GUI Design

How do people here design their GUI interfaces?
I'm using MaxGUI but it might not be that relevant as it's the pre-coding bit I struggle with.
Currently, I use paper then create an image before coding but, somehow, always miscalculate window/canvas/buttons sizes.
I have GUIde but it's a bit fiddly and suffers from the odd crash.

This can be tough, especially if you've got alot of gadgets and info that needs to be displayed.

I generally start off with a rough idea of how I want to group related gadgets together, and how I want the overall interface to look. I then just take it from there - no choice really as I always have to add/change stuff as the app progresses. If you're able to fully spec your app before coding, then great, but I never do. :)

I think the key is to make everything as flexible as possible. I define all my gadget positions, sizes etc. using constants which helps to change the interface with little difficulty. This probably doesn,t apply to maxGUI (I don't know), but you get the idea.

And yeah, I use an image editor to experiment, too. ;)

Doesn't maxGUI have a decent form/GUI editor then?

'fraid not. Wiebo updated GUIde to produce Bmax code but it's a bit 'quirky' and I suffer from the same problem as with the image way of doing things.
I don't use constants and is something to try as it applies to MaxGUI as well.
Thanks for the ideas.
<edit> There's a MaxEdit in development

To be honest, it should come with one, I mean, how many RAD languages come with a intergrated GUI editor, answer, nearly all of them (Apart from Blitz+, but then, same thing really)

If BRL had an offical MaxGUI editor, that could easily be placed in the IDE, I'd pay for it, and I expect many others would too!

But then, it's a sensible request, which we'll never get! ;)

Dabz

Bite your tongue Dabz... bite your tongue!!! If BRL won't take a day to code and cough one up lets wave money in front of someone else that has serious coding stones!!!

I agree, having to code a gui is ok for a basic game menu, but anything more than that and a proper GUI Layout editor is a godsend.

There are a few GUI editors for BlitzMax hovering around these very forums.

Use your eyes and support the community!
http://www.blitzbasic.com/toolbox/toolbox.php?tool=28
:)


Regarding GUI design, I generally just do it with code.
Many GUI editors lack tools to quickly and easily create a gadget that is aligned, properly, with another gadget with a uniform gap between each and every gadget to keep things looking nice.

I just don't bother with them :)

And remember!
The fewer buttons the better.

My opinion is that (in the case of almost every application out there) if a window needs loads of tiny hard-coded buttons, it isn't done right.
Too many gadgets in the same place can scare away the user, especially when the help files for the more obscure and seemingly unlabeled buttons scream "don't try to use this!" (*cough*Terragen*cough*).
Instead, try arranging stuff into seperate windows with bigger buttons and single purposes, and, if there is anything where (for example) variables are being assigned to things, try doing a lisbox with textboxes at the bottom as opposed to hundreds of textboxes.
I'm doing this with APE and it works wonders for code and workflow.


Anyway... what am I on about?!

we used SOW with CEGUI and Chris did an excellent job at making that easy to use. CEGUI is pretty easy for artists to use, and does a good job of using texture pages in an intuitive way.

We ended up using the Windowslook GUI Scheme, with a couple of custom gadget types, and 2 seperate texture pages, one for defining all the gadget, button, tooltips window and frame borders,along with their hover and roll over variants. And a second texture page that contains all the image buttons.

Seems to be a really good system, and the easiest I have used so far. I've been pretty interested in comparing it to eyeglass, and almost bought that since I wanted to make a skinnable GUI and Blitzgui seemed a bit limited in this area.

Anyone used CEGui and iglass, I'd be really interested to see how they compare with media handling. Does iglass use many small bitmaps or one or two larger texture pages with graphical elements seperated in a simple script (the way CEGUI works).

I liked the code samples for iglass, but there wasn't really any info thats useful for artists. Like how the graphics are laid out and how efficiently it all works.

The iglass demos were exe's with the media compiled within them, where I'd have liked to see how media is prepared and used.

lol, well, the thing is, I requested a GUI editor a couple of years ago, I remember skid posted a 'B+ Request' thread, and I requested a GUI editor in the IDE, though, nothing. :)

mmmm, MAXEdit, I'll have a peek at that when I get in from work! :)

Dabz