Operation

Operation

Gui4Cli will start up when you open a script file (from the windows Explorer, or by double clicking on its icon, or otherwise). The registered file extensions are ".gui", which is a normal Gui4Cli script and ".gc" which is supposed to be a helper file and should not be loaded directly by the user.

When Gui4Cli starts up, it will look for the default registry entries for the above file types and if they're not found it will create them. This is typically done only on the first time.

The Interface:

Gui4Cli is a interface maker, so it has a minimal interface of its own, consisting of an icon in you taskbar tray which will appear whenever its running.

Left clicking on the icon will bring up the output window. This is where all output (from Gui4Cli itself for error reporting, or from the SAY command) is printed. right clicking on this window will give you some menu choices.

If there is an ERROR to report, a white cross will be appear on the heart icon which will stay there until you left-click on it to see the above window. That's how you know there is an error. This is probably a temporary set-up.. I want to be able to allow the user to re-route the output.

Right clicking on the icon will bring up the Gui4Cli pop-menu which has the following entries.

Quit	Will quit Gui4Cli, closing all guis, releasing all resources
Security	This will set security on - off.
Preferences	Will open "Gui4Cli.gui", which allows you to set various parameters etc. This is a normal Gui4Cli script and can be changed or edited by the user.
Guis..	Above the previous menu choices will be a list of all the currently loaded guis. Clicking on any of them will open its window (if it has one) and bring it to the front.

General operation

Gui4Cli will remain in memory, doing nothing, until called upon to load a gui or take some other action. By default there is no window or any other type of interface except for the above taskbar tray icon. Interfaces are only produced through scripts.

Any number of scripts can be loaded and run through the same instance of Gui4Cli. When you quit, everything will be closed and unloaded.

Many types of windows and intefaces can be created. All of them (unless expressly disabled by the programmer) will understand a default set of default shortcuts.

Multiple instances of Gui4Cli

Usually there is only one instance of Gui4Cli running and suprisingly enough, its called "Gui4Cli". (This is the name of its "mutex").

You'll probably never need to, but if you want another instance of Gui4Cli so that your guis run independently of all others, you can start one by passing the -INSTANCE command line argument. From a command line (or shortcut etc..) you can give this:

G4C GUI -instance NEWG4C

where G4C is the full path and file name of Gui4Cli.exe program, GUI is the full name of a gui (optional), and NEWG4C is the name of the new instance of Gui4Cli. A new instance will be started (if it doesn't already exist) and this gui will run through there. Also, any other guis run with the same -instance name will be added to it.

You can have as many instances as needed but note that each one will take up new memory for its code, dlls, icons, images etc. Since this is wastefull it should be avoided.