18.2.2 Loading existing interfaces

In the Interface Builder, choose File > Open... or click to load an existing interface. You can load any CAPI interface, whether it is one that you have designed using the Interface Builder, or one that has been hand-coded using the CAPI API. You can load as many interfaces as you want, and then use the History > Items submenu to swap between the loaded interfaces when working on them.

To load one or more existing interfaces:

1. Ensure the Interface Builder is the active window, and choose File > Open... .

A file prompter dialog appears.

2. Choose a file of Common Lisp source code.

You should choose a file that contains the source code for at least one CAPI interface. If the file does not contain any such definitions, a dialog appears informing you of this.

Once you have chosen a suitable file, for example the LispWorks library file examples/capi/buttons/buttons.lisp , a dialog appears listing all the interface definitions that have been found in the file, as shown in Choosing which interfaces to load into the Interface Builder. This lets you choose which interface definitions to load into the Interface Builder. By default, all the definitions are selected. You can select as many or as few of the listed interfaces as you like; the All or None buttons can help to speed your selection. Click Cancel to cancel loading the interfaces altogether.

Figure 18.3 Choosing which interfaces to load into the Interface Builder



3. Select just the Button-Test interface and click OK to load it into the Interface Builder.

Note: the File > Open... command in other tools does not display this dialog. To load an interface definition, ensure the Interface Builder window is active.