IDE design problems???

[Lloyd Sheen]

Is there any way to make the forms designer work? A simple but complicated
problem. I am designing a "grid" type user control. It is composed of
panels (as a column) with a label (header) at the top, a control (to be used
as a "cell") and there is to be a splitter between each column.

I know that each panel and splitter must be docked left. So I add a panel,
make the dock left , so far ok. Now add a splitter. It goes to the extreme
left. Why??? Ok I will try it in reverse. Same result. Why??

Ok I send the panel to the back and we are in business. Add panel, add
splitter and away we go.

Now I need to add a new column (panel). How can I add this in the middle of
existing controls??? I have been trying this for several hours and no luck
( should not have to rely on luck should I). I have looked at the generated
code for a clue but no such luck (there is that word again).

Any ideas or a designer that will accomplish this??

Lloyd Sheen

 

[Jeff Gaines]

Is there any way to make the forms designer work? A simple but complicated
problem. I am designing a "grid" type user control. It is composed of
panels (as a column) with a label (header) at the top, a control (to be used
as a "cell") and there is to be a splitter between each column.

I know that each panel and splitter must be docked left. So I add a panel,
make the dock left , so far ok. Now add a splitter. It goes to the extreme
left. Why??? Ok I will try it in reverse. Same result. Why??

Ok I send the panel to the back and we are in business. Add panel, add
splitter and away we go.

Now I need to add a new column (panel). How can I add this in the middle of
existing controls??? I have been trying this for several hours and no luck
( should not have to rely on luck should I). I have looked at the generated
code for a clue but no such luck (there is that word again).

Any ideas or a designer that will accomplish this??

Lloyd Sheen

Lloyd

This can be quite fun )

I usually have a panel at the back then add the other panels to
that. So set up a back panel, add you first panel to it, dock it
left then add your splitter to the back panel. If you add the
splitter to the 'inner' panel you will get the behaviour you
describe.

It is much easier to add the new panels in the order you want
them, it will drive you mad trying to change the order or
undocking a panel to make space and then trying to re-dock it
where it was originally!

 

[Lloyd Sheen]

Seriously, is there a designer that works for the developer.

I have forms that I cannot do anything with. I have no idea what is the
owner of certain controls on the form. There is no indication visually of
this and looking at the code is not much help. I am trying to make one
small user request change. I have a panel with two panels and a splitter.
In one panel contains a listview and the second has two buttons. Both
panels are (I think) hosted in another panel. I want to change the visual
from the buttons being to the right of the listview to the bottom. I
changed the listview.dock to none, the panel.dock to none, and the second
panel dock to none. Then I change the panel containing the listview to dock
top. I tried to change the other panel to dock bottom but after that it
appears at the bottom of the form , not the panel. No amount of trying will
make it so.

What a terrible designer this is. And sorry "fun" is not a word I would
use. How do you explain to a user that the tool you use cannot do what he
wants. He is tech savy and cannot understand why I would use such a tool.
I am beginning to wonder exactly the same.

Lloyd Sheen

 

[Jeff Gaines]

Seriously, is there a designer that works for the developer.

I have forms that I cannot do anything with. I have no idea what is the
owner of certain controls on the form. There is no indication visually of
this and looking at the code is not much help. I am trying to make one
small user request change. I have a panel with two panels and a splitter.
In one panel contains a listview and the second has two buttons. Both
panels are (I think) hosted in another panel. I want to change the visual
from the buttons being to the right of the listview to the bottom. I
changed the listview.dock to none, the panel.dock to none, and the second
panel dock to none. Then I change the panel containing the listview to dock
top. I tried to change the other panel to dock bottom but after that it
appears at the bottom of the form , not the panel. No amount of trying will
make it so.

What a terrible designer this is. And sorry "fun" is not a word I would
use. How do you explain to a user that the tool you use cannot do what he
wants. He is tech savy and cannot understand why I would use such a tool.
I am beginning to wonder exactly the same.

Lloyd Sheen

Lloyd

I do know what you mean, Delphi has the facility to move things
around easily and I suppose it is surprising that .NET doesn't.

You can check ownership of controls in the code under:

#region Windows Form Designer generated code

which is not normally expanded. It's not as easy as visual clues
but the information is there.

I just did what you are trying to do in my test bed app and it
works although it's fiddly.

I would guess it's an ownership problem in your case, both inner
panels and the splitter must be contained within another
panel/other container for it to work as you want it to. It may
just be a case of reducing the size of the button panel and
dragging it into the containing panel.

 

[Lloyd Sheen]

Thanks Jeff,
I finally manged after much "screwing around" to get it right. It is a
bring to front/ send to back problem. There is no way I can see to
determine what is going one other that just shooting in the dark about this.
Perhaps if MS would get an update to VS2003 rather than keep telling us to
wait for the next IDE they could keep people happy.

Even today I have seen other posts with the same problem. RAD is not a
word I would use for this IDE most times. I have to close the IDE about 20
times a day once it starts to have problems. Toolbars in the IDE go missing
and it just slows down to a crawl.

I have used VS since it's inception with C++ years ago and have never
had the problems that VS2003 gives. I only used VS2002 for a short period
of time but my memory of that IDE was the IDE from hell.

Oh well a whole day to do something that should have taken 5 minutes.
RAD = Really Awful Design.

Lloyd

 

[Jeff Gaines]

Thanks Jeff,
I finally manged after much "screwing around" to get it right. It is a
bring to front/ send to back problem. There is no way I can see to
determine what is going one other that just shooting in the dark about this.
Perhaps if MS would get an update to VS2003 rather than keep telling us to

[snipped]

Lloyd

I have just found ControlOutlinePowerToy_1_0_3.zip on GodDotNet.
It adds the ability to move controls around from a 'Control
Outline' window, Delphi has this built in.

It might help in the future, especially moving controls between
tabs.