Default Dialog Font

[Joe Speroni]

I'm using variable size fonts linked to each control in my
dialogs. I read in documentation that in the absence of a
particular font for a control, the default dialog font is used.
That is,

CALL SendMessage(Control_ID_Font_Handle,%WM_SETFONT,0,0)

would cause the font for that control to be set to the default
DIALOG font. (assuming Control_ID_Font_Handle is properly set
up using CONTROL HANDLE).

I have one dialog with about 100 controls, each with one letter
of text. Resizing the screen takes a while with a 200 MHz CPU.
Rather than use the above SendMessage for each control, I'd
like to do it once for the dialog and have all controls
initialized with a 0 for the font_ID. Then change the
DIALOG font size once at the start of the WM_SIZE logic,
instead of once for each CONTROL.

But how does one change the size of the default dialog font?
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[Chris Boss]

Joe;

There is no thing as a Universal Font for controls in a Dialog. You can't just change a single font (like the Dialogs default font) and expect all the controls to change.

When a Dialog is created (using the Windows Dialog engine or with DDT), the Dialog itself has a default font. Using the API Dialog functions, the default font is the System font. Using DDT, the default font is MS Sans Serif, 8 point.

The Windows Dialog engine (and DDT I assume uses a similiar mechanism) will then send the WM_SETFONT message automatically to all the controls before the Dialog is displayed. It actually sends a WM_SETFONT message to each individual control.

You can change the fonts for controls later, by using the WM_SETFONT message for each and every control.

When you resize a Dialog and you want to change all the fonts, it is best to first turn off the "Redraw" state of the Dialog so none of the controls will repaint. Then change the fonts for each and every control and then turn the Redraw state back on and then "Invalidate" the entire Dialog so it repaints as a single unit (all the controls too).


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[Joe Speroni]

How does one "Invalidate" an entire Dialog Window? I played
with a few API calls, but I suspect that to use the technique
you are refering to, one has to put a total dialog structure
together with a list of controls. Then give the entire
structure to a REDRAW function. This does not look too easy
to accomplish using DDT.

Or perhaps there is a straightforward way to do this even in
DDT?

I had no problem with

        CALL SendMessage(hDlg,%WM_SETREDRAW,0,0)

          . . . 

        CALL SendMessage(hDlg,%WM_SETREDRAW,1,0)

I made lots of blank screens and could bring back some of
the controls with random clicking on the screen). But couldn't
make the screen repaint.

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[Lance Edmonds]

To force a window/dialog update, invalidate the window contents and force a WM_PAINT event:

CALL InvalidateRect(hDlg, BYVAL %NULL, %TRUE)
CALL UpdateWindow(hDlg)

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Lance
PowerBASIC Support
mailto:[email protected][email protected]</A>

[Joe Speroni]

Thanks fellows. Very impressive speed difference when you have
100 controls in a single dialog.

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