make-window

Generic Function

Package: common-graphics

Arguments: name &rest arguments&key (class 'dialog) (owner (development-main-window *system*)) dialog-items form-p child-name behind state &allow-other-keys

Creates and returns a new window. The name argument should be a symbol (we recommend using keywords) which does not name any other object. The name can be passed as an argument to find-window and other find- functions to get a programmatic handle on a window.

When using the Integrated Development Environment, you can design windows to be used in your application using forms. A form is a class of window that is used to design windows of other classes. The Integrated Development Environment creates a function from a form you have designed which creates to designed window. Get a new form by clicking File | New Form. You are asked for the class of the window (the value of the :device argument) and that is the type of window that will be designed with the form.

Here are some keyword arguments to make-window:

:class: default: dialog. The class of the window being created. The standard choices besides dialog are text-edit-window, bitmap-window, frame-window, and non-refreshing-window. We recommend that you subclass these standard classes so your customizations will not affect existing windows. In earlier releases, this argument was named device and that name is still accepted. Do not, of course, specify both.
The accessor/setter of the class property is device, though it is uncommon to need to use that function programmatically (one typically sets this slot upon creation or using the class slot in an inspector window). (class-name (class-of object)) also serves as an accessor.
:owner: an existing window that will be the owner of the new window. The default owner in the IDE is the value of (development-main-window *system*), which is the unseen owner window of the various top-level IDE windows. The default in a standalone application is the value of (screen *system*), which is the screen itself. A window shrinks or closes whenever its owner window does. If the :child-p argument is true, then the owner will also be the parent of the new window. A window moves along with its parent, and is clipped at the interior edge of the parent. In earlier releases, this argument was named parent and that name is still accepted. Do not, of course, specify both.
See About child, parent, and owner windows in cgide.htm.
:child-p: default is t. A boolean value indicating whether the new window will be a child window. If non-nil and the owner is a window rather than the screen, then the new window will be a child window and the owner window will also be its parent. A child window moves along with its parent and is clipped at the parent's interior border. If nil or the owner is the screen, then the new window will float freely about on the screen, but will still shrink and close along with its owner (if the owner is a window). The parent of a non-child window is the screen.
:dialog-items (formerly :widgets): default: nil. The value should be a list of controls (also called widgets, whence the former argument name) to be placed on the window. While controls can be placed on any window, only windows of type dialog-mixin (that is, only windows whose class is a subclass of dialog-mixin) will have the special Windows dialog behavior. In such windows, pressing the TAB key moves the keyboard focus from one control to another and pressing Alt-[letter] will move the keyboard focus to the control that has the letter underlined as its access character. (For example, pressing Alt-A will move keyboard focus to the control whose access letter is an underlined A.)
A control object can only be used on one window.
The use of :widgets to name this argument is deprecated. :dialog-items should be used instead. :widgets is accepted and both should not be specified.
:pop-up: default: nil. (Note: in releases prior to 6.0, default was t when :widgets (now :dialog-items) was true.) See pop-up. This argument should be specified true if the window is intended to be modal. Note that the value of this property cannot be changed once the window has been created.
See About child, parent, and owner windows in cgide.htm.
:form-p: default: nil. If true, create a form (an instance of the form class) rather than an instance of the class specified to :device. That form can be used to design the window. As part of the design, a function to create the window associated with the form is written.
:child-name: when instantiating a window class that has the frame-with-single-child mixin (such as non-refreshing-window or bitmap-window), the :child-name argument may be passed to make-window to provide a name for the child pane that is created automatically for the frame window. As with other object names that are used in Allegro CL for finding objects, the name should be a symbol.
In fact it is unlikely that this name will be needed programmatically, since the child-pane can be found by calling frame-child on the parent frame window, it is nevertheless often helpful for arbitrary objects to have names so that the they can be recognized more easily during debugging.
:behind: this argument determines whether the new window should be placed behind or in front of its siblings in the occlusion stack. The default is nil, which places the window in front or its siblings. A value of t places the window behind all of its siblings. If the value is another window that is already on the owner window, the new window is placed immediately behind the specified window.
:state: the initial state of the newly created window. Possible states are :normal (window has its normal size and is visible, this is the default); :shrunk (window is shrunken and not visible); :icon (window is shrunk to a visible icon); and :maximized (window is extended to its maximum size).
When creating a window, the window is placed into its initial visible state (as specified by the :state initarg) by a device-open :around method. This means that if an application adds device-open methods (including :after methods) for its window subclasses, for example to set up child windows on the window, the main window will be shown only after this setup is complete, to avoid distracting the user and to increase creation speed. (An alternate approach is simply to create the main window in :shrunk state, then do arbitrary setup, and then set the state of the main window to :normal.)
:exterior: a box (see make-box) in the coordinates of the parent that determines the initial position and size of the exterior boundary of the window. Note that if the new window is a non-child window, then the box should always be in screen coordinates, even if the window has an owner window.
:interior: an alternative to :exterior, in that the box specifies the boundary of the client (interior) area of the window, again in the coordinates of the parent. The frame of the window will protrude outward from this box as needed.
:exterior-top-left: another alternative for the initial position. A position in the coordinates of the parent that determines the initial position of the top-left corner of the window. Another alternative is to pass individual coordinates using the :left and or :top arguments. If the window position is not determined by any make-window arguments or the default-initargs of the window class, then the initial position is determined by the default-top-left generic function.
:width and :height: another alternative for the initial size. Integers specifying the exterior width and/or height of the window in pixels. If the width and/or height are not determined by any make-window arguments or default-initargs of the window class, then the initial size is determined by the default-width and/or default-height generic functions.

There are many other options (specified by initarg – a keyword – value pairs) to make-window. In general, the initargs are keywords with the same name as properties, :left-attachment for left-attachment, e.g.)

Common Graphics and IDE documentation is described in About Common Graphics and IDE documentation in cgide.htm.

The documentation is described in introduction.htm and the index is in index.htm.

Created 2000.10.5.