Re: [Pythoncard-users] moving menubar and getting rid of stack?

Kevin Altis wrote:

> It is a simple change to push the menubar down from the stack to the an
> attribute of the background which is where I think it should be. It does
> mean I have to move the menubar in all of the the .rsrc.py files and update
> the resourceEditor and a few other files, but I want to do that before I
> dive into any deeper changes. It shouldn't impact any user code.
> 
> The Stack class no longer has a purpose in the prototype model since there
> is really only one Background and that is likely to just become one of many
> Windows or Forms or Layouts... of the app. We already get the current
> background from the app, not the stack.
> 
> bg = pcapp.getCurrentBackground()
> 
> Removing stack will also shorten some of the existing sample code and
> framework elements that refer to application attributes and methods will be
> shortened:
> 
>   self.stack.app.applicationDirectory
> becomes
>   self.app.applicationDirectory
> 
> Removing Stack will actually require even more resource changes and
> framework fixes, so I won't start that until after menubar is moved and I
> have a chance to go through some of the details. We can continue to use the
> convention that the first background in the list of backgrounds is the
> "main" background until we think of a better organization.
> 
> Like everything in the framework and samples, this is open for discussion,
> but if there is none, I'll check in the changes sometime tomorrow.
> 
> I'm very eager to push the framework further ahead this month to help with
> these discussions about terminology and names. Everyone should continue to
> reply to the "What Do We Call These Things?" thread while I put my coding
> cap back on :)
> 
> ka
> 

I fully agree with moving the menu, but should it be associated with the 
background, or with the window?

A window is the major component of an application (but it can have more 
than one), and an application must have at least one. All of the GUI 
toolkits that I have used have associated menus with the window rather 
than the background, but we don't have to stick with that metaphor if we 
don't want to.

The separation of the window from the background is quite a powerful 
'feature'. One of the neat things you can do in Oracle forms is 
dynamically/programatically swap the canvases (backgrounds in our 
terminology) within a window. This allows some pretty fancy layout - but 
then again may be too complicated for our kind of applications. Its a 
feature that I have used in the past, but I don't have a sample 
application in mind which would need it - yet.

Just my stream of consciousness, please feel free to tell me I'm an idiot.

Regards,
Andy
-- 
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 From the desk of Andrew J Todd esq.
"Another year older, still no wiser." - Me, on my birthday