Interface:Child

ID:273299
 
Jan 20 2010, 12:29 pm
Can someone explain to me exactly what a child is and how it works? This is the only part of the interface i have yet to understand or use.
Jan 20 2010, 12:59 pm
A child can be used to collect different windows into one window separated by a scrolling bar. You can set which windows will be put on the child, and how large each window will be. Then, in game, you will be able to adjust the size of each window with the bar to whatever you want. You just place the child on the main window, then you set the windows to the child.

A good example would be separating a map window and an output window.
Jan 20 2010, 1:03 pm
A child allows you to switch panes in and out of position while the program is running. It has two parameters, called left and right, which you can set equal to the IDs of panes using winset(). (They can also be oriented to represent the top and bottom sides, but the parameter names remain the same.) Each side is sort of like a tab control with only one tab displayed at a time, but without the title space at the top. An adjustable splitter will separate the two sides unless you turn it off.
Jan 20 2010, 7:47 pm
In response to ACWraith
Thanks for explaining that to me. I currently cant think of a reason i would need to use a Child but i will have to remember its functionality.
Jan 21 2010, 4:31 am
In response to National Guardsmen
Child/Panes are very useful for creating an interface that moves from one game window to another without the game actually creating new windows. Many commercial or FLASH games will have changing the contents of the one game window instead of popping up new windows all over the place. If you want that effect in your BYOND game, you can create a main window for the game and use child controls and panes to change what you want displayed to the player, be it title screen, instructions, controls setup, or the main game screen.

I created a library called Panels to attempt to harness this more easily (as an example), but it has somewhat inadequate macro support and the moment due to some issue that BYOND has with queuing up commands. I think this has been fixed in newer versions so I'll have to look into it again.