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FoxGUI - A powerful development tool for your Amiga
FoxGUI is a library of functions that you can call from your C or C++ programs (and possibly other languages too if you have the know how) to make a whole host of graphical user interface (GUI) objects very quickly and easily. The objects include screens, windows, buttons, list boxes, edit boxes, drop-down list boxes, menus, file requesters and more. You make use of the objects by calling functions to create them. The functions take all of the necessary parameters for you to customise the objects for your application, including pointers to your own functions which will be called when certain events occur. You then call the GuiLoop function which processes all of the events associated with your objects, calling your functions when necessary. Simple.
For example, the OpenGuiWindow function opens an intuition window. It takes parameters which specify the size, position and colours of the window, the screen that it will open on, whether or not it is dragable, whether it has a close gadget (and if so, an optional pointer to a function of your own to call when the close gadget is clicked), whether you want a console in the window and many more things besides.
The MakeButton function creates a button! The parameters specify the window in which the button will appear, it's size and position, a user-defined function to call when the button is clicked, whether this function should be called repeatedly if the button is held down etc etc.
Basically, FoxGui is there so that you as an Amiga programmer can spend more time being inventive and less time writing the run-of-the-mill stuff that lives inside every GUI program. All of the functions are supplied in a run-time library.
Why should I use FoxGUI?
Good question. There are other GUI tools available for the Amiga and I guess it really comes down to which one you like. I only have experience of one other (MUI) and I can say without any hesitation that it's main advantage over MUI is speed. It's much faster than MUI but doesn't have quite as many gadgets yet. As for the others? Well, as I say, I haven't used them so I'm not sure. When I started writing this (in 1993) there weren't so many around, in fact I didn't know of any. To help you decide whether FoxGUI is of any use to you, here are some of the things that may distinguish it from other GUIs.
While making use of functions
within the latest versions of the Amiga OS where possible, most FoxGUI
functions operate on any Amiga so if your code needs to be backwards
compatible it can be. You compile one program, it works on any Amiga
Unlike MUI, the user of your
programs doesn't need to know anything about the GUI. They don't need
anything special installed (because the runtime library may be distributed
with your application) and don't need to pay to register the GUI. It's
completely invisible to them.
If FoxGUI doesn't do what you
want it to, you can download the source code and change it until it does!
You can then pass on not only the compiled library with your application
but the modified FoxGUI code too!
It's fast!
It's free!
