The class interface is the top level window class, which contains both menus and a hierarchy of panes and layouts. Interfaces can also themselves be contained within a layout, in which case they appear without their menu bar.
A string, the title of the interface.
The layout of the interface.
A flag controlling the automatic addition of menu objects.
A callback done on creating the window, before display and user interaction.
A callback done on closing the window.
A function to verify closing of the window.
The best x position for the interface.
The best y position for the interface.
The best width of the interface.
The best height of the interface.
A function called when the interface geometry changes.
A function called when the interface is activated or deactivated.
A function called when the interface is iconified or restored.
A cursor that takes precedence over the cursors of panes inside the interface.
override-cursor is not supported on Cocoa.
override-cursor is ignored by text-input-pane on GTK+.
A boolean determining whether the interface has a message area.
A boolean determining whether Pointer Documentation is enabled.
enable-pointer-documentation is supported only on Motif. It is possible to implement equivalent functionality for output-pane and subclasses such as pinboard-layout by using the focus-callback of output-pane.
A boolean determining whether Tooltip Help is enabled.
A function called when a user gesture requests help.
A function called around the top level event handler.
A pane, a symbol naming a pane, or nil.
One of the keywords :normal, :maximized, :iconic and :hidden.
A real number in the inclusive range [0,1], used on Cocoa, later versions of Microsoft Windows, and GTK+.
A list of items for the toolbar.
nil, t or an image specifier (that is, a value acceptable as the
id
argument of load-image).
interface-title
pane-layout
interface-menu-bar-items
interface-create-callback
interface-destroy-callback
interface-confirm-destroy-function
interface-geometry-change-callback
interface-activate-callback
interface-iconify-callback
interface-override-cursor
interface-message-area
interface-pointer-documentation-enabled
interface-tooltips-enabled
interface-help-callback
top-level-interface-external-border
top-level-interface-transparency
interface-toolbar-items
interface-toolbar-states
interface-default-toolbar-states
interface-pathname
interface-drag-image
Every interface can have a title title which when it is a top level interface is shown as a title on its window, and when it is contained within another layout is displayed as a decoration (see the class titled-object for more details).
The argument
layout
specifies a layout object that contains the children of the interface. To change this layout you can either use the writer pane-layout, or you can use the layout switchable-layout which allows you to easily switch the currently visible child.
The argument menu-bar-items specifies a list of menus to appear on the interface's menu bar.
auto-menus
defaults to t, which means that an interface may have some automatic menus created by the environment in which it is running (for example the
Works
menu in the LispWorks IDE). To switch off these automatic menus, pass :auto-menus nil.
Note: On Cocoa, certain system menu commands such as Edit > Start Dictation are added automatically. auto-menus does not control this.
When you have an instance of an interface, you can display it either as an ordinary window or as a dialog using respectively display and display-dialog. The CAPI calls
create-callback
(if supplied) with the interface as its single argument, after all the widgets have been created but before the interface appears on screen. Then to remove the interface from the display, you use quit-interface and either exit-dialog or abort-dialog respectively. When the interface is about to be closed, the CAPI calls the
confirm-destroy-function
(if there is one) with the interface, and if this function returns non-nil the interface is closed as if by calling destroy. Once the interface is closed, the
destroy-callback
is called with the interface. Therefore, neither
confirm-destroy-function
nor
destroy-callback
should call destroy.
Note:
create-callback
should be used only for operations that must be done with the interface already created and cannot be done in interface-display. Otherwise they should be either done in initialize-instance or between your calls to make-instance and display. An operation that needs to run after the interface is created but just before displaying the interface as an ordinary window (typical cases are font queries and loading images) can be put in the interface-display :before method. An operation that needs to run just after displaying the interface as an ordinary window can be put in the interface-display :after method.
The interface also accepts a number of hints as to the size and position of the interface for when it is first displayed. The arguments
best-x
and
best-y
must be the position as an integer or nil (meaning anywhere), while the arguments
best-width
and
best-height
can be any hints accepted by :visible-max-width and :visible-max-height for elements.
Whether or not an interface window is resizable is indicated as allowed by the window system. For non-resizable windows on Cocoa the interface window's maximize button is disabled and the resize indicator is not shown, and on Microsoft Windows the maximize box is disabled.
geometry-change-callback
may be nil, meaning there is no callback. This is the default value. Otherwise
geometry-change-callback
is a function of five arguments: the interface and the geometry. Its signature is:
geometry-change-callback interface x y width height
x and y are measured from the top-left of the screen rectangle representing the area of the primary monitor (the primary screen rectangle).
activate-callback
may be nil, meaning there is no callback. This is the default value. Otherwise
activate-callback
is a function of two arguments: the interface and a boolean
activatep
which is true on activation and false on deactivation. Its signature is:
activate-callback interface activatep
iconify-callback
may be nil, meaning there is no callback. This is the default value. Otherwise
iconify-callback
is a function of two arguments: the interface and a boolean
iconify
which is true when
interface
is iconified and false when it is restored. Its signature is:
iconify-callback interface iconifyp
override-cursor
, if non-nil, specifies a cursor that is used instead of the cursor of each pane inside the interface. The default value of
override-cursor
is nil. See below for an example of setting and unsetting the override cursor.
override-cursor
is not supported on Cocoa.
override-cursor
is ignored by text-input-pane on GTK+.
If
message-area
is true, then the interface is created with a message area at the bottom. The text of the message area can be accessed using the titled-object accessor titled-object-message. The default value of
message-area
is nil.
enable-pointer-documentation
is a boolean controlling whether Pointer Documentation is enabled, on Motif. The default value is t. The actual action is done by the
help-callback
.
enable-tooltips
is a boolean controlling whether Tooltip Help is enabled. The default value is t. The actual action is done by the
help-callback
.
help-callback
may be nil, meaning there is no callback. This is the default value. Otherwise
help-callback
is a function of four arguments: the interface, the pane inside interface where help is requested, the type of help requested, and the help key of the pane. Its signature is:
help-callback interface pane type help-key
A tooltip is requested. The function needs to return a string to display in the tooltip, or nil if no tooltip should be displayed.
The function should display a detailed, asynchronous help. This value is passed when the user presses the F1 key (not implemented on Cocoa). :help is also passed when the user clicks the '?' box in the title bar of a Microsoft Windows dialog with window style :contexthelp (see
window-styles
below).
On Motif only, type can also be one of:
The cursor entered the pane. The function should set the pointer documentation.
The cursor left the pane. The function needs to reset the pointer documentation.
help-key is the help-key of pane , as described in element. There is an example illustrating help-callback in:
(example-edit-file "capi/elements/help")
and there is another example below.
top-level-hook
can be used on Microsoft Windows and Motif to specify a hook function that is called around the interface's top level event handler. The hook is passed two arguments: a continuation function (with no arguments) and the interface. The hook must call the continuation, which normally does not return.
top-level-hook
is designed especially for error handling (see below for an example). It can also be used for other purposes, for instance to bind special variables around the top level function. :top-level-hook is not supported on Cocoa.
external-border
controls how close to the edge of the screen the interface can be placed with explicit positioning using the
best-x
,
best-y
,
best-height
and
best-width
initargs or implicit positioning when a dialog is centered within its owner. The value nil allows the window to be anywhere, on or off the screen. The value 0 allows the window can be anywhere on the screen. If
external-border
is a positive integer then the window can be anywhere within
external-border
pixels from the edge of the screen. If
external-border
is a negative integer then the window be anywhere on the screen or up to
external-border
pixels off the edge of the screen. This does not affect whether the use can move the window after it has been displayed. It also does not affect the default positioning of interfaces, where the window system chooses the position.The default value of
external-border
is 0.
initial-focus specifies a pane which has the input focus when the interface is first displayed. See pane-initial-focus for more information about the initial focus pane.
display-state controls the initial display of the interface window, as described for top-level-interface-display-state.
transparency
is the overall transparency of the whole interface, where 0 is fully transparent and 1 is fully opaque. This has no effect on whether the user can click on the window. This is implemented for Cocoa and Microsoft Windows. It also works on GTK+, provided that GTK+ and the X server support it. On GTK+ it is supported in version 2.12 and later. The X server needs compositing manager to do it.:transparency should only be used for top-level interfaces.
window-styles is a list of keywords controlling various aspects of the top level window's appearance and behavior. Each keyword is supported only on the Window systems explicitly mentioned below.
The following keywords apply to ordinary windows:
Cocoa: Programmatic changes to window geometry happen without animation.
Cocoa: The window is only visible when the application is the current application.
Microsoft Windows and GTK+: The window is only visible when it is the active window.
Cocoa, Microsoft Windows and GTK+: A window with a small title bar. This window style is used in docking-layout.
Cocoa, Microsoft Windows, GTK+ and Motif: A window with no external decoration or frame.
Cocoa and Motif: Remove the default border between the window's edge and its contents.
Microsoft Windows: Remove the default border between the window's edge and its contents for dialogs.
Cocoa, Microsoft Windows, GTK+ and Motif: The window cannot be minimized.
Cocoa and Microsoft Windows: The user can move the window by grabbing at any point not in an inner pane.
Cocoa: Force a shadow on windows with window style :borderless. (Other windows have a shadow by default.)
Windows XP (and later): The window has a shadow.
Cocoa: The window has no shadow.
Cocoa: The window has a textured background (like the Finder).
Cocoa, Microsoft Windows and GTK+: The window is always above all other windows. Such a window is also known as a windoid.
Cocoa and GTK+: The window cannot be given the focus for keyboard input.
Cocoa: The Special Characters... menu item is not inserted automatically. (This menu item is added to the Edit menu by default.)
Cocoa: output-panes in the window will see :motion input model events even if the output pane does not have the focus. This is the same behavior as on Microsoft Windows.
Cocoa: The window can be made full screen (only supported on Mac OS X 10.7 and later).
The following keywords are supported in window-styles when the interface is displayed as a dialog:
Microsoft Windows: The dialog has a border to allow resizing. (Generally Windows dialogs do not allowing resizing.)
Microsoft Windows: A '?' box appears in the window's title bar that sends
help-callback
type :help.
If
toolbar-items
is non-nil, then the interface will have a toolbar, which is typically displayed at the top of the window. The value of
toolbar-items
is a list of objects of type toolbar-button, toolbar-component or simple-pane, which are items that might be shown on the toolbar. The set of visible items, their order and their appearance is determined by the current
toolbar-state
, which can be changed if the user customizes the toolbar interactively. Each toolbar-button or simple-pane in the
toolbar-items
list (including those within a toolbar-component) should have a
name
that is not cl:eql to any other item in the list. Each toolbar-button should have
image
and
text
specified, to control the image and title that is shown for the item. Each simple-pane should have
toolbar-title
specified, to control the title that is shown for the item.
toolbar-states is a plist containing information about the state of the toolbar. The user can also change this by customizing the toolbar, so you cannot assume that the value will be the same each time you read it. See interface-toolbar-state for a description of the keys and values in this plist.
default-toolbar-states
is a plist containing information about the default state of the toolbar, which you can provide as the suggested toolbar state for the interface. The key :items will be used in the
Customize Toolbar
dialog as the "default" set of toolbar buttons. If both
default-toolbar-states
and
toolbar-states
are supplied, then the value of any key in
toolbar-states
takes precedence over that of the same key in
default-toolbar-states
. See interface-toolbar-state for a description of the keys and values in this plist.
pathname
specifies the interface pathname. You can get and set this with the accessor interface-pathname. The pathname may be displayed in some way to the user, depending on the GUI library.
Currently, only Cocoa uses pathname , in two ways:
interface-drag-image, and the
drag-image
takes precedence if it not nil). The user can drag from the drag image, and if there is no
drag-callback
or if the
drag-callback
returns :default it will drag the pathname as a one item in a :filenames-list. For information about
drag-callback
, see simple-pane's description of :drag-callback and simple-pane-drag-callback.
drag-image
is currently only effective on Cocoa. A non-nil value specifies that the interface should have a drag image, which on Cocoa is a small image (16x16px) to the left of the window title.
When the user drags this image, if the interface has a
drag-callback
it is called and if this returns non-nil LispWorks performs drag-and-drop with the image. See simple-pane for details of the
drag-callback
.
It is possible to have the image for aesthetic purposes only by supplying
drag-image
and not specifying a
drag-callback
. When
drag-callback
is non-nil, it can dynamically decide whether to allow a dragging, or to disallow dragging (by returning nil).
The image specification can be an already converted image (made by load-image, convert-external-image, make-sub-image or make-image-from-port). The image will be freed automatically when the interface is destroyed or when
drag-image
is set by (setf interface-drag-image). Otherwise the system uses load-image to create a new image, which is also freed automatically.
The value t for
drag-image
is interpreted specially: it means display some image. If
drag-image
is set to t after an image has already been set, it just displays the previous image. This is useful if an image was displayed but then removed by (setf interface-drag-image) with nil. If there was no previous image, a default image is displayed.
F1 always calls
help-callback
if it is non-nil.(setf capi:interface-message-area) has an effect only before display. After display, this writer has no effect unless the interface is destroyed and re-created.interface is a subclass of titled-object, the accessor titled-object-message-font cannot be used to get and set the font of the interface's message.interface with no menus of its own and with :auto-menus nil uses the menu bar from the application interface.
interface-iconize-callback is deprecated. Use the synonym interface-iconify-callback instead.
(capi:display (make-instance 'capi:interface
:title "Test Interface"))
(capi:display (make-instance
'capi:interface
:title "Test Interface"
:destroy-callback
#'(lambda (interface)
(capi:display-message
"Quitting ~S"
interface))))
(capi:display (make-instance
'capi:interface
:title "Test Interface"
:confirm-destroy-function
#'(lambda (interface)
(capi:confirm-yes-or-no
"Really quit ~S"
interface))))
(capi:display (make-instance
'capi:interface
:menu-bar-items
(list
(make-instance 'capi:menu
:title "Menu"
:items '(1 2 3)))
:title "Menu Test"))
(setq interface
(capi:display
(make-instance
'capi:interface
:title "Test Interface"
:layout
(make-instance 'capi:simple-layout
:description
(list (make-instance
'capi:text-input-pane
:text "Text Pane"))))))
(capi:execute-with-interface interface
#'(setf capi:pane-layout) (make-instance
'capi:simple-layout
:description
(list (make-instance
'capi:editor-pane
:text "Editor Pane")))
interface)
(capi:display
(make-instance
'capi:interface
:title "Test"
:best-x 200
:best-y 200
:best-width '(/ :screen-width 2)
:best-height 300))
The following forms illustrate the use of help-callback :
(capi:define-interface my-interface ()
()
(:panes
(a-pane
capi:text-input-pane
:help-key 'input)
(another-pane
capi:display-pane
:help-key 'output
:text "some text"))
(:menu-bar a-menu)
(:menus
(A-menu
"A menu"
(("An item" :help-key "item 1")
("Another item" :help-key "item 2"))
:help-key "a menu"))
(:layouts
(main-layout
capi:column-layout
'(a-pane another-pane)))
(:default-initargs
:help-callback 'my-help-callback
:message-area t))
(defun do-detailed-help (interface)
(capi:contain
(make-instance
'capi:display-pane
:text "Detailed help for my interface")
:title
(format nil "Help for ~a"
(capi:capi-object-name interface))))
(defun my-help-callback (interface pane type key)
(declare (ignore pane))
(case type
(:tooltip (if (eq key 'input)
"enter something"
(when (stringp key) key)))
(:pointer-documentation-enter
(when (stringp key)
(setf (capi:titled-object-message interface)
key)))
(:pointer-documentation-leave
(setf (capi:titled-object-message interface)
"Something else"))
(:help (do-detailed-help interface ))))
(capi:display
(make-instance 'my-interface :name "Helpful"))
The following forms illustrate the use of override-cursor to set and then remove an override cursor.
Create an interface with panes that have various different cursors. Move the pointer across each pane.
(setf interface
(capi:element-interface
(car
(capi:contain
(loop for cursor
in '(:crosshair :hand :v-double-arrow)
collect
(make-instance 'capi:editor-pane
:cursor cursor
:text
(format nil "~A CURSOR"
cursor)))))))
Override the pane cursors by setting the override cursor on the interface, and move the pointer across each pane again.
(setf (capi:interface-override-cursor interface)
:i-beam)
(setf (capi:interface-override-cursor interface)
:default)
This example illustrates
top-level-hook
. Evaluate this form and then get an error by the interrupt gesture in the editor pane. (For example, the interrupt gesture is Meta+Control+C on Motif and Control+Break on Microsoft Windows). Then select the Destroy Interface restart.
(capi:display
(capi:make-container
(make-instance
'capi:editor-pane)
:top-level-hook
#'(lambda (func interface)
(restart-case (funcall func)
(nil ()
:report
(list "Destroy Interface ~a" interface)
(capi:destroy interface))))))
This example illustrates the use of toolbar-items :
(example-edit-file "capi/applications/simple-symbol-browser")
layout
switchable-layout
menu
display
display-dialog
interface-display
quit-interface
define-interface
activate-pane
titled-object
interface-document-modified-p
interface-toolbar-state
interface-customize-toolbar
CAPI elements
Getting Started
Window titles
Tooltips for collections, elements and menu items
Laying Out CAPI Panes
Adding Toolbars
Defining Interface Classes - top level windows
Creating Panes with Your Own Drawing and Input
Drawing - Graphics Ports
Drag and Drop
CAPI User Guide and Reference Manual (Windows version) - 3 Aug 2017