Scrollbars in Rev

[Mark Swindell]

On Jul 13, 2005, at 11:33 AM, Ken Norris wrote:

>>
>> That was what I was wondering... whether the OS provided the slider
>> graphics, and how that works internally since so many of the
>> characteristics are rev properties.   As for rolling one's own, I
>> guess that's the option to use for X-platform, as the sliders in
>> Windows look terrible to my MacCentric eye.  But as scrollbars and
>> sliders are very important tools I would think that there could be
>> several built-in style options that would appear identically X- 
>> platform.
>>
> =========================
>
> Well, the caveat is that the OS' don't really offer much 'style'  
> options other than those already usable by Rev. Are you concerned  
> with appearance or mechanics?


Only by appearance.   I've got a "look and feel"  going on in a  
program I'm developing and the sliders should be somewhat  
aesthetically tasteful to fit in.


>
> Mechanical operations are a function of the engine's hooks into the  
> appropriate control API's for the platform in question, which Rev  
> refers to as properties. These are reliable, because Rev is only  
> assigning these properties, and after that has nothing to do with  
> it other than I/O values from events. In most if not all cases, the  
> OS takes over and actually draws and operates the control from events.

Which is a good thing, but I don't need speed beyond what could be  
cobbled together in Rev.

>
> IOW, if you make a totally custom scrollbar cobbled together from  
> other Rev/MC objects, i.e., which operates from API's outside the  
> standard ones for a particular control type, performance will  
> surely suffer to some degree or other.

Probably not enough to matter.  I'll have to find out.

>
> OTOH, you _can_ change _appearance themes_ from Aqua to something  
> else (but not the operational properties), meaning it will be  
> system-wide, not just your Rev application:
>

Right on.  So if Unsanity can do it, so can Rev, right?  But just for  
sliders and scrollbars.  These, when not a part of a window theme,  
shouldn't have to be bound by the system look and feel.   At least  
that's how I look at it and feel about it.  But this is soooo far  
beyond what my limited skills could hope to accomplish that the  
banana is starting to look very "aesthetically pleasing."  (No  
offense, Klaus.)

Anyway, thank you, Ken for the clarification.
Mark