SealedSun.GamePanel June08

Posted on June 27th, 2008 by SealedSun

[ Download SealedSun.Gamepanel June08]SealedSun.GamePanel is a high level wrapper around the managed LcdInterface by http://www.cabhair-cainte.com/ismiselemeas/ that features a Winforms-like controls system as well as simplified event routing for the four soft buttons of the G15.The library is not very mature and only the most commonly used features are implemented. Everyone with basic knowledge of System.Drawing should be able to implement custom functionality via user controls.

Quick Start

1. Create a new LcdScreen

The LcdScreen represents an entry in GamePanel manager and can be selected by the user via the application switch button on the Keyboard.

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using(var screen = new LcdScreen())// ...}

2. Open the LcdScreen

To notify the GamePanel manager of the new screen, call the Open method.

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screen.Open("My LCD");

3. Create a new LcdPage

An LCD page is like an empty canvas. It is the container for all your UI elements.

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var page = new LcdPage(screen);

4. Add controls to the LcdPage

There are currently only two built-in general purpose controls: LcdLabel and LcdImage. In order for your controls to show up, you need to add them to the page object. You can also nest controls by adding them to other controls. Always keep in mind, that the positioning is relative to the parent control and that controls cannot exceed the bounds of their container.

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var lTitle = new LcdLabel();lTitle.Text = "My LCD";lTitle.Location = new Point(10,10);page.Controls.Add(lTitle);

5. Configure soft buttons

The page object provides access to the four soft buttons via its Button0,1,2,3 members. Those special controls provide 'button pressed' events and are always located immediately above the respective buttons. Their Text and Image properties can be used to label them. If you need better control over the labelling, you can add child controls to the soft buttons like to any other control.

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page.Button0.Pressed += (sender,e) => {Console.WriteLine("0 Pressed!");};

6. Select active page

In order for a page to be displayed on a screen, it must be assigned to its CurrentPage property. Only pages that are currently active will fire events.

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screen.CurrentPage = page;

7. Enter message loop

Like a windows forms application, an LCD application too has a message loop. Similar to Application.Run, screen.Run will use the current thread to process messages from the GamePanel manager.

From here on...

If you want to get the users attention, you can change the pages screen priority to Alert for a short amount of time. A convenient way to do so is the TemporaryAlert method. This of course only works, if the user allows high priority screens.

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page.TemporaryAlert(500);

If you want to quit the message loop, either close the screen or call Screen.ExitMessageLoop.

License and Disclaimer

Except for the components mentioned in the ExternalResources.txt, I hereby release everything the zip archive under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Switzerland license.The software was written over the course of a few days and did therefor not undergo much testing. It is most likely that you will encounter bugs and unexpected behaviour. You use the library at your own risk.Creative Commons LicenseSealedSun.GamePanel by Christian Klauser is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Switzerland License.

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