Re: distributing menu bars accross windows ...

Subject: Re: distributing menu bars accross windows ...

From: Werner Randelshofer <email@hidden>

Date: Sun, 27 Aug 2006 13:18:03 +0200

Delivered-to: email@hidden

Hi Sciss,

I am working on an application framework for JHotDraw/PlasmaDraw that supports MDI, SDI and the OSX document interface.

http://www.randelshofer.ch/oop/plasmadraw/guide/examples/draw/images/draw_application_osx.png

http://www.randelshofer.ch/oop/plasmadraw/guide/examples/draw/images/draw_application_sdi.png

http://www.randelshofer.ch/oop/plasmadraw/guide/examples/draw/images/draw_application_mdi.png

All contracts in the framework are implemented against Java Interfaces.

Core interfaces are: Application, ApplicationModel and Project.

http://www.randelshofer.ch/oop/plasmadraw/javadoc/org/jhotdraw/app/package-summary.html

The framework makes heavy use of javax.swing.Action objects. Here is a rough overview over the framework:

- Application knows how to present actions and project windows on screen (e.g. using a single menu bar or using multiple menu bars, and using JFrame or JInternalFrame)

- ApplicationModel knows which action can be performed for all projects and knows how to create projects

- Project knows which action can be performed on the current project only, and it knows how to present the content of a project

The framework comes with default implementations for applications and for commonly used actions, such as actions for opening and closing files, undo/redo, and copy/paste.

ApplicationModel and Project need to be implemented again for each concrete application.

I don't know, if this framework is appropriate for your application. But it might be a good starting point.

Especially, because I put some extra effort into the OSX document interface. ;-)

Best regards,

Werner

On 26.08.2006, at 17:59, Sciss wrote:

what are the strategies for cross platform menubar design in multiple document interface applications?

at the moment i'm trying to get rid once and for all of the stupid multiple-windows versus internal frames problem. instead of subclassing frames i'm using a window factory now which makes it easy to switch between both modes:

http://sciss.de/test/internalframes.jpg
http://sciss.de/test/multipleframes.jpg

while on mac os x i have used the strategy to make duplicates of one common menu bar (using screen-menu bar) with different menus enabled or disabled depending on the focused window, this strategy obviously fails for menu bars attached to windows.

in multipleframes.jpg, you can see that "regular" windows get copies of the same menu bar (the main window and the soundfile waveform window) and floating palettes (the control room palete) don't. but maybe one shouldn't duplicate all menus here?

in internalframes.jpg, the problem is even bigger. i assume that standard internalframes applications use one menubar for the outer frame and context specific bars for the internal frames. but what happesn for example with the file menu? attaching the menu bar to the outer frame requires me to disable the fie menu when no document window has been focused. but maybe the timeline menu should only be visible in the document frames not in the outer frame, and maybe the view menu should go in each internal frame and contain context specific items only?

thanks for suggestions

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References:
	>distributing menu bars accross windows ... (From: Sciss <email@hidden>)