GUI/Glide and large number of pages

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1

I have a commercial application, using a 5" display and G400, that will require a large number of screens or menus, maybe close to 50 or more. In addition I need to handle multiple languages. I will be using a custom keypad and not the touch screen.

Is Glide the best option?

Is there another way or pitfalls that I should be aware of?

Any suggestions or potential pitfalls would be appreciated.

2

What I do is create them on the fly. If you try to create them all when you start, there will be a long delay and you will likely run out of memory.
The G400 is fast enough to do them as you need them.

This is part of the code I use to create them. It destroys the previous one first. I use a lock and this is called when I want to update a screen. You then can’t delete it until the display update handler is done with it.


//*******************************************************************
//
// Close the current window and open a new one
//
//*******************************************************************

static void SetActiveWin(int OpenWho)
{
    int index;
    LastWindow = OpenWho;

    SetDisplayTimeout();

    ResetBacklight();

    lock (displayLock)
    {
        if (Glide.MainWindow != null)
        {
            Glide.MainWindow.IgnoreEvents();

            index = Glide.MainWindow.NumChildren - 1;
            while (Glide.MainWindow.NumChildren > 0)
            {
                Glide.MainWindow.RemoveChildAt(index--);
            }
            Glide.MainWindow.Dispose();
        }
        switch (OpenWho)
        {
            case MAIN_WINDOW:
                InitBitmaps();
                InitMainWin();
                break;
            case MENU_WINDOW:
                InitMenuWin();
                break;
            case OPTIONS_WINDOW:
                InitOptionsWin();
                break;
            default:
                InitBitmaps();
                InitMainWin();
                break;
        }
        Glide.MainWindow = CurrentWindow;
        //
        // Now we need to update any radio buttons and check boxes
        //
        if (OpenWho == VSD_SETUP_WINDOW)
        {
            VSDEnableCheckBox.Checked = vsdHandler.VSDenabled;
            VSDEnableCheckBox.Invalidate();

            VSDStartStopCheckBox.Checked = vsdHandler.VSDStartStopEnabled;
            VSDStartStopCheckBox.Invalidate();

            VSDEnableHeightCheckBox.Checked = vsdHandler.VSDControlEnabled;
            VSDEnableHeightCheckBox.Invalidate();
        }
        else if (OpenWho == GPRS_WINDOW)
        {
            gprsEnabled.Checked = ConfigData.GPRSEnabled;
            gprsEnabled.Invalidate();
        }
    }
}

Then you simply create each one from the resources etc


//*******************************************************************
//
// Initialises the main window
//
//*******************************************************************

static void InitMainWin()
{
    CurrentWindow = GlideLoader.LoadWindow(Resources.GetString(Resources.StringResources.MainWindow));

    etc....
}
2 Likes
3

@ Dave McLaughlin - Thanks so much. That gives me at least a place to start. As I start down the road I want to avoid any pitfalls as much as possible. I don’t want to get mostly done and realize there was a better/easier way. :wink:

4

The only downside to my solution is that you can’t do any transition effects but I can live without those for what I do.