Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!cmcl2!nrl-cmf!ames!killer!elg
From: elg@killer.UUCP (Eric Green)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Gadget/requester/menu tools
Message-ID: <4015@killer.UUCP>
Date: 8 May 88 05:12:42 GMT
Organization: The Unix(R) Connection, Dallas, Texas
Lines: 30

As a recent Amigan (1 week, as of this posting), I am astounded at the amount
of work you have to do to set up good-looking Intuition objects. For example,
if your menus don't turn out right the first time, the only thing left to do
is tweak the values, re-compile (grind-grind-grind), and try again... also a
good way to litter the floor with scraps of graph paper (you figure it 
out). 

A few questions: How much space do characters take up? What should be the
height of a menu item, and what should be the width (as a formula, perhaps: #
of character * )? And, finally, the only way I can see to put little
graphic symbols up there (like an image of the ESCape key, for example), is to
have an Image menu item, or define an alternate character set (finally,
something familiar to me from the C-64 world!).  IntuiText is bad 
enough :-(. Am I overlooking something?

Are there tools to somewhat automate this process? I'd love to be able to
define and move menus around interactively, for example, and then have the "C"
declarations written to disk for me, ready to shove into my program.... and
gadgets -- gawd, what a nightmare, defining those things, especially choosing
correct placement within your window, and dealing with the more esoteric ones
(proportional gadgets, or custom Images, anybody?). 

At the minimum, is there any way possible to get an Image out of a paint
program, besides picking the magnifying glass (or whatever), putting pixels on
graph paper, then converting pixels into numbers?

--
    Eric Lee Green  elg@usl.CSNET    Snail Mail P.O. Box 92191        
    ihnp4!killer!elg                 Lafayette, LA 70509              
"Is a dream a lie that don't come true, or is it something worse?"