[Gambas-user] Control Layout questions

[Benoit Minisini]

On dimanche 25 mai 2008, Mike Brett wrote:
> Advice would be appreciated on the following please....
>
> I'm trying to develop using 2.6.0 [using gb.qt and gb.qt.ext components]
> on Fedora 8, for an eventual target user platform of the Asus eeePC (KDE
> based 800x480 screen).
>
> I want to use several closely spaced rows of three controls - a Label
> next to a TextBox next to a ComboBox. I have set the Font size of all
> these controls to -4, because screen area is at a real premium.

You don't have to change the font size in your project. You must change the 
default desktop font size, which might not be configure properly on Fedora. 
You may have the same problem as Ubuntu users: the qt library is not 
correctly configured when installed. To configure the qt library, you must 
use the qtconfig program. Ask other Fedora users how to install it.

>
> Questions 1. Layout seems to be permanently set to snap to grid, and for
> my purposes the grid increments are rather too big. Do I have control
> over (a) snapping on/off, and (b) grid 'spacing'?

(a) Yes (b) No.

Grid spacing is half the default font height on Gambas 2. It is 1 + 33% the 
default font font height on Gambas 3.

The idea behind that is that the height of all "one-line" controls like 
Labels, TextBox, ComboBox, RadioButton, CheckBox must been two grid spaces. 
(Three in Gambas 3).

Anyway, you should layout the control with the fixed grid the less as 
possible. The grid is mainly there for the old vb users. You should always 
use instead:

* The layout containers: HBox, VBox, HPanel, VPanel, or any other container 
with the Arrangement property set.
* The Padding and Spacing properties of these containers.
* The Expand and Ignore property of the children controls.

>
> Questions 2. The Labels, TextBoxes and ComboBoxes all have a Height
> setting of 22, and have been top-aligned; however the bottoms of the
> ComboBoxes hang lower than the other two controls. I can however make
> the ComboBoxes have the same visual height as the Label/TextBox by
> dragging their bottom handle up. However the properties still show
> height = 22 for all three control types, even after this adjustment. When I
> (a) save and re-open the project, or
> (b) run it
> the comboboxes look slightly too tall again.

Why did I change the grid space in Gambas 3? Because I discovered that many 
themes have enough border to make the 2 grid space height too small. As 
ComboBoxes (and a few other controls) do not shrink if their contents are not 
visible, it is sometimes too tall, even if Gambas thinks the contrary.

>
> Will the ComboBoxes in my final installation package look right or
> wrong? What's actually going on here, and what control if any do I have
> over the situation?
>
> Thanks - Mike -
>

First, fix the qt library default font height, and tell me if things go better 
after that.

Regards,

-- 
Benoit Minisini