Need basic gui controls (buttons, textbox)

start99

Need basic gui controls (buttons, textbox)

in Contributed Library Questions • 1 year ago

As a beginner, I've gone through the book "Getting Started with Processing" by Casey Reas & Ben Fry. That is a very well-written book.

1. I wonder why the common name "Processing" was selected. It makes it impossible to find specific info on google search. Why not a unique name like "ProcessQ"?

2. Any suggestions for books at the next level?

3. I downloaded the GP4 library guicomponents from http://www.lagers.org.uk/index.html
It appears that the display of these controls is the end-product.
There was no explanation about how to use the controls.

I'm looking for some simple textbox and button controls that work (e.g. how to read the contents of the textbox, etc..)

Replies(4)

start99

Re: Need basic gui controls (buttons, textbox)

1 year ago

I downloaded controlP5.
Impressive looking, but no explanation for beginner.

But with that unique name, I was able to find specific web pages.
This one is helpful, providing comments in the code:
Processing ControlP5 library example 1 : user interface at
http://www.kasperkamperman.com/blog/processing-code/controlp5-library-example1/

and comments about the knob control at:
http://www.openprocessing.org/visuals/?visualID=8108

PhiLho

Re: Need basic gui controls (buttons, textbox)

1 year ago

" I wonder why the common name "Processing" was selected."
Such wondering should be part of the FAQ... That's why some people named it Proce55ing, hence names like controlP5, but this name is discouraged and less used. When it was created, I suppose Internet was less prominent, and people were less aware of finding unique names for search engines. Note than lot of projects do the same error: the Fan programming language received so many criticisms that they finally changed to Fantom...

" I downloaded the GP4 library guicomponents"
That's G4P, Gui for Processing. If you make the same typo in searches, you can have trouble finding proper information...

" It appears that the display of these controls is the end-product.
There was no explanation about how to use the controls."
That's the weak point of many open-source, amateur projects made by one person: they focus more on getting things done, squashing bugs and finishing features, so they lack time (and can be less motivated...) to write full docs, tutorials, etc.
Often, the better explanations are found in the source of the examples... Sometime, in the source of the library itself!

quarks

Re: Need basic gui controls (buttons, textbox)

1 year ago

" It appears that the display of these controls is the end-product.
There was no explanation about how to use the controls."

As phi.lho suggests you should try out the examples that come with the G4P library. If you have problems or want further explanation of how they work then simply post a query in the Contributed Libraries section. I also suggest that you look at the reference section of the library as every public method in the libray is documented!!!

Both G4P and ControlP5 are sophisticated libraries that will take some time (and effort) to use effectively, especially for the faint hearted or the absolute beginner programmer.

The G4P library has a companion tool ( GUI builder) that provides a visual environment for the rapid creation and editing of user interfaces using GUI controls in the library. This is a great time saver as it creates the source code to make the components and the event handler methods for each component. If you have ever used Visual Basic or Netbeans you will be familiar this The website also has a number of video guides to using this tool.

start99

Re: Need basic gui controls (buttons, textbox)

1 year ago

Thanks for your replies.

I viewed the Introductory video for G4P GUI builder tool.
http://www.lagers.org.uk/g4ptool/videos/index.html

It resembles what I was accustomed to in vb.NET.

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