing; they remain where they were displayed. And there is another issue ... these child windows do NOT show up where one last left them!

"Back In The Day" ... when running ArchiCAD on the MAC II (yes, that far back!), I would set up the toolbars on the Apple 13" monitor off to the left and have the main drawing window on the 21" MIRO monitor, which was the primary display. This configuration would be maintained upon application start until I changed it! :) .... ah, progress! :)

[mronck]

Re: A Window is not a flea.

Indeed, the problem lies within the child windows and I yet have to find a solution to pin them somewhere so the pop up at a certain place. For now, it looks like that can't be done which is surprising considering we are in 2013 now :-) Indeed progress has sometimes a strange way of showing itself.

[Clunes]

Re: A Window is not a flea.

OK - I am back home and can look at this. Can you create a xbasic code in the code editor based on the following script and the run it

Copy and paste it. When you run you will get a message box with a result of width, height and unit of measure for your client area. If I am correct this should reflect the width of the two screens. Can you confirm first before I do anything else

'Code------------------


dim myw4 as c


dim myww as n
dim mywh as n
myww = UI_INFO( 8 )
mywh = UI_INFO( 9 )

myw4= a5_get_units()

ui_msg_box("Detail","Client area width = " + alltrim(str(myww)) + ". Client area height = " + alltrim(str(mywh)) + ". System UOM = " + alltrim(str(myw4)))

'End Code-----------------------

[mronck]

Re: A Window is not a flea.

Hi Mark,

Thanks for following up on this!
I have copy/pasted and run the script and the resulting ui box shows as follows:

Clunes_1.jpg

I am interested in how you will proceed from here!

[Peter.Greulich]

Re: A Window is not a flea.

Marcel,

Here are a couple of code samples. Not sure if that helps.

a5.left = 375	 	'The horizontal pixel coordinate of the Alpha Five window.
a5.top = 250		'The vertical pixel coordinate of the Alpha Five window. 	
a5.width = 475		'The width of the Alpha Five window in pixels. 
a5.height = 150

screen_width = ui_info(0) 
screen_height = ui_info(1) 

If screen_width > 1024 
	:A5.restore() 
	:A5.width = 1024 
	:A5.height = 768 
	:A5.top = (screen_height - :a5.height)/2 
	:A5.left = (screen_width - :a5.width)/2 
	:A5.restore() 
Else
	:A5.maximize()	
End If

f.window_position("center", "center")

vWindowTitle = "PG PIM  " + Left(CDOW(Date()),3) + "  " + DTOC(Date())
:A5.window_title = vWindowTitle

SYS_ID_RESTORE(vWindowTitle)
SYS_ID_MOVE(vWindowTitle,4,4)
SYS_ID_RESIZE(vWindowTitle,4,.55)

[mronck]

Re: A Window is not a flea.

Thanks Peter for chiming in with these code examples. However, is that not all for the A5 parent window?
What I would like to do, is position the A5 child windows as they open. Let's say you are configurating a component and somewhere a child window opens to allow for that. This child window will always open in the middle of the A5 working area, thus, the A5 parent window. If you use 2 monitors, the child window will open in the lead monitor window completely to the left side. That's what I would like to change, so that the child windows (which one ever) always open let's say in the center of the lead monitor. Where the A5 parent window opens, or what its size is, is something else as the child window that opens in it.
Point that makes it more complicated: a child window is, according to windows technology limits, always confined to its parent window and can not live outside its parent window.
However, the components open in some kind of browse window that actually is NOT confined to the A5 working area, and subsequently, it is not a child window.

[Peter.Greulich]

Re: A Window is not a flea.

However, is that not all for the A5 parent window?

Not necessarily. Open Notepad and try this:

vWindowTitle = "Untitled - Notepad"

SYS_ID_RESTORE(vWindowTitle)
SYS_ID_MOVE(vWindowTitle,4,4)
SYS_ID_RESIZE(vWindowTitle,4,.55)

Also this can open/move a child window where you want:

vForm = "BillingSub"
f = form.view(vForm)
f.window_position("center", "center")
f.activate()

Point that makes it more complicated: a child window is, according to windows technology limits, always confined to its parent window and can not live outside its parent window.

Modal forms, popups (not modal)*, and xdialogs all can live outside of the A5 shell. But maybe they don't qualify as "child" windows?


However, the components open in some kind of browse window that actually is NOT confined to the A5 working area, and subsequently, it is not a child window.

I believe the component is open in an xdialog.
---

*I don't think most people aren't even aware of "popups"

:Form.view("ReceiptsCalc","Popup")

[Peter.Greulich]

Re: A Window is not a flea.

The bottom line is, you have complete control of window locations - programmatically at least.