CHAPTER 3 CREATING AN APPLICATION S USER INTERFACE (Web hosting packages)
CHAPTER 3 CREATING AN APPLICATION S USER INTERFACE Figure 3-49. A look at the RBClock application running on Mac OS X Designing the User Interface The first step in creating the RBClock application is to assemble its user interface. Begin by double-clicking the Window1 item on the Projects screen to open the Windows Editor. Next, click the Window1 window and, using its resizing handles, reduce the size of the window. Figure 3-49 shows the appearance and size of the window in the completed application. As you can see, the RBClock application has a simple interface. To build it, start by dragging-and-dropping an instance of the EditField control onto Window1. Note, by default, the name assigned to this control is EditField1. This control is used to display the current time. Next, add a PushButton control to the form and place it just under the EditField control. To help make the RBClock application a little more user-friendly, add a StaticText control just above the EditField. Finally, open the Project Editor, and then select and remove MenuBar1. This simple desktop application does not need a MenuBar. Note Removing the MenuBar control may not seem to have much of an impact on the Macintosh version of this application, because of the manner in which the Macintosh separates the display of the MenuBar from the application itself. However, it does have a much greater visual effect on Windows and Linux. At this point, the basic design of the user interface for the RBClock application is complete and should resemble the example you see in Figure 3-49. Even though the design of the appearance of the user interface is complete, you still must complete one more step before you move on. For the clock to operate as expected, your application needs the capability to update the display of the time every second. To provide your application with this capability, you must add an instance of the Timer control. When you add an instance of the Timer control to the window, you can see a small icon, as Figure 3-50 shows, representing the control. By default, the Timer control is set up to automatically execute every second once the window that contains it is opened. While visible in REALbasic s IDE, this icon is invisible to the user when your application is running.
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