[gameprogrammer] Re: I wonder if I can go Remedial Applet on you all... :)

Actually, when I say "Applet," I probably should be saying "Stand-Alone GUI 
Java Application" - I'm still dealing with a few terminology issues, 
obviously... ;)

However, your code looks like you're right on the mark - I'll try it out... 
thanks VERY much!! :)
-Mike

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dave Slutzkin" <daveslutzkin@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <gameprogrammer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, March 30, 2005 7:06 PM
Subject: [gameprogrammer] Re: I wonder if I can go Remedial Applet on you 
all... :)


> On Wed, 30 Mar 2005 06:59:38 -0500, "Mike Gillissie"
> <Mike_Gillissie@xxxxxxxxxx> said:
>> Hi guys - I've recently begun making my first foray into Swing-based game
>> development - I'm an applications developer by trade, and while I'm OK
>> with Servlets and Java in general, I haven't quite made the Applet
>> connection yet.
>> Basically, I think it's the layout managers that are confusing me the
>> most. What I'm hoping to do is to start with a three-panel interface -
>> the main one displaying tiled images representing terrain. Then a
>> side-navigator (right or left, doesn't really matter) in which I can set
>> up the commands and status displays, along with a mini-map of sorts.
>
> I've never done any Applet stuff in Java, just stand-alone apps, so
> there may be some issues I'm not aware of.  Ignore any of this that you
> already know.
>
>> So far, the closest thing I've had to success is creating a couple of
>> JPanels and placing them where I want them - without using a layout
>> manager.
>
> Generally not a good idea unless you have full control over everything
> (sizes of fonts, screen resolution, etc) as otherwise any small change
> can throw out all your alignment.
>
>> What I really want, though, is to find out how Applet
>> programmers typically design a nice interface with, say, a 150 pixel
>> "navigator" pane, and the rest of the frame/window used for the "game"
>> pane.
>
> Well, not sure how Applet programmers do it, but here's what I'd do.
>
>> Can anybody just suggest the combination of Swing objects and layout
>> managers I should be using?
>
> Don't know what your game will be, but I'm assuming your game pane will
> be a JPanel with no children or layout manager, where you do all custom
> rendering.  Your navigator pane should also be a JPanel - you could do
> this all with custom rendering, but I think it's more likely you'll want
> Swing controls here, so it will have need some layout manager (to be
> determined later).  In general, any JPanel where you're going to do
> custom rendering should have nothing else in it, otherwise they don't
> play very nicely.
>
> BorderLayout should be sufficient for a high-level layout manager.
> BorderLayout has 5 'slots' in which to put things - NORTH, SOUTH, EAST,
> WEST, CENTER.  The things in each slot get their preferred size
> (set/getPreferredSize()) if possible - that is, if the JPanel is at
> exactly the correct size.  If the size if bigger or smaller than exactly
> the correct size, the NORTH and SOUTH bits (top and bottom) will be
> stretched/squashed horizontally, the EAST and WEST bits (left and right)
> will be stretched/squashed vertically, and the CENTER bit will be
> stretched/squashed in both directions.
>
> The upshot of this for you is that CENTER gets as much bigger as it can,
> while WEST won't change in size horizontally.  So if you want your
> navigator pane to have a (relatively) fixed horizontal size, put that in
> BorderLayout.WEST.  The game pane should be in BorderLayout.CENTER, so
> it gets the rest of the space.
>
> Code would look something like this:
>
> public class ThisIsTheGame
>  extends javax.swing.JApplet
> {
>  public ThisIsTheGame()
>  {
>    super();
>
>    // This is not actually necessary because the content pane uses
>    // BorderLayout by default.
>    getContentPane().setLayout(new java.awt.BorderLayout());
>    buildInterface(getContentPane());
>  }
>
>  public void buildInterface(java.awt.Container contentPane)
>  {
>    javax.swing.JComponent navigatorPane = buildNavigatorPane();
>    javax.swing.JComponent gamePane = buildGamePane();
>
>    contentPane.add(navigatorPane, java.awt.BorderLayout.WEST);
>    contentPane.add(gamePane, java.awt.BorderLayout.CENTER);
>  }
>
>  public javax.swing.JComponent buildNavigatorPane()
>  {
>    // Build and return the navigator pane.
>  }
>  public javax.swing.JComponent buildGamePane()
>  {
>    // Build and return the game pane.
>  }
> }
>
> Is that what you're looking for, or have I missed the mark?
>
> Dave.
> -- 
>  Dave Slutzkin
>  Melbourne, Australia
>  daveslutzkin@xxxxxxxxxxx
>
>
>
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