fdesign - Forms Library User Interface Designer

fdesign } [-xformoptions] [-options] [files]

fdesign is a GUI builder that helps the construction of graphical user interface in a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) way by allowing the user to directly manipulate various objects, such as buttons, sliders and menus etc. Once a satisfactory UI is constructed, the user can save the composed interface into an external file containing some program code. When compiled, linked with the Forms Library, and executed, the generated code would, at run time (or print time for PostScript output), construct the exact same interfaces as those seen within fdesign.

A variety of output language is possible via external filters. As of this writing, C, perl, ada95, Fortran, pascal, and PostScript output filters are known to exist.

fdesign accepts all standard Forms Library command line options as well as the following:

-help

Prints a brief summary of all command line options. This option does not require a connection to the X server.

-version

Prints the current version of fdesign and exits.

-geometry geom

Specifies the prefered size and location of main working area in which the UI is to be constructed.

-convert fdfile-list

This option prevents fdesign from attempting to make a connection to the X server. The file list following this flag is converted to C code directly.

-unit pixel|point|mm|cp|cmm

selects the unit of measure for object geometries. For non-pixel unit, the interface created is screen resolution independent and may be desirable for many applications. Note that for typical screens, point (about 1/72 inch) and mm may be too coarse and subject to round-off errors. Use cp (centi-point, 100th of a point) and cmm (centi-mm) instead.

-altformat

selects an alternative format for the generated C code where global variables are used for the UI components.

-main

requests the output of main program template.

-callback

requests the output of callback function template.

-compensate

requests the emission of font/server resolution variation compensation code.

-I headerfile

uses an alternative header file instead of the default forms.h in the output C code.

-lax

requests relaxed C syntax checking.

-ps

This option specifies that instead of emitting the c code for the user interface, PostScript code should be emitted.

-ada

This option requests ada95 code output

-perl

This option requests perl code output.

-fortran

This option requests Fortran code output.

-pascal

This option requests pascal code output.

-nocode

suppresses the output of UI code. Only the .fd file is written.

The most useful Forms Library command line options are

-display host:dpy

This option specifies the X server to connect.

-flversion

This option prints the version string of the Forms Library, with which fdesign was build.

-name appname

This option specifies the application name under which resources are to be obtained, instead of the executable name. appname should not contain . or *. fdesign.

The program understands all of the Forms Library's resource names and classes as well as the following

control.geometry (class Control.Geometry)

specifies the geometry of the control panel. Currently the size is ignored.

unit (Unit)

specifies the default unit of measure. Default is pixel.

attributes.geometry (class Attributes.Geometry)

specifies the geometry of the object attributes panel. Currently the size is ignored.

align.geometry (class Align.Geometry)

specifies the geometry of the object align panel. Currently the size is ignored.

xformsHeader (class XFormsHeader)

specifies the header filename generated in the output C code. Default is forms.h

filter (class Filter)

specifies post-processing filter (an external executable name).

language (class Language)

specifies target language name.

Among the standard Forms Library resources, the following are most useful

xform.fontsize (class XFORM.FontSize)

specifies the font size used for most object labels.

xform.pupfontsize (class XFORM.PupFontSize)

specifies the font size used in pop-up menus.

xform.browserFontSize (class XFORM.BrowserFontSize)

specifies the font size used for the text inside a browser.

xforms(5), fd2ps(1)

Copyright 1996-2000 T.C. Zhao (tc_zhao@yahoo.com) and Mark Overmars (markov@cs.ruu.nl)

http://world.std.com/~xforms