a740g / inform-pe

A GUI engine and WYSIWYG interface designer for QB64-PE

INFORM-PE

InForm-PE is a GUI engine and WYSIWYG interface designer for QB64-PE. It is a fork of InForm, authored by Fellippe Heitor.

InForm-PE's main goal is to generate event-driven QB64-PE applications. This means that you design a graphical user interface with interactive controls and then write the code to respond to such controls once they are manipulated.

Wiki: https://github.com/a740g/InForm-PE/wiki

FEATURES

• WYSIWYG interface designer
• Event-driven application design
• Works on Windows, Linux & macOS
• Everything is statically linked (no shared library dependencies)

USAGE

Install InForm-PE and QB64-PE side-by-side in their own directories. There is no need to copy InForm-PE files to the QB64-PE directory.

The following directory setup is recommended

<some-drive-or-directory>
    |
    |-------<InForm-PE>
    |           |
    |           |-------<UiEditor[.exe]>
    |
    |-------<QB64pe>
                |
                |-------<qb64pe[.exe]>

Assuming your setup is like the above, do the following:

• Open Terminal and change to the InForm-PE directory using an appropriate OS command
• Run setup_inform_lnx.sh, setup_inform_mac.command or setup_inform_win.cmd depending on the OS you are on. This will run make with the correct parameters. If the build fails, ensure QB64-PE is installed in the QB64pe directory (next to the InForm-PE directory). If QB64-PE is installed elsewhere, then edit the setup scripts to change the location
• Once InForm-PE is compiled, you will find the UiEditor[.exe] executable in the InForm-PE directory
• Run UiEditor[.exe] to start designing your forms
• After your form looks the way you want it to, click File > Save to export its contents and generate a .bas source file. Two files are exported:
  • .frm - the generated form in QB64-PE code. This can be loaded back into InForm-PE's designer or manually edited in QB64-PE or any text editor later, if you want to adjust fine details
  • .bas - the actual program you will add your code to

You add code to respond to events.

• Click
• MouseEnter/MouseLeave (hover)
• FocusIn/FocusOut
• MouseDown/MouseUp (events preceding a Click)
• KeyPress
• TextChanged (for text box controls)
• ValueChanged (for track bars, lists and dropdown lists)

There are also events that occur in specific moments, to which you can respond/add code.

• BeforeInit, triggered just before the form is shown.
• OnLoad, triggered right after the form is first shown.
• BeforeUpdateDisplay, triggered every time the form is about to be repainted.
• BeforeUnload, triggered when the user tries to close the program, either via clicking the window's X button, right click in the task bar -> Close or with Alt+F4 (Windows only).
• FormResized, triggered when a form with the CanResize property is resized at runtime.

IMPORTANT: The following files must be copied to your project directory for it to compile.

InForm/InForm.bi
InForm/InForm.ui
InForm/InFormCommon.bi
InForm/InFormVersion.bi
InForm/xp.uitheme
InForm/extensions/*.*

EXAMPLES

Name	Author
Bin2Include	Zachary Spriggs
Calculator	Terry Ritchie
ClickTheVoid	Fellippe Heitor
ClockPatience	Richard Notley
DuckShoot	Richard Notley
ebacCalculator	George McGinn
Fahrenheit-Celsius	Richard Notley
Fireworks2	Fellippe Heitor
GIFPlaySample	Fellippe Heitor
GravitationSimulation	Richard Notley
InFormPaint	Fellippe Heitor
InsideOutsideTriangle	Richard Notley
Lander1	B+
Lander2	B+
Mahjong	Richard Notley
MasterMindGuessTheSequence	TempodiBasic
Pelmanism	Richard Notley
PictureGrid	Richard Notley
PlayFX	Samuel Gomes
RockPaperScissorsSpockLizard	TempodiBasic
Stopwatch	Fellippe Heitor
TextFetch	B+
ThemePreview	Fellippe Heitor
TicTacToe	Fellippe Heitor
TicTacToe2	Fellippe Heitor
Trackword	Richard Notley
WordClock	Fellippe Heitor
wordSearch	George McGinn

NOTES

• This requires the latest version of QB64-PE. QB64, or other forks of QB64 will not work!

inform-pe's Issues

Unusually high startup durations for InForm based apps

Applications utilizing the InForm GUI, including UiEditor, exhibit unusually prolonged startup durations. On my system with a Ryzen 5600x processor, the InForm Calculator example takes approximately 3 seconds to initiate. There is room for enhancement in this regard.

Upon initial analysis, it appears that the sluggish performance is linked to __UI_LoadThemeImage() and the storage mechanism within __UI_ImageData(). Optimizing these functions is expected to result in improved startup times.