[ Previous | Next | Contents | Glossary | Home | Search ]
GL3.2 Version 4.1 for AIX: Programming Concepts

Creating and Managing Windows

This section discusses the following aspects of window management:

GL provides subroutines to create and manipulate windows from an application program. The windowing subroutines are implemented on top of Enhanced X-Windows and work with any window manager, including the AIXwindows window manager. A GL window is one in which a GL application draws an image, while a text window runs a shell.

List of GL Window Subroutines

blankscreen
                          Turns screen refresh on and off.
blanktime
                          Sets screen blanking timeout.
endfullscrn
                          Ends full screen mode.
fudge
                          Specifies pixel values to be added to a window size.
fullscrn
                          Enables drawing outside current window boundaries.
getorigin
                          Returns the position of a window.
getsize
                          Returns the size of a window.
iconsize
                          Specifies the size of a window icon.
icontitle
                          Specifies the title of a window icon.
keepaspect
                          Specifies the aspect ratio of a window.
maxsize
                          Specifies the maximum size of a window.
minsize
                          Specifies the minimum size of a window.
noborder
                          Removes the border from a window.
noport
                          Specifies that a program does not require a window.
prefposition
                          Constrains the window position and size.
prefsize
                          Constrains the window size.
stepunit
                          Specifies a window size change in discrete steps.
swinopen
                          Creates a restricted subwindow.
winclose
                          Closes a window.
winconstraints
                          Binds window constraints to the current window.
windepth
                          Indicates the stacking order of windows on the screen.
winget
                          Returns the identifier of the current window.
winmove
                          Moves the current window by its lower-left corner.
winopen
                          Creates a new window.
winpop
                          Raises the current window on top of all other windows.
winposition
                          Changes current location and size of a window.
winpush
                          Lowers the current window beneath all other windows.
winset
                          Sets the current window.
wintitle
                          Adds a title bar to the current window.

Opening and Closing Windows

The GL subroutines for opening and closing windows are the winopen, swinopen, and winclose subroutines. (The swinopen subroutine creates subwindows from a parent window.) Exiting a program causes any existing windows to close automatically.

Setting Window Attributes and Constraints

You can control the size, location, and shape of windows from a GL client program. Calling the winopen subroutine without specifying any of these characteristics allows you to open a window of any size or shape anywhere on the screen. You can, however, open a specific window, such as a small square with a border, if you specify the desired size and shape.

Use the window constraint subroutines in the following table to specify window characteristics. Call these subroutines before opening a window with the winopen subroutine. GL applies these constraints when it opens the window.

Window Constraint Subroutines
To Specify Use
Minimum size minsize
Maximum size maxsize
Aspect ratio keepaspect
Size, in pixels prefsize
Size and location prefposition
Sizing increment stepunit
Small increase in size fudge
Size of window's icon iconsize
Give a window's icon a title icontitle
Make a title bar for the current window wintitle
No window borders noborder
No screen space needed noport

To respecify constraints for a window that is already open, first call the desired series of window constraint subroutines from the previous table, then call the winconstraints subroutine.

When a user interactively changes a window, the window constraints are automatically enforced. Interactively changing a window means using the mouse and keyboard, in cooperation with the currently running window manager, to move, resize, or reshape a window.

The window constraints allow the applications programmer to control and limit how the user resizes and reshapes a window. The maxsize subroutine prevents a user from resizing a window to any size larger than the size set by the subroutine parameters. Likewise, the minsize subroutine prevents the user from shrinking a window below the specified size.

The keepaspect subroutine prevents a user from resizing a window so that the aspect ratio is changed. The stepunit subroutine allows the window to be resized only in specified discrete steps. Normally, a window can be resized by arbitrary amounts; in other words, the stepunit subroutine usually specifies one pixel.

The prefsize and prefposition subroutines constrain the size and position of the window. The prefsize subroutine prevents a user from resizing the window. The prefposition subroutine prevents a user from moving the window. To place a window on the screen in some position, allowing the user afterwards to reposition or resize the window, call the winconstraints subroutine after the winopen subroutine (or call the winconstraints subroutine twice in a row.) The winconstraints subroutine clears previous constraints and sets any new ones.

Controlling Window Placement

Ultimately, window placement is controlled by the window manager. The default window manager for your system is the AIXwindows window manager. To control the behavior of this window manager regarding interpretation and placement, edit the .Xdefaults file in the user's home directory.

In controlling interpretation of the prefposition subroutine parameters, if you add the following line to the .Xdefaults file:

Mwm*positionIsFrame: True

the location of the window is assumed to include the boundary of the window. That is, the screen coordinates are assumed to refer to the lower left-hand corner of the window border. In contrast, if you add the following line to the .Xdefaults file:

Mwm*positionIsFrame: False

the window manager interprets the position as the location of the window's interior, ignoring the window border.

The AIXwindows window manager normally places a window so that it is fully visible on the screen. To open a window partly or wholly off the screen, add the following line to the .Xdefaults file:

Mwm*positionOnScreen: False

Changing the line to read:

Mwm*positionOnScreen: True

makes the window manager ignore the values specified with the prefposition subroutine and place the window so that it is fully visible on the screen.

In controlling placement of a window, if you add the following line to the .Xdefaults file:

Mwm*interactivePlacement: True

a rubber-banded window appears when the winopen subroutine is executed. The user can place the window where desired on the screen. If you change the line to read:

Mwm*interactivePlacement: False

the window is immediately placed on the screen in the specified position when the winopen subroutine is executed.

The AIXwindows window manager normally adds an offset to the location of every new window that is opened. This offset is used to keep new windows from piling up at one place. The offset spreads windows evenly over the entire screen. To turn off this behavior, specify

Mwm*clientAutoPlace: False

When clientAutoPlace is turned off, GL windows are mapped on the screen exactly at the location specified with the prefposition subroutine.

Changing Windows Noninteractively

The applications programmer can have the same control over windows that an applications user can. A window may be moved, resized, raised, and lowered from the applications program with the subroutines in the following table:

Window Control Subroutines
To Use
Move and reshape the current window winposition
Move the current window winmove
Lower the current window to bottom winpush
Raise the current window to top winpop
Return the size of a window getsize
Return the origin of the window getorigin
Return depth of window in the window stack windepth

GL performs these operations on the current window, which is set with the winset subroutine.

Managing Multiple Windows

Multiple GL windows opened by the same process do not normally share attributes. Every window has its own current color; its own transformation matrix stack; and its own viewport stack, name stack, and attribute stack (which contains attributes such as the current linestyle and linewidth). The action of subroutines such as swapbuffers, RGBmode, depthcue, and lmbind is limited to the current window.

The only exceptions to this rule are a few window management subroutines (such as the winset subroutine) and the def subroutines: deflinestyle, defpattern, defrasterfont, loadXfont, lmdef, and makeobj. If a linestyle, pattern, light, font, or object is defined for one window, it becomes available to all windows opened by the same process. These definitions are referenced by the same index in all such windows. Information is never shared between different processes. The previous comments apply only to windows opened by one and the same process.

The exception made for the def subroutines is provided as a convenience to the user. If a linestyle has been defined in one window, and the user wants to use it in another, the definition should not have to be respecified in other, possibly numerous, windows. In addition, the def subroutine exception allows the system to operate in a more efficient manner. The system does not need to keep track of multiple copies of duplicate information.

Other than these shared definitions, all other attributes that are part of GL have been made deliberately nonsharable across windows. True multiple, independent drawing sessions can therefore be performed in multiple windows. Separate windows do not interfere with one another, and the applications writer does not have to engage in complicated window attribute management. The system maintains the attribute management automatically.

Other Window Subroutines

GL provides other subroutines to control the windows, as shown in the following table:

Miscellaneous Window Subroutines
To Use
Put the program in screen space screenspace
Put viewport at current window position reshapeviewport
Enable the entire screen for writing fullscrn
End full-screen mode endfullscrn
Return identifier of current window winget
Set the current window winset
Specify length of screen blank timeout blanktime
Control screen refresh, on/off blankscreen

[ Previous | Next | Contents | Glossary | Home | Search ]