G4P and GUI Builder - new versions available

quark

I have just released new versions of these libraries

G4P V3.3.1 download here

GUI Builder (G4P Tool) V2.3.1 download here

or you can wait for the PDE to detect the new versions and install them then.

The changes to G4P are related to using styled text with the GTextArea and GTextField controls. It is now easier to apply text attributes to the test appearing in these controls but has required updates to the StyledString class.

GUI Builder has had a couple of bug fixes and some internal refactoring.

What it means is that GUIs created with earlier versions of the tool cannot be edited with this version. So before you update G4P and GUI Builder I recommend that you finalise any outstanding GUIs.

billautomata

This library combined with the GUI Builder is a game changer for me. I use Processing to build tools at my job, and being able to ship them as standalone apps with a GUI has made all of us much more efficient, thank you.

Bird

I have to say, the library and tool have made working in Processing a pleasure and have allowed me to focus on design aspects much more effectively.

quark

Its been 4.5 years since the first release of G4P and 2 years for the GUI Builder tool. It has taken hundreds of hours to create and maintain these so it is fantastic to hear that others are finding them really useful.

Thanks again for the positive comments. :)

dttworld

Thanks for writing this library!

I am new to Processing but love the idea of a simple IDE that is cross platform.

I have tested the G4P_Dialogs example on a Windows 7 32-bit, Ubuntu 13.10 32-bit Intel base , and Mac OS X 10.7.5 and things seem to work properly.

However, I am having some screen refresh issues with that example running on an ARM based Odroid U3 board running Ubuntu 13.10. When I display a file system dialog box it displays to the foreground properly. However, when I begin to drag the dialog box around the screen the Processing background window does not refresh. Is there some command I can issue in void draw() to force a refresh or perhaps maybe even a library "fix" or work around?

quark

Since the problem only occurs on the ARM based Odroid U3 board running Ubuntu 13.10 and that it works with Ubuntu 13.10 32-bit Intel base I suspect that the problem is related to the JVM for the ARM processor.

In Processing 1.5.1 its dialog boxes were modal but in 2.0 the dialogs were no longer modal because they were opened in a separate thread. This caused some of my existing sketches to crash so I included modal dialog boxes in G4P. They are an alternative to rather than a replacement of Processing's dialogs.

I suggest you create a simple sketch using the Processing Dialogs and see if this works.

dttworld

Thanks for the hints. I discovered the selectInput() function in Processing and now the Processing draw canvas refreshes properly when the foreground file dialog box is dragged over the canvas.

Per

How are Odroid U3 working with processing? Is it working alright without to much lag? I used raspberry pi before but its to slow. Im going to use it for video and generatives. does it performe well?

tim_pulver

I just tried the library and liked the concept of the GUI builder. Here are some suggestions:

• Enable shortcut »cmd + d« to duplicate an item (beneath the original item would be good imo)
• When editing values (e.g. element name), enable text input after tapping to the next field. It’s very inefficient to have to click with the mouse before being able to edit a field. Maybe I missed something here!?
• Enable arrow keys to navigate through the GUI elements
• I think adding a few extra shortcuts could make this a very efficient tool!

After trying it out I went back to controlP5, because the CPU went up very high without having something in my sketch except the window + control window. Any idea why?

nsathiya

Hi,

Is there a reason using GWindow with Capture makes it freeze on the first frame? my question is listed here-

http://forum.processing.org/two/discussion/6024/using-capture-with-g4p-urgent-help-please#Item_1

Thanks!

quark

@nsathiya I have posted a comment your discussion that should solve it.

@tim_pulver thanks for your comments regarding navigating the GUI Builder. I agree that some of them would make the tool more 'efficient' but I have created 7 Processing libraries and 2 Processing tools which I must maintain. It means that I must balance the expected benefits against the amount of work involved. The real power of GUI builder tool is removing the extremely time consuming business of writing and debugging the source code needed to create a G4P GUI, especially if it has many controls. The additional features you suggest would be beneficial and I will consider them for a future release.

After trying it out I went back to controlP5, because the CPU went up very high without having something in my sketch except the window + control window. Any idea why?

Is the control window the GUI Builder window or a GWindow created with G4P? Not that it really matters I have tried both on my iMac and the Processor usage never excedded 11% and averaged about 3% so I don't know what the problem is.