` Printed Icetips Article

Icetips Article



ABC: Figuring out the methods and the documentation
1999-01-19 -- Arnor Baldvinsson
 
Newsgroups: comp.lang.clarion

>What confuses me the most are all the new commands (ThisWindow:Kill or
>something like that, or Fetch??) that I can't find references to in the
>Manual.

The best place to hunt the methods down is the PDF files.  Ok, let's
take the ThisWindow.Kill method for example.  On the procedure
properties window you will find a button called "Windows behaviour"
Click on it and you get two tabs, "General" and "Classes"  Select the
"Classes" tab and you see "Object Name:  ThisWindow"  Right beneath it
is a checkbox "Use default ABC:WindowManager"  Ok, so we know there is
something called ThisWindow and ABC:WindowManager.  Now, back out all
the way to the procedure tree, right click on the procedure and select
"Source".  Hit Alt-F3 and search for ThisWindow and it will find a
line:

ThisWindow           CLASS(WindowManager)

Aha!  So, this is a WindowManager class.  Now open the Application
Handbook PDF file in Acrobat and open the "Part II - Application
Builder Class Library"  Scroll all the way down to chapter 54 -
WindowManager.  Now you have found the reference to the class.  Open
it and then open the "WindowManager Methods" and you get a list over
all the WindowManager methods.  Click on Kill and then you have
information about this method on the screen.

For Fetch, it is similar.  Now, it depends on what this Fetch is used
for where you find it in the AH.  If it's used to get a record from a
file it's in the FileManager class so that's where you start in the
AH.  If it's used in the browse, it's in the BrowseClass in the AH
etc.

Now the second source of info is the help.  Place the cursor at the
start of WindowManager in the source code and hit F1.  You get 3 items
to pick from, select the first one "Window Manager" and you get an
overview of the WM class and links to each property and method etc.

If you're not sure what something is, step back, open the source and
look for it.  Then use the help and the AH to read about it.

Best regards,


Arnor Baldvinsson



Printed May 4, 2024, 8:52 pm
This article has been viewed/printed 35117 times.
Google search has resulted in 4 hits on this article since January 25, 2004.