I figured we might as well have one place for the requests.
So please fire away with requests.

1) In the past I have asked Art if the z level of pictures could be implemented, and he told me it was impossible, and yet you ( Stan) did it first attempt.
This has given me hope that other things I have requested might also be able to be implemented that have also been deemed as impossible.
I suspect Art was busy and that was an easy way out for him
We now have flash screens implemented however the draw back is the screen can only be fully flash or fully traditional.
I would like to see the ability for traditional screens to contain smaller swf ( Flash movies)
The advantage with this is we could make up component in flash, and insert them into an existing screen. This means we could build a library of component that the user could use in his /her own screen. Instead of having to design a full flash screen.
Since I know that Mach3 can respond to FS commands, from a flash file, It shouldnt be hard to do. ( Guessing)
Since a browser can also display flash along with other components, I was wondering if the creen couls possibly be like an html page ( Suggestion of a way to achive what I want )
The main criteria would be that the background of the flash movie would need to display transparently. I know there is that option when putting a flash ( SWF) into a html page.

Its probably a big ask, and one you may not see why I am asking for. But I can see a big advantage with screen designing, been able to do this.

Have I hurt your head already Stan ? I have been holding off asking for this for quite a while.

Benny,


Z Level of pictures
If Art says it can't be done,  then I believe him.
What can and cannot be done depends on the capabilities
of the development environment and how the GUI code
was constructed at the base level.


Flash Screens
I can't really comment on the problem concerning transparency or
why screens have to be fully Flash or fully native.
My experience with Flash programming is nil.
There's not much I can do about either of these as the problems
are in the MACH software.

Best Regards

Stan,

No you read it wrong. You did archive z levels of pictures. ( Your program calls it Z order) Same thing.

Oh well, to the other item. But I bet it can be done I know of another c++ program that does just that, so I know its not out of the question.

Thanks for considering it though.

Benny,


Z-Order
I did understand what you meant about Z-Order.
My point was concerning Z-Order in MACH and not
my screen editor.  So I am now totally confused about
what exactly you are asking me to do concerning this.


Flash
Yes,  I'm sure it can be done.
But I am unclear what you are asking me to do.
The problems you mentioned,  exist in MACH and not
in my editor because I don't support Flash at all at this time.

Best Regards

Stan

Thanks Stan.

Hi Stan

Brilliant news about your work on a new editor - I am looking forward to using it 

Can I pop another request in here -

Is it possible to create a method that allows buttons to exist on some pages. The traditional designer allows you to use 'display on alll pages'. Would it be possible to have 'display on pages 1,3,4,6,7' etc ??

One other thought - if you have a button running VB script, do you have to edit it within your editor or can you edit it while working in Mach? I do quite a bit of work on wizards and find that I have to tweak a lot.

Cheers

Dave

Hi David,

Is it possible to create a method that allows buttons to exist on some pages.
The traditional designer allows you to use 'display on alll pages'.
Would it be possible to have 'display on pages 1,3,4,6,7' etc ??

This gets a bit tricky when inserting and deleting pages (screens)
because for example,  Page 6 may no longer be page 6 after a page
is inserted.

I'll see what I can do.  I already have provision for global items,
so your request is just an extension of that.

if you have a button running VB script, do you have to edit it
within your editor or can you edit it while working in Mach?

I cannot speak for the MACH software,  only Art can do that.


Best Regards

Stan

Hi Stan

Thanks for the reply. Here's an idea - instead of having a display on screens ********* option. How about having a "copy to screen x" option. Thta way you select the buttons you want then hit the copy to option, enter the page number and it creates exact copies of the originals on the selected screen and in the smae positions as the original. I like to use 'common' toolbars down the sides and across the bottom of screens so being able to easily copy them would be great.

On the VB script front, that is the way the 'traditional' screen designer works. I guess Art must have some way of accessing the code within the screen files - if your screen files could be setup in a similar way to allow this to happen that would be great. It makes VB script developmentrelatively easy. Basically what i am saying is the feature already exists in Mach using 'traditional' screens but not with yours.

Cheers

Dave

Hi David,

Replicating Screen Items
Your suggestion is not really necessary to implement because you will be able to
Copy and Paste ANY item(s) between Screens.

This will even work between projects because the Windows clipboard will be used
for this.  So you can open an existing project,  copy some items to the Windows clipboard,
and then paste those items to any other screen project.

Furthermore,  you will be able to do this with ENTIRE screens also.
Meaning that you will be able to copy a whole screen to the windows clipboard
and then paste the screen into either the current project or into another project
as a new screen.

This means that 2 options will be available :
1.  Setting an item to "Global" so it appears on all screens.
2.  Using copy / paste to replicate items to specific screens.

I hope this will satisfy your request.


VB-Script Editing
David,  I think I may have not understood your original question regarding this.

Are you saying that the Mach 3/4 screen editor(s) can execute the VB-Script without
you having to test VB-Scripts in MACH?

Unfortunately,  I have no experience with VB-Script at all.  My editor was not written in
VB,  and I've never used VB myself.  I do understand what VB scripts are,  but I cannot
at this time determine if I can support this request directly inside my editor.

I will however investigate this,  because as a programmer,  I do appreciate the value of
such functionality.  I know,  I would certainly want this myself if I were in your shoes.



Regards

Stan.

Hi Stan

Replicating Screen Items

That sounds just great - you the man 

VB Script
Probably easiest to describe the way the system currently works
If you open a screenset in Mach, then go to the operator menu and 'Edit Button Script' any buttons that consist of VB script will then start to flash. If you now click on a flashing button the VB script editor pops up and you can edit the code, save and close it. I've attached a pic that shows what happens when you go to 'Edit Button Script' and click on the (now flashing) Ref All Home button. From memory the VB used by Mach isn't true VB - probably best to talk to Art about that one.

Thanks for all your work on the new editor - I'm looking forward to using it, any ideas when we may get to play with it?

Cheers

Dave