Note:  This version of the Spheres of Influence game editor is far from complete, and is only intended as an example of how to use many features of my BeGUI gadget layout routines.
Getting Started
When the editor starts you will see a window with two lines of text and four buttons. Only two of the buttons are usable, and the first button (labeled "Define new Universe parameters (Min's, Max's, etc.)...") is the one to start with!
When you select "Define new Universe parameters..." a new window will open presenting a whole slew of buttons. For now, only the Universal Constants and Species buttons do anything. Selecting the "Design Universal constants..." button will open a new window with lots of data entry fields, try it out. Put a name in the proper field and save your results. Create a few different sets of Universal Constants by "Add"ing (use the "Add" button) the first one you play with and then entering some different data (the editor will check to make sure that at least one item of critical data is different, so make some changes, other than name!) and "Add"ing additional Universal Constants. The "List" button will be activated as soon as there is more than one Universal Constant, use it to select one of the old Universal Constants to re-edit. Now, the "Next" and/or "Previous" gadgets will be active. Use them to move around the list of Universal constants.
Playing With Preferences
Note:  A new directory full of preference data will be created by this application. It will be found in /boot/home/config/settings and is called _LP_x-EFM5.SoIEditGUI. If you get your preferences totally unacceptably messed up, simply quit the application (save all unsaved data), delete this file and start the application up again. The default preferences will be restored.
From any of the windows, go to the "APP" menu and select "Preferences". This will open a new window for the main preference panel. A button labeled "Font..." opens up a font preference panel--try this out to see how the application is entirely font sensitive. You may set the font's family and style, set it's size (using the "Bigger" and "Smaller" buttons or the floating point entry gadget), and even choose whether or not to anti-alias your font. You might have noticed a window pop up in the background with the alphabet and digits--this is just so you can see how your font choices will look. A checkbox gadget is provided to turn this display on or off. Of course, the display window is mainly hidden, so drag it out so it is in plain sight, then, from now on, when you run this application it will always know where you like the window and will put it there automatically. This feature is available on all application window.
There are fourteen buttons which allow you to customize the appearance of the primary BeOS controls. The only Be Interface Kit controls not present here are the Tab and the Slider. I have the slider working, but am awaiting the results of a bug report before including it in a release. The Tab stuff escapes me completely, as I have not figured out how to make them work at all! Each button opens a new window with a control panel specific to the gadget in question. Each gadget is represented by a demonstration item so you may watch the results of your actions in real time.
Playing with colors is interesting and you may learn a lot about the way controls are created just by changing a color (View, High, or Low) and watching how it affects the item. Some Item's colors are based upon the "Underlying View"'s colors, so play with it as well. You can easily make things unreadable with color changes! See the note above about restoring the defaults, when all else fails! There are two checkboxes which allow you to customize the control panels themselves. By default, both standard BeOS BColorControls and roColour (check out: http://www.rodesign.com) color drops are supported. There is a custom roColour color well which is sized according to the font size, you may drop roColours on them to affect color changes. You may have either or both gadgets active at any time.
Other Menu Items
There are a few other menu items available, most windows have the "Preferences" item, as well as a "Close Window" item (which performs the same function as the window's close gadget or the keyboard shortcut alt-w), and a "Quit" item which terminates the application (after a verification requester). All windows also should have an "About" item which opens a BAlert giving details about the application and specific hints about what is going on in this window. The main title window has a "File" menu which duplicates the actions of the buttons.
for version 0.4.2
The BeGUI
Book
Copyright © 1998 Ed Musgrove Be Developer #2076. All rights reserved.
edgar@harbornet.com
emusgrov@linknet.kitsap.lib.wa.us
Last modified November 25, 1998.
Spheres of Influence is Copyright ©, 1990-1998 Ed Musgrove. All rights reserved.
SoIEditor is Copyright ©, 1998 Ed Musgrove. All rights reserved.